JPH04341859A - Manufacture of ink jet head - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a manufacturing method for ink jet heads capable of forming the shape of ink paths with a high accuracy and improving a cost relating to a production of ink jet heads in which a metallic material is deposited on a matrix by electrocasting for forming at least the shape of ink supply paths. CONSTITUTION:An ink jet head 1 is produced by a construction wherein a plurality of ink supply paths 10 are branched from a common ink chamber 7 and provided with pressure chambers 8 at the intermediate positions thereof and nozzle parts 9 at the tip ends thereof, and ink particles are jetted out of the nozzle part 9 by selectively applying a pressure to the pressure chamber 8. At this time, a metallic material is deposited by electrocasting on a matrix 12 in which at least the shape of the ink supply paths 10 is projectedly formed, whereby a first substrate 14 is molded. The first substrate is released from the matrix 12. A second substrate 15 made of a flat metal plate is securely bonded to the recessed surface of the first substrate 14.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

FIELD OF INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an inkjet head for an inkjet printer, and more particularly to an inkjet head manufactured by depositing a metal material on a matrix by electroforming to form at least the shape of an ink supply passage. The present invention relates to a manufacturing method.

[0002] In recent years, inkjet printers, which record by directly spraying minute ink particles onto a printing medium, have rapidly become popular because they have no restrictions on printing media, are capable of high-speed printing, low noise, and are easy to print in color. It is being done.

[0003] The inkjet head (hereinafter referred to as print head) of this inkjet printer uses a method in which ink passages are formed by etching grooves on both sides of a substrate such as a stainless steel plate or a glass plate, but this method is expensive. Therefore, a method of producing at low cost is desired.

0004

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 3 shows an overview of an inkjet printer. As shown in the figure, a guide shaft 3 is fitted into a carrier 2 on which an inkjet head (hereinafter referred to as a print head) 1 is mounted, and a feed screw 4 is screwed into the carrier 2.
The feed screw 4 is connected to a motor (not shown). The carrier 2 is disposed in front of the platen 5, and is moved parallel to the platen 5 in the directions of arrows A and B by forward and reverse rotation of a motor.

The print head 1 faces the platen 5 with a predetermined gap therebetween, and has a plurality of nozzle holes (not shown, but for example, 24 in two rows) arranged at its tip. Therefore, while the carrier 2 is moving, ink is selectively ejected from the nozzle holes of the print head 1 to form a print in the form of matrix dots on the print paper 6.

FIG. 4 shows the inside of the print head 1. As shown in the figure, it branches from the common ink chamber 7a, pressure chambers 81 to 812 are provided at intermediate positions, and nozzle holes 91 to 812 are provided at the tip.
Twelve ink supply passages 101 to 1012 are formed in the plate 11 in one row in which nozzle portions 9a having 912 are formed.

The print head 1 is constructed by alternately stacking the plates 11 and blank plates (not shown) made of the same material so that the ink supply passages 101 to 1012 are arranged in two rows and fixing them by, for example, diffusion welding. Created.

The pressure chambers 81 to 812 are configured to ink 14a from the nozzle holes 91 to 912 as described above by selectively applying a voltage to a piezoelectric element (not shown) disposed outside one of the plates and vibrating it. particles are ejected.

The common ink chamber 7a and the ink supply passages 101 to 1012 are formed on the plate 11 by etching a stainless steel plate with a thickness of 80 μm, for example, and forming a resist 110 on the plate 11 as shown in FIG. 5(a). , and place the pattern mask 111 on it.
When exposed from above and cleaned, a resist 110 in the peripheral shape of the pattern is formed on the plate 11, as shown in (b).
remains, and when this is etched, a groove is formed on one side of the plate 11, as shown in (c). This is processed in the same way from the back side to form a penetrating shape.

In the above example, the common ink chamber 7a and the ink supply passage 10a are both formed by etching. However, when the common ink chamber 7a has a simple shape such as a circle, it can be formed by press working together with other circular holes. In some cases, only the ink supply passage 10a is etched.

[0011]

According to the above-mentioned conventional method, the common ink chamber and the ink supply passage are formed by etching a stainless steel plate. If the ink supply passage has a limited depth and has a thin, shallow part and a wide, deep part, it cannot be completely created with one etching, so etching is required from both sides, and the etched surface There are fine irregularities and burr-like etching residues, and the precision of the formed edge shape is poor, increasing unnecessary fluid resistance in the ink passage and becoming a nucleus for trapping air bubbles, reducing reliability. . Another problem is that the cost is increased due to double-sided etching.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an inkjet head that has a highly accurate ink passage shape and can reduce costs.

[0013]

[Means for Solving the Problems] Fig. 1 is a diagram showing the principle of the present invention, in which (a) is an internal configuration diagram of an inkjet head, and (b)
)(a) and (b) are explanatory diagrams of a method for manufacturing an inkjet head.

In the figure, 7 is a common ink chamber, 8 is a pressure chamber, 9 is a nozzle section, 12 is a matrix, 14 is a first substrate, 1
5 is a second substrate; 10 is a plurality of ink supply passages branched from the common ink chamber 7; a pressure chamber 8 is provided at an intermediate position; and a nozzle portion 9 is formed at the tip; An inkjet head that ejects ink particles from a nozzle portion 9 by applying pressure, and thus a matrix 1 in which at least an ink supply passage 10 is formed in a convex shape.
2, a metal material is deposited by electroforming to form the first substrate 14.
This is a method in which the molded first substrate 14 is peeled off from the mother mold 12, and a second substrate 15 made of a flat metal plate is fixed to the concave portion forming surface of the first substrate 14. .

[0015]

[Operation] A first substrate 14 is formed by depositing a metal material on the mother mold 12 by electroforming, and a flat second substrate 15 is fixed to the concave portion forming surface of the first substrate 14 that has been peeled off from the mother mold 12. By doing so, the recessed portion of the first substrate 14 becomes at least the ink supply passage 10, and the inkjet head 1
can be created, the precision of the shape can be improved, and the cost can also be improved.

[0016]

[Embodiment] An embodiment of the present invention will be explained with reference to FIG. The substrates 14a and 15a in FIG. 2 correspond to the first substrate 14 and the second substrate 15 in FIG.

FIG. 2 shows a process diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. Common ink chamber 7a and ink supply passage 1 described in the conventional example
The shapes of 01 to 1012 are made convex as shown in FIG. 2(a), and a matrix 12a made of a dielectric material (corresponding to claim 2), for example, polyester (or resin such as polycarbonate or polyamide) is attached to a copper plate. is placed on the electrode 13 of.

The shapes of the common ink chamber 7a and the ink supply passages 101 to 1012 of the matrix 12a are as follows: the nozzle holes 91 to 912 have a width of 50 μm and a depth of 1 mm; the pressure chambers 81 to 812 have a width of 1 mm and a depth of 100 μm; Ink supply passages 101 to 1012 have a width of 200 μm and a length of 1 m.
It has a shape corresponding to m.

Next, as shown in FIG. 2(b), electroforming (E
Nickel is deposited on the matrix 12a (hatched area) by electroforming (Fig.
), the substrate 14a is molded. At this time, since the matrix 12a is made of dielectric material, as shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 2, since the shallow portions of the ink supply passages 101 to 1012 are close to the electrodes 13, deposition proceeds quickly and a desired shape can be easily obtained.

[0020] In the electroforming method, the mother mold 12a placed on the electrode 13 is placed in an electrolytic solution, and a DC voltage is applied between the electrode 13 and the electrolytic solution to form nickel into the mother mold by electrolysis. It is deposited on the mold 12a. The electrolyte is a nickel sulfamate bath (for example, nickel sulfamate 500g/
liter, boric acid 30g/liter, bath temperature 40-6
0°C) is used.

When the desired shape is obtained by electroforming, the substrate 14a is peeled off from the matrix 12a, and as shown in FIG.
A substrate 15a formed of a flat metal plate (for example, a 100 μm thick nickel plate) is fixed to the substrate.

In this way, one row of the common ink chamber 7a and the ink supply passages 101 to 1012 of the print head 1 is completed, and a plurality of them (for example, two) are created and stacked to correspond to the pressure chambers 81 to 812. By bonding a pressure element (not shown) to a position on the substrate 15a, the print head 1
is completed.

[0023] In this way, the work is easy, the shape is beautiful, and the shape accuracy is high (for example, about ±2 μm).
It is possible to obtain a print head 1 with good finish and low cost. In the above example, a case was explained in which a resin such as polyester was used as the dielectric material of the matrix 12a, but instead of a dielectric material, a metal such as nickel or copper may be used. However, a dielectric material is more suitable for depositing electroforming at a faster rate in shallower portions of the ink supply passages 101 to 1012.

In the above example, the common ink chamber 7a and the ink supply passages 101 to 1012 are both formed of the matrix 12a. However, when the common ink chamber 7a has a simple shape such as a circle, the ink supply passages 101 to 1012 are Aisle 101-1012
It is also possible to form the common ink chamber 7a by another method, for example, by counterboring or the like.

[0025]

As explained above, according to the present invention, in claim 1, a metal material is deposited by electroforming on a mother mold in which the common ink chamber and the ink supply passage are formed in a convex shape. By molding the first substrate and fixing the second substrate, which is a flat metal plate, to the concave forming surface of the first substrate that has been peeled off from the mother mold, the shape is uniform, accuracy is improved, and cost is improved. can be achieved.

[0026] In the second aspect, by forming the master die from a dielectric material, electroforming can be deposited more quickly in shallower portions of the ink supply passage. There is an effect.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

[Figure 1] Principle diagram of the present invention

[Figure 2] Process diagram showing an example of the present invention

[Figure 3]
A perspective view showing an overview of an inkjet printer

[Figure 4]
Internal configuration diagram of print head

[Figure 5] Explanatory diagram of the method of creating a conventional print head

[Explanation of symbols]

Claims (2)

[Claims] Claim 1: Branching from the common ink chamber (7), a pressure chamber (8) is provided at an intermediate position, and a nozzle portion (8) is provided at the tip.
9) A method for manufacturing an inkjet head in which ink particles are ejected from the nozzle portion (9) by selectively applying pressure to the pressure chambers (8) of the plurality of ink supply passages (10) formed with A first substrate (14) is formed by depositing a metal material by electroforming on a matrix (12) in which at least the ink supply passage (10) is formed into a convex shape.
is molded, and the molded first substrate (14) is placed in the mother mold (
12) A method for manufacturing an inkjet head, which comprises peeling off the first substrate (14) and fixing a second substrate (15) made of a flat metal plate to the recess-forming surface of the first substrate (14). 2. The method of manufacturing an ink jet head according to claim 1, wherein the matrix (12) is formed of a dielectric material.