JPH07256885A - Manufacture of ink jetting port for ink jet recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain an ink jetting port by a method wherein a first female matrix is prepared, from which a second male matrix in produced by Ni electroforming method, and fine holes for jetting ports are processed by using the second male matrix by Ni electroforming method. CONSTITUTION:A print head of an ink jet recorder jets liquid drops, and forms an image on recording paper by those liquid drops. A first female matrix 21 in (a) is prepared first, a second male matrix 24 in (d) is made from the first female matrix by Ni electroforming method. The second male matrix is bonded to a substrate 25 with a cement 26, and an unconductive resin 27 is applied to the projecting part (e). An Ni layer 28 is formed by electroforming (f), and is separated from the substrate 25 to obtain a nozzle plate 28.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an ink liquid discharge port (nozzle) of a print head in an ink jet recording apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 3 is an overall perspective view for explaining an example of an ink jet recording apparatus equipped with an ink jet print head. As is well known, the print head 1 is mounted on a carriage 3 and a guide rail 4a. And 4b, and by driving a motor (not shown), the arrow A
The structure allows scanning in the directions shown in. The printing paper H is driven by a motor or the like (not shown) to rotate the platen 2 via the drive gear 8 and the sprocket 9, and the paper H is inserted between the guide plate 5 and the platen 2.
It is structured such that it is conveyed in the direction of arrow B by pressure contact from the pressure roller 6.

FIG. 4A is an enlarged view showing a partial cross section of an ink jet print head. As is well known, a nozzle plate 11 is provided with a plurality of orifice holes 12, and an ink flow path plate 13 is provided. It is fixed to the bulkhead. The liquid chamber 14 of the ink flow path plate 13 is filled with ink, and a piezoelectric element or the like for applying pressure to the ink in the liquid chamber 14 is incorporated (not shown).
The ink inside flies from the orifice hole 12 of the nozzle plate 11 and adheres to the printing paper H, as indicated by an ink drop 15. FIG. 4 (b) is a schematic plan view of the nozzle plate 11, and as shown in the figure, the nozzle plate 11 has
A plurality of orifice holes 12 are provided. There are many methods for machining the orifice hole 12 in the nozzle plate 11 (for example, drilling, electric discharge machining, laser machining, etc.
..) is a generally known method, and there is an advantage that the plurality of orifices 12 can be formed at low cost.

FIG. 5 shows an orifice 12 made by Ni electroforming.
FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining an example of forming
As shown in (a), the photosensitive resin 17 is formed on the conductive substrate 16.
Coating. Diameter D on top of this photosensitive resin 17
A mask 18 having a hole is placed, and the photosensitive resin 17 in the hole portion having the diameter D is exposed with exposure light 19. When this is subjected to a developing process, as shown in FIG. 5B, the photosensitive resin 17 having the diameter D is left and other portions are removed. The thickness of the portion of diameter D is tD. When the substrate 16 of FIG. 5B is plated with Ni by the nickel (Ni) electroforming method,
As shown in (c), nickel (Ni) 20 is laminated, but a hole (orifice) 12 having a diameter D is formed due to the photosensitive resin 17 having a diameter D. The hole diameter of the diameter d is approximately expressed by the following equation, where the thickness of Ni20 is tN. Diameter d≈diameter D−2 (tN−tD) Therefore, the required hole diameter D is determined by the diameter D of the photosensitive resin 17 and its thickness tD and the thickness tN of nickel (Ni) 20.

[0005]

However, when a plurality of orifices 12 are formed on a plane such as the surface of the nozzle plate 11, the thickness tD of the photosensitive resin 17 and the nickel thickness tN are made uniform. It is difficult to form the diameter D of the orifice 12 with high accuracy because the formation depends largely on the current density of the plating electrolyte, the outer peripheral temperature, and the like. The present invention has been made for the purpose of solving the above problems and forming an orifice with high precision.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides (1) manufacture of a print head for an ink jet recording apparatus in which droplets are jetted to form an image on the recording paper. In the method, a step of preparing a first concave mold and a second electroforming method for forming a second concave mold from the first concave mold.
Process for producing the convex master mold of
A step of processing fine holes of the discharge port by electroforming, and further, (2) forming the first concave matrix with a metal that is a conductor, and (3) above. Forming the first concave mold with resin (non-conductive material);
(4) The photosensitive resin material is applied to the convex portion of the second convex mother die by a photoresist method, and (5) when the second convex mother die is manufactured, The concave master mold of No. 1 and the substrate are bonded with a bonding agent of a photosensitive resin, and the concave part of the first concave master mold is removed by an etching method to manufacture the second convex master mold. And further, (6) the second
When the convex mother die is manufactured, the first concave mother die and the substrate are bonded using a conductive bonding agent.

[0007]

In the method of manufacturing the print head of the ink jet recording apparatus, the first concave master mold is prepared, and the second convex master mold is manufactured from this first concave master mold by Ni electroforming. A fine hole of the discharge port is machined in this second convex mother die by Ni electroforming.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a process chart for explaining an embodiment of a method for forming an ink discharge port (nozzle) according to the present invention. This embodiment corresponds to the first concave mother board shown in FIG. A conductive metal was used as the material of the mold material 21, a stainless steel material was used as the first concave mother mold material 21, and a material that was subjected to high-precision drilling by electric discharge machining was used.

As shown in FIG. 1B, the first concave mold 21 is bonded to a substrate 23 by a bonding agent 22, and then the first concave mold 21 is bonded to the substrate 23 as shown in FIG. As shown in c), the second convex mother die 24 is formed by nickel (Ni) electroforming. The second convex mother die 24 is peeled off from the first concave mother die 21, and is bonded to the substrate 25 with a bonding agent 26 as shown in FIG. Further, as shown in FIG. 1E, the non-conductive resin 2 is formed on the convex portion of the second convex mother die 24.
Coat 7. In this example, this coating was performed by the photoresist method. Figure 1 (f)
By the nickel (Ni) electroforming method in the state of FIG.
FIG. 7 is a diagram in which a nickel layer (nozzle plate) 28 is formed. At this time, the orifice hole 29 of the nozzle plate 28
(See FIG. 1G) is forcibly formed to the diameter d of the second convex mother die 24 (actually, a diameter obtained by adding about 1 μ which is the thickness of the coating material 27). Next, FIG. 1 (f)
As shown in FIG. 1, the nickel layer 28 formed by FIG. 1G is peeled off from the substrate 25 and the second convex mother die to complete the nozzle plate 28.

This advantage is that since the first concave mold is processed with high precision, the second convex mold 21 is also formed with high precision, and the hole diameter of the nozzle plate 28 is also the same. This is a point that can be provided with high accuracy and at low cost. Also, the second
The advantage of is that the nozzle plate 28 can be formed by repeatedly using the nickel electroforming method by using the second convex mother die shown in FIG. 1D, so that the nozzle plate with stable quality can be formed. In addition, the second convex mother die 2 of FIG.
If No. 4 is deteriorated, it is possible to make the master mold again with the first concave master mold 21.

In this embodiment, the bonding agent 22 shown in FIG. 1B is used as a conductive bonding agent, the substrate 23 is used as an electrode, and a current is passed through the bonding agent 22 to the first concave mold 21. However, even if the bonding agent 22 is a non-conductor, since the first concave mold 21 is a conductor, the first concave mold 21 may be directly energized for electroforming. In either case, the first concave mold 21 is electroformed on its surface due to the conductive material.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, a non-conductive material is used as the first concave mold 31 shown in FIG. 2 (a). It is a thing. FIG. 2B is a diagram in which the first concave mother die 31 is bonded to the substrate 33 by the bonding agent 32, and the bonding agent in the concave portion is removed. 2 (c) is a view in which nickel electroforming 34 is performed on FIG. 2 (b), and FIG. 2 (d) is a view in which the first concave mother die 31 is peeled from FIG. 1 (c). At this time, nickel 34
Is a second convex mother die having a shape laminated on the substrate 33.
The non-conductor coating 2 of FIG.
As in the case of 7, the non-conductive resin 35 is coated. Then, in order to form the nozzle plate 36, nickel electroforming 36 is performed as shown in FIG. 2 (f), and then the nickel electroforming 36 is peeled off to remove the nozzle plate 36 (see FIG.
(G)) is obtained. As in the example of FIG. 1, the nozzle plate 36 is formed by repeating FIG. 2 (d) to FIG. 2 (g), and when the second convex mother die reaches the limit of accuracy, It is possible to use the first concave mold 31 again and make a new second convex mold by the steps of FIGS. 2 (a) to 2 (d). By repeating this, since the nozzle plate can be formed from the basic mother die (first convex mother die), it is possible to make the quality variation uniform.

[0013]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the first concave mother die forms a second convex mother die, and the second convex mother die serves as a final part of a nozzle plate (discharge port). ) Is formed, a nozzle plate similar to the first concave mother die can be formed, a highly accurate orifice hole (nozzle hole) can be formed with high quality, and there is little variation between parts. Plates can be formed. Moreover, since the nozzle plate is formed by the nickel electroforming method, it is possible to manufacture a large number of nozzle plates at one time, which is a feature of the nickel electroforming method. Effect corresponding to claim 2: The electroconductive mother die (first) is processed by a processing method in which the processing method of metal is limited (for example, electrical discharge machining) or a processing method capable of highly accurately drilling holes in metal. It will be an effective method in some cases. Effect corresponding to claim 3: A manufacturing method in the case where the mother die (first mother die) is a non-conductive body such as resin, which is processed by a processing method suitable for resin processing contrary to the above. This is an effective method in the case of a master block of a non-conductive material. An example of the processing method is excimer laser processing. Effect corresponding to claim 4: The purpose of coating a non-conductive material on the convex portion of the second convex mother die is to perform nickel electroforming (electroforming when forming the nozzle plate) with high precision in the orifice hole. To form into
This is to protect the convex portion in the step of peeling the nozzle plate from the mother die. By coating the non-conductor with a photoresist method, it is possible to remove the coating of the uniform protective film of about 0.5 to several μm and the unnecessary coating in the developing step. Effect corresponding to claim 5: As shown in FIG. 2B, by removing the bonding agent in the concave portion of the first concave mother die in FIG. Since it is directly formed and electrically connected, the strength of the convex portion and the nickel electroforming process of FIG. 2F can be simplified. Effect corresponding to claim 6: In FIG. 1 (b), a conductive bonding agent is used as the bonding agent 22, and the electrode for nickel electroforming does not have to be the first concave master mold. Since it can be provided on the substrate 23, it is easy to handle at the manufacturing stage.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a process drawing for explaining an embodiment of a method of manufacturing an ink ejection port according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a process drawing for explaining another embodiment of the method of manufacturing an ink ejection port according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an overall perspective view for explaining an example of an inkjet recording device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of an inkjet print head.

FIG. 5 is a process diagram for explaining an example of a conventional inkjet printhead manufacturing method.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Print head, 2 ... Platen, 3 ... Carriage, 4
a, 4b ... Guide rail, 5 ... Guide plate, 6 ... Pressure roller, 7 ... Feed handle, 8 ... Drive gear, 9
... Sprocket gear, 11 ... Nozzle plate, 12 ... Orifice hole, 13 ... Partition wall, 14 ... Liquid chamber, 15 ... Flying ink drop, 16 ... Conductive substrate, 17 ... Photosensitive resin, 18 ... Mask, 19 ... Photoexposure, 20 ... Nickel layer, 21 ... First concave matrix (conductive matrix), 22 ... Bonding agent, 23 ... Substrate,
24 ... Second convex mother mold, 25 ... Substrate, 26 ... Bonding agent, 2
7 ... Non-conductive resin layer, 28 ... Nozzle plate, 29 ... Orifice hole, 31 ... First concave matrix (non-conductive matrix), 3
2 ... Bonding material, 33 ... Substrate, 34 ... Nickel layer, 35 ... Non-conductive resin layer, 36 ... Nozzle plate.

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A method of manufacturing a print head of an ink jet recording apparatus, wherein a droplet is jetted to form an image on a recording paper by the droplet, a step of preparing a first concave master block, and a step of: Forming a second convex mother die from the concave mother die by Ni electroforming, and processing a fine hole of the discharge port on the second convex mother die by Ni electroforming. And a method for manufacturing an ink ejection port of an ink jet recording apparatus. 2. The method of manufacturing an ink ejection port of an ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first concave mold is made of a metal which is a conductor. 3. The first concave mold is made of resin (non-conductive material)
The method for manufacturing an ink ejection port of an ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein 4. The ink discharge port of an ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the convex portion of the second convex mother die is subjected to resist treatment by a photoresist method by a photoresist method. Production method. 5. When manufacturing the second convex mother die, the first concave mother die and the substrate are joined with a bonding agent of a photosensitive resin,
4. The second convex mother die is manufactured by removing the bonding agent from the concave portion of the concave mother die by etching method.
A method for manufacturing an ink ejection port of an ink jet recording apparatus according to [4]. 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first concave master mold and the substrate are bonded together using a conductive bonding agent when manufacturing the second convex master mold. A method of manufacturing an ink ejection port of an inkjet recording apparatus.