JPH0752393A - Manufacture for inkjet head - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily mount many independent metallic vibration plates which promote a vibration effect of a.piezoelectric element at an inkjet head and never bring about a crosstalk. CONSTITUTION:A path board 3 is layered at the front face of a lid plate 2. An ink path 5 with pressure chambers 5b at the middle part thereof is defined between the plates 2 and 3. A metallic plate unit 9 is made previously, which has vibration plate parts 9d via coupling parts 9c formed along an inner peripheral edge 9b of a ring body 9a. The metallic plate unit 9 is registered and bonded to the front face of the path board 3 in a manner that each vibration plate part 9d confronts to the corresponding pressure chamber 5b. A part of each coupling part 9c (at a position of a drill hole 3b) is cut by a multiple spindle drilling machine or the like to separate the ring body 9a, whereby metallic vibration plates 6 are left independently. A piezoelectric element is mounted to the front face of each metallic vibration plate 6 and further, a flexible cable is fitted thereon. An inkjet head is thus manufactured.

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 jet head.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an on-demand type ink jet head used in an ink jet printer has an ink jet head mounted on an upper surface of a flow path substrate having a large number of ink flow paths radially provided and supplied into the ink flow path. There is a method in which energy is applied to the ink from a piezoelectric element (PZT) and the ink is ejected from a nozzle.

In the above-mentioned on-demand type ink jet head, a metal vibrating plate is interposed between the upper surface of the flow path substrate or the cover plate and the piezoelectric element as a means for effectively applying vibration by the piezoelectric element to the ink flow path. The ones that are designed to be used are often adopted. As a method of interposing a metal diaphragm, a method of joining independent metal diaphragms is adopted.

[0004]

The above-described method of joining metal diaphragms does not cause the problem of crosstalk, but since a large number of individual piezoelectric elements must be laminated with independent metal diaphragms. This is time-consuming and causes high costs.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to facilitate mounting by assembling a large number of metal vibrating plates through a ring body until the assembly stage, and thereafter, the respective metal vibrating plates become independent. In this way, it is possible to easily manufacture an inkjet head that does not cause crosstalk.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the manufacturing method of the present invention comprises stacking a flow path substrate and a cover plate so that the contact surfaces of both plates are substantially radial. A plurality of ink flow paths are provided in each of the ink flow paths, and a metal vibrating plate is provided on one of both plates so as to face each pressure chamber provided in the middle of each of these ink flow paths. In the method of manufacturing an inkjet head including the step of stacking piezoelectric elements, the step of providing the metal vibrating plate includes a plurality of vibrating plate portions provided so as to be able to face each pressurizing chamber and a plurality of ink flow paths. A ring body that is located outside the outer end portion and that can be disposed so as to surround the ink flow path, and a plurality of connecting portions that connect the inner peripheral edge of the ring body and each vibration plate portion are integrally formed. The metal plate unit that consists of The plate is joined to either one of the plates so that the moving plate faces the pressurizing chambers respectively, and in such a joined state, each connecting part is cut outside the ink flow path to vibrate. The plate portion and the ring body are separated, the ring body is separated from the flow path substrate or the lid plate, and the vibrating plate portion is left.

[0007]

The metal plate unit is joined to one of the flow path substrate and the cover plate so that each diaphragm portion and each pressure chamber face each other, and each connecting portion is cut to form each diaphragm portion and the ring body. By separating the ring body from the flow path substrate or the lid plate and leaving each of the vibrating plate portions on the surface facing the pressurizing chamber, the mounting of all the metal vibrating plates is easily completed.

[0008]

EXAMPLE An example of the present invention will be described below. The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an inkjet head, but prior to the description thereof, a configuration of an inkjet head for realizing this will be described.

As shown in FIG. 2, the ink jet head according to this embodiment has a lid plate 2 laminated on the front surface (upper side of FIG. 2) of an ink pool substrate 1, and a flow path substrate 3 laminated on the front surface thereof. Is the basic configuration. A common ink chamber 4 is partitioned and formed on the contact surface between the ink pool substrate 1 and the lid plate 2, and a plurality of ink flow paths 5 are partitioned and formed on the contact surface between the lid plate 2 and the flow path substrate 3. I am doing it. At the center of the ink pool substrate 1, there is provided an ink supply port 1a that connects an ink supply pipe (not shown) to the common ink chamber 4.

In the cover plate 2, 24 ink supply holes 2a are arranged in a circular shape at positions near the outer periphery of the common ink chamber 4. Each ink supply hole 2a communicates the common ink chamber 4 with each ink flow path 5, and can supply ink to each ink flow path.

As shown in FIG. 3, on the back surface of the flow path substrate 3, grooves forming 24 ink flow paths 5 are formed substantially radially. The outer end portion 5a of each ink flow path 5 is an ink receiving portion that faces the ink supply hole 2a of the lid plate, and this portion is formed to have a slightly wider width. A pressurizing chamber 5b having a wide width is provided inside the outer end portion 5a. The inside of the pressurizing chamber 5b is a nozzle 5c that extends toward the center while narrowing its width, changes its direction at a right angle in the vicinity of the center, and has a nozzle hole in the front. Twenty-four nozzles 5c provided at the inner end of each ink flow path 5 are arranged substantially in the shape of a rhombus near the center. The ink flow path 5 is defined by joining the flow path substrate 3 and the cover plate 2 as described above.

Next, a method of manufacturing the ink jet head in this embodiment will be described.

As an example of the order of assembling the ink jet head, there are the following steps. First, the lid plate 2 is laminated on the front surface of the ink pool substrate 1, and both the plates are bonded with an adhesive. Next, the flow path substrate 3 is aligned and laminated on the front surface of the lid plate 2 and similarly bonded with an adhesive. Due to these connections, a common ink chamber 4 is formed on the contact surface between the ink pool substrate 1 and the cover plate 2, and an ink flow path 5 is formed on the contact surface between the cover plate 2 and the flow path substrate 3. The common ink chamber 4 and each ink flow path 5 communicate with each other through the ink supply holes 2a, and a pressure chamber 5b is provided inside the outer end portion 5a of the ink flow path.

Next, as shown in FIG. 1, a metal plate unit 9 is laminated on the front surface of the flow path substrate 3.

The metal plate unit 9 is formed by pressing a phosphor bronze plate or brass plate having a thickness of about 0.2 mm toward the inside from the inner peripheral edge 9b of the ring body 9a through the connecting portion 9c to form a comb-like shape. It is punched into a shape in which the vibration plate portion 9d is arranged. The diaphragm portion 9d is formed to have substantially the same shape and size as the pressurizing chamber 5b. Twenty-four connecting portions 9c and diaphragm portions 9d are arranged at equal intervals along the inner peripheral edge 9b of the ring body 9a so as to have a substantially ring shape.

The metal plate unit 9 is bonded to the front surface of the flow path substrate 3 by aligning the facing surface of the pressure chamber 5b and the vibrating plate portion 9d so that they are bonded to each other, and then bonding them with an adhesive ( (See FIG. 1).

Next, the connecting portion 9c of the metal plate unit 9 is separated at a position close to the ring body 9a, and the independent metal vibrating plates 6 including the vibrating plate portion 9d and a part of the connecting portion 9c are attached to the flow path substrate 3. Remain on the front (see Figure 4). The ring body 9 is cut off at the same time by using a multi-axis drilling machine so that the positions of the 24 drills are aligned with the cutting positions of the connecting portions 9c. At this time, the diameter of the drill is slightly thicker than the width of the connecting portion 9c. The cutting position is located outside the ink flow path so that the ink flow path 5 is not damaged even if the drill hole 3e remains on the front surface of the flow path substrate 3 (see FIG. 2).

Next, the piezoelectric element 7 is provided on the front surface of each metal vibrating plate 6.
And the flexible cable 8 is connected to the front surface of the flexible cable 8 so that the ink can be conducted.

In this embodiment, the number of ink flow paths and the like is set to 2
However, the present invention is not limited to these numbers and can be applied to all numbers, and the metal diaphragm and the piezoelectric element are mounted on the front surface of the flow path substrate. Similar results can be obtained with the one mounted on the cover plate.

The metal vibrating plate 6 may be joined to the flow path substrate 3 in a step before joining the ink pool substrate 1 and the lid plate 2.

[0021]

According to the present invention, since independent metal vibrating plates can be simultaneously joined to the facing surfaces of a plurality of pressurizing chambers by the metal plate unit, a large number of independent metal vibrating plates that do not cause crosstalk. Since the plate can be bonded to the flow path substrate or the cover plate at the same time, the number of manufacturing steps of the inkjet head can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing a state where a metal plate unit is in contact with a front surface of a flow path substrate.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a main part of a completed state of the inkjet head in this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a rear view of the flow path substrate.

FIG. 4 is a front view showing a state in which the ring body of the metal plate unit is separated from the state of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 lid plate 3 flow path substrate 5 ink flow path 5b pressurizing chamber 6 metal vibrating plate 7 piezoelectric element 9 metal plate unit 9a ring body 9b inner peripheral edge 9c connecting portion 9d vibrating plate portion

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A flow path substrate and a cover plate are laminated, a plurality of ink flow paths are provided on the opposing surfaces of both plates so as to be substantially radial, and each ink flow path is provided in the middle of each ink flow path. In the method of manufacturing an ink jet head, including a step of providing a metal vibrating plate on one of the both plates so as to face each pressurizing chamber and laminating a piezoelectric element on the upper surface of each of the metal vibrating plates. In the step of providing, the plurality of vibrating plate portions provided so as to be able to respectively face the pressurizing chambers and the outer end portions of the plurality of ink flow passages are located outside the ink flow passages so as to surround the ink flow passages. And a plurality of connecting portions that connect the inner peripheral edge of the ring body and each of the vibrating plate portions to each other are integrally formed to manufacture the metal plate unit. , Each of the vibrating plate parts is paired with each of the pressurizing chambers. The plates are joined to one of the plates so that they face each other, and in the joined state, the connecting parts are cut outside the ink flow paths to separate the vibrating plate part and the ring body from each other. A method for manufacturing an inkjet head, characterized in that the ring body is peeled off from the road substrate or the lid plate, and the vibrating plate portion is left.