JPH10128971A - Ink jet head and its manufacture - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate narrowing of an ink channel or clogging of an ink inlet by forming at least a part of a channel plate in contact with at least a partition wall of a photosensitive dry film in a structure obtained by integrally superposing the plate, partition wall, piezoelectric plate and base plate. SOLUTION: This ink jet head comprises a structure obtained by integrally superposing a channel plate 1, a partition wall 2, a piezoelectric plate 3 and a base plate 4. The plate 1 has a nozzle plate 5 and a channel wall 6. The wall 6 is formed by using a photosensitive dry film. And, after a dry film formed in a predetermined pattern at the plate 5 side and a dry film formed in a predetermined pattern at the wall 2 side are laminated without adhesive, it is thermoset, and both the films are connected to be formed. Accordingly, narrowing of an ink channel or clogging of an ink inlet is eliminated, and stability of ink flying can be improved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink jet head used for a printer, for example, and a method for manufacturing the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, as this type of ink jet head, there has been known an ink jet head in which a channel plate for accommodating ink, a partition wall, a piezoelectric plate, and a substrate are integrally formed. The channel plate includes a nozzle plate having a large number of nozzles formed thereon, and a channel wall having a large number of ink channels arranged side by side so as to communicate with each of the multiple nozzles in a unitary relationship. The partition provided between the channel plate and the piezoelectric plate is fixed by an adhesive.

[0003]

In the above-mentioned conventional ink jet head, the partition is fixed between the channel wall and the piezoelectric plate using an adhesive, so that the adhesive flows around the ink channel. In addition, the ink channel is narrowed, the ink inlet is clogged by the adhesive, and the volume of the ink inlet and the ink channel is varied due to the variation in the thickness of the adhesive layer. Was. The present invention
An object of the present invention is to provide an ink-jet head capable of improving the stability of the ink flight by eliminating the narrowing of the ink channel and the clogging of the ink inlet. .

[0004]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a channel plate, a partition, a piezoelectric plate, and a substrate, each having an ink channel for accommodating ink, are integrally laminated. In the inkjet head having a structure, at least a portion of the channel plate in contact with the partition was formed of a photosensitive dry film.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink-jet head having a structure in which a channel plate, a partition, a piezoelectric plate and a substrate on which ink channels for accommodating ink are formed are integrally laminated. A photosensitive dry film was used for the channel plate portion, and this portion was formed by thermocompression bonding to the partition walls.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing an ink-jet wherein an ink in an ink channel is pressed to eject ink droplets from a nozzle, wherein the step of manufacturing the ink channel comprises: (a) supporting a wall of the ink channel; Attaching a photosensitive dry film to the support surface to perform
(B) exposing and developing the photosensitive dry film to form the wall, and (c) adhering a top plate so as to cover the wall to form an ink channel. It is.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for manufacturing an ink-jet wherein an ink in an ink channel is pressed to eject ink droplets from a nozzle, wherein the step of manufacturing the ink channel comprises: Attaching a film, (b) exposing and developing the photosensitive dry film to form a wall of the ink channel, and (c) attaching a support surface supporting the wall to form the ink channel. It is provided with a step of forming.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in a method of manufacturing an ink jet apparatus for ejecting ink droplets from nozzles by pressing ink in an ink channel, the wall of the ink channel is formed of a photosensitive dry film.

[0009]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. 1 to 3 show an ink jet head according to an embodiment of the present invention. The ink jet head has a structure in which a channel plate 1, a partition 2, a piezoelectric plate 3, and a substrate 4 are integrally laminated. The channel plate 1 is composed of a nozzle plate 5 and a channel wall 6, and the nozzle plate 5 is made of a metal such as nickel, ceramic or other hard material. A number of nozzles 12 for discharging are formed. Channel wall 6
Is formed by using a photosensitive dry film as described later.
2, an ink channel 13, an ink inlet 14, and an ink supply chamber 1 that guides the ink 11 to each ink channel 13 through the ink inlet 14.
5 are formed.

The partition 2 is a film made of a metal such as nickel or other material, and is thermocompression-bonded to the channel wall 6 without using an adhesive as described later. The piezoelectric plate 3 is made of a well-known laminated piezoelectric material, and is fixed between the partition wall 2 and the substrate 4 with an adhesive, and then formed, for example, by a dicing process into the vertical grooves 21 and the horizontal grooves 2.
Each ink channel 13 is divided by 2. The portion of the piezoelectric plate 3 below the ink channel 13 is a vibrating portion (the portion indicated by the symbol A in FIGS. 1, 2 and 4), and the other portions are non-vibrating portions. That is,
As shown in FIG. 2, an individual electrode 23 is provided on one side of the piezoelectric plate 3 of the vibrating portion, and a common electrode 2 is provided on the other side.
4 are provided, and the vibrating section is caused to vibrate by these two electrodes. Due to this vibration, the ink 11 guided from the ink supply chamber 15 into the ink channel 13 via the ink inlet 14 is ejected from the nozzle 12. The individual electrodes 23 are completely insulated electrically from the piezoelectric plates 3 on both sides by the vertical grooves. The substrate 4
It is made of a non-conductive material, for example, a ceramic material, and has a conductive lead on its upper surface for conducting electricity to the electrodes of the vibrating portion.

In the case of the example shown here, the nozzle 12,
In FIG. 1, the ink channel 13, the ink supply chamber 15, and the piezoelectric plate 3 are formed in two types, upper and lower groups. For example, the upper stage is a small-diameter ink droplet ejection unit, and the lower stage is a large-diameter ink droplet ejection unit. ing.

The photosensitive dry film forming the channel wall 6 is generally made of a PET film and a PE film.
It has a three-layer structure in which a photoresist film is sandwiched between films. The PE film is peeled off using a hot roll laminator or the like, and then used by thermocompression bonding to a substrate or the like. Such a photosensitive dry film has advantages such as a high and uniform resist thickness and excellent workability. For example, it is available as a dry film resist PR series manufactured by Tokyo Ohka Kogyo Co., Ltd. is there. In addition,
According to the study of the present inventors, it has been found that such a photosensitive dry film has tackiness even after exposure and development, and the present invention has been made based on such knowledge. .

In the above-mentioned ink jet head, the channel wall 6 is formed by laminating a dry film formed in a predetermined pattern on the nozzle plate 5 side and a dry film formed in a predetermined pattern on the partition wall 2 without using an adhesive. It is formed by thermosetting and joining both dry films. Hereinafter, a method for manufacturing the ink jet head will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing a method of manufacturing the ink jet head shown in FIG. First, as shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B, a dry film 60 is attached to the nozzle plate 5, and a transparent P
Exposure is performed from above the ET film layer 61 using a mask 70 to a portion that is to be left as a channel wall. Next, as shown in FIG. 4C, development is performed using a developer to wash away unnecessary portions, that is, unexposed portions. On the other hand, a photosensitive dry film is also stuck on the partition 2 provided on the diaphragm 3 and the same process as described above is performed (FIGS. 4D to 4D).
(F)). Then, the resist layer provided on the nozzle plate 5 side and the resist layer provided on the partition wall 2 side are adhered to each other, and are heated and hardened by applying a predetermined pressure to bond the two to form an ink channel. .

As described in the above embodiment, the channel height can be further increased by stacking a plurality of photosensitive dry films. In particular, when a channel height of 40 μm or more is required, such a case is adopted. It is preferable to use a plurality of photosensitive dry films. Also, if a thin pattern needs to be formed using a thin dry film and a coarse pattern needs to be formed using a thick dry film, various heights and widths can be obtained. The ink channel can be formed with a pattern having Of course, it is also possible to form an ink channel using only one layer of dry film, for example, by forming an ink channel ink inlet on the nozzle plate side in advance.

An example of materials used for the trial manufacture of the above-described channel wall 6 and manufacturing conditions thereof will be described below.

[Table 1]

[0016]

As is apparent from the above description, in the present invention, since the wall of the ink channel is formed of a photosensitive dry film, the ink channel is not narrowed and the ink inlet is not clogged, and the ink is not clogged. Since the flight stability can be improved and the adhesive is no longer required, the number of materials required for forming the ink jet head is reduced, and a remarkable effect such as simplification of the manufacturing process is achieved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view illustrating a part of an inkjet head according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line II-II of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line III-III of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing one embodiment of a method for manufacturing an ink jet head.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Channel plate 2 Partition wall 3 Piezoelectric plate 4 Substrate 5 Nozzle plate 6 Channel wall 13 Ink channel

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An ink jet head having a structure in which an ink channel for accommodating ink is formed on a channel plate, a partition, a piezoelectric plate, and a substrate, at least a portion of the channel plate in contact with the partition. An ink jet head characterized in that is formed of a photosensitive dry film. 2. An ink jet head having a structure in which an ink channel for accommodating ink is formed on a channel plate, a partition, a piezoelectric plate, and a substrate, which is in contact with at least a portion of the channel plate in contact with the partition. A method for manufacturing an ink jet head, comprising forming the portion by thermocompression bonding to the partition using a photosensitive dry film. 3. A method for manufacturing an ink jet, wherein an ink droplet is ejected from a nozzle by pressing ink in an ink channel, the manufacturing process of the ink channel includes: (a) a support surface for supporting a wall of the ink channel; (B) exposing and developing the photosensitive dry film to form the wall, and (c) attaching a top plate so as to cover the wall. A method for manufacturing an ink channel, comprising a step of forming an ink channel. 4. A method of manufacturing an ink jet, wherein an ink in an ink channel is pressed to eject ink droplets from a nozzle, wherein the step of manufacturing the ink channel includes: (a) attaching a photosensitive dry film to a top plate; (B) exposing and developing the photosensitive dry film to form a wall of an ink channel; and (c) attaching a support surface supporting the wall to form an ink channel. A method for manufacturing an ink channel, comprising: 5. A method of manufacturing an ink jet, wherein an ink in an ink channel is pressed to eject ink droplets from a nozzle, wherein a wall of the ink channel is formed of a photosensitive dry film. Manufacturing method.