JPH10217455A - Ink ejecting device of printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To simplify an electric connection structure between a plurality of actuators and a driving IC in a recording head, to reduce a space between the recording heads and to simplify a connection structure between the driving IC and a print control circuit that supplies various kinds of signals to the driving IC. SOLUTION: A driving IC 50 is attached to a side face of a manifold member 35 which is integrally provided to a recording head 36 on which a plurality of ink passages 47 are formed such that the manifold member 35 reserves ink from an ink cartridge and supplies it thereto. Head side terminals 52 of a plurality of drawing electrodes 51 connected to electrodes 49 of the plurality of ink passages 47 are connected to manifold side terminals 54 of a plurality of drawing electrode 53 connected to output terminal sections of the driving IC 50 by wire bonding 55. Several drawing electrodes 56 connected to input terminal sections of the driving IC 50 are connected to wiring patterns 59 on a printed board 37.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink ejecting apparatus for a printer, and more particularly, to a driving IC for driving an actuator for ejecting ink provided in each of a plurality of ink passages formed in a recording head. And to a manifold member provided integrally so as to supply ink to the manifold.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as an ink jet printer which ejects a small amount of ink droplets from an ink jet nozzle communicating with an ink passage to which ink is supplied from an ink supply source, an on-demand type especially capable of high-speed recording, particularly a pressure Those adopting a control method or a bubble control method using heat have been widely used. In the pressure control system, an inkjet printer employing a piezoelectric system using a piezoelectric element such as a piezoelectric ceramic has been put to practical use, and various proposals have been made.

In an ink jet printer employing this piezoelectric system, a plurality of ink passages through which ink from an ink supply source is supplied via a manifold member, a plurality of partition walls comprising piezoelectric elements constituting these ink passages, A recording head having a plurality of electrodes provided on a pair of left and right side walls of these partitions is provided, and a drive signal from a drive IC is supplied to an electrode of the partition corresponding to an ink path for ejecting ink for a predetermined minute time. When the two adjacent partitions return to the original shape after being deformed by shear strain so as to increase the volume of the ink passage, the ink refilled into the ink passage is ejected from the ejection nozzle at the tip thereof. Has become.

For example, as shown in FIG. 10, two ink ejecting devices 13 of an ink jet printer for two-color printing are used.
Reference numerals 0 and 131 denote a recording head 136 having a cover plate 142 fixed to a head substrate 140 made of a piezoelectric material having a plurality of ink passages so as to cover the plurality of ink passages. A manifold member 138 for supplying ink from the printer is integrally provided, and is fixed to the carriage 121 by various attachment members (not shown). On the other hand, the printed circuit board 1 on which the drive IC 150 is mounted is mounted on the carriage 121.
The printed circuit board 137 has a drive I
A wiring pattern 159 connected to C150 is formed.

Further, on the side surface of the head substrate 140, a plurality of extraction electrodes 151 for supplying power to actuators provided corresponding to the plurality of ink passages are formed.
The plurality of lead electrodes 151 and the plurality of terminals of the wiring pattern 159 are electrically connected to the side of the recording head 136 by a flexible and wide FPC 110.

[0006]

In the ink ejecting apparatuses 130 and 131 shown in FIG. 10, the plurality of lead electrodes 151 formed on the side surface of the recording head 136 and the plurality of terminals of the wiring pattern 159 correspond to the recording head. Since the connection is made by the wide FPC 110 provided on the side of the recording head 136, the interval between the recording heads 136 arranged side by side becomes large,
In particular, when color printing is performed using three or four recording heads 136, the size of the carriage 121 on which the plurality of recording heads 136 are juxtaposed and mounted is increased.
There is a problem that the printer becomes large. Further, a plurality of terminals of the wiring pattern 159 and a plurality of extraction electrodes 151
A plurality of signal lines including a plurality of signal lines for data signals and control signals corresponding to the number of electrodes are provided in the FPC 110 for connecting the FPC 110 to the plurality of extraction electrodes 151 and the wiring patterns. 159 is complicated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to simplify the electrical connection structure between a plurality of actuators of a printhead and a drive IC, to reduce the space between printheads, and to control the drive IC and supply of various signals thereto. An object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet device for a printer that can simplify a connection structure with a circuit.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink ejecting apparatus for a printer, wherein a manifold member having an ink storage chamber connected to an ink supply source is provided, and ink is supplied by being fixed to the manifold member. A print head, comprising: a print head having a plurality of ink passages and a plurality of actuators respectively provided in the vicinity of the ink passages. A drive IC for outputting a drive signal is attached to an actuator.

A recording head having a plurality of actuators is fixed to a manifold member, and a drive IC is attached to the manifold member. By forming a lead electrode for supplying power to the plurality of actuators on the recording head and the manifold member, The electrical connection structure between the plurality of actuators and the output section of the drive IC can be simplified. Further, since the signal lines of the input section of the drive IC are several lines for data signals and control signals, the connection structure between the input section of the drive IC and the control circuit for supplying various signals to the input section can be simplified. .

Further, the heat generated in the drive IC when the number of times of ink ejection is frequent is efficiently transmitted to the ink in the ink storage chamber of the manifold member, so that the heat of the drive IC is effectively radiated, and The heat raises the temperature of the ink, lowers its viscosity, and improves the ink ejection performance.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink jet apparatus for a printer.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, the drive IC is mounted on a side surface of the manifold member that is parallel to an arrangement direction of a plurality of ink passages provided in the recording head. In this case, the side surface of the manifold member parallel to the arrangement direction of the plurality of ink passages provided in the recording head is wide, so that drive ICs of various sizes can be easily attached. In addition, the same operation as the first aspect is achieved.

According to a third aspect of the invention, there is provided an ink jet apparatus for a printer.
In the invention according to claim 1 or 2, the recording head includes:
A plurality of head-side terminals connected to a plurality of actuators are provided, and the manifold member is provided with a plurality of manifold-side terminals connected to a drive IC and corresponding to the plurality of head-side terminals.

In this case, since the plurality of head terminals provided on the recording head correspond to the plurality of manifold terminals provided on the manifold member, each of the head terminals and each of the manifold terminals are provided. Can be easily electrically connected, for example, directly or by wire bonding or brazing. In addition, the same operation as the first or second aspect is achieved.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink jet apparatus for a printer, comprising:
In the invention according to claim 3, each of the head-side terminals is connected to the corresponding manifold-side terminal by wire bonding. In this case, each head-side terminal and the corresponding manifold-side terminal can be easily and reliably connected by wire bonding. In addition, the same operation as the third aspect is achieved.

According to a fifth aspect of the invention, there is provided an ink jet apparatus for a printer.
In the invention according to claim 3, each of the head-side terminals is connected to a corresponding one of the manifold-side terminals by brazing. In this case, each head-side terminal and the corresponding manifold-side terminal can be easily and reliably connected by brazing. In addition, the same operation as the third aspect is achieved.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the present embodiment, C (cyan: blue-green), M (magenta: magenta), Y (yellow:
This is a case in which the present invention is applied to an inkjet ejecting apparatus of a color inkjet printer that ejects four colors of ink (yellow) and K (black: black) onto recording paper to record a color image.

As shown in FIG. 1, a color ink jet printer 1 according to the present embodiment basically includes a rubber platen 11 mounted on a main body frame 3 provided in a main body cover 2.
, A carriage driving mechanism 20 for moving and driving the carriage 21, an ink ejecting mechanism 30 for recording a color image on the paper P, and the like, and a head mounted on the carriage 21. Holder 3
4, ink cartridges 5 to 8 containing four color inks of C, M, Y and K are detachably mounted.

First, the sheet transport mechanism 10 will be described. The platen 11 is disposed in the left-right direction, and its platen shafts 11a are rotatably pivotally attached to the side walls 3a, 3b of the main body frame 3 at both left and right ends. Platen gear 12 supported and attached to the left end of platen shaft 11a
Is rotated by a feed motor via a gear mechanism (not shown), and the platen 11 is rotated in a predetermined sheet feeding direction.

Next, the carriage driving mechanism 20 will be described.
The carriage 21 has a carriage 21 at a rear end thereof, which is disposed in parallel with the platen 11, and guide rods 2 fixed to the side walls 3 a and 3 c of the main body frame 3, respectively.
2 and is supported movably in the left-right direction at the front end by a guide rail 3 d at the front end of the main body frame 3.

On the other hand, a driven pulley 23 is rotatably supported by the side wall plate 3c at the left end of the moving range of the carriage 21, and a driving shaft of a carriage driving motor 25 composed of a stepping motor is provided at the right end thereof. Is provided, and an endless timing belt 26 is stretched over these pulleys 23 and 24, and is connected to the timing belt 26 at the lower end of the carriage 21. When the carriage drive motor 25 is driven to rotate by the drive pulse, the carriage 21 is supported by the guide rod 22 and the guide rail 3d via these pulleys 23 and 24 and the timing belt 26, and It is driven to reciprocate in a scanning direction parallel to 11.

Here, the lower side of the carriage 21 is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 7, a strip-shaped encoder member 27 made of a thin film on which black thin lines are printed at minute intervals and extending in the left-right direction is provided horizontally.
a, 3c. A photo sensor (not shown), which is an optical sensor including a light emitting element and a light receiving element, is attached to the lower side of the carriage 21 so as to face the encoder member 27.

Next, ink jetting devices 30 to 33 for jetting color ink on the paper P for printing will be described with reference to FIGS. A box-shaped head holder 34 having an open top and front is mounted on the carriage 21. The standing wall 3 at the rear end of the head holder 34
4a, a recording head 36 is integrally fixed to a manifold member 35.
, A magenta ink ejecting device 31, a yellow ink ejecting device 32, and a black ink ejecting device 33, respectively, and four ink cartridges (corresponding to ink supply sources) 5 to 8 are connected to these ink ejecting devices 30 to 33. It is designed to be removably mounted in correspondence with.

Next, the ink ejecting devices 30 to 33 will be described. Since each of the ink ejecting devices 30 to 33 has the same configuration, the cyan ink ejecting device 30 will be described, and the other ink ejecting devices 31 to 33 will be described. The same reference numerals are given and the description is omitted. As shown in FIGS. 3 to 6, the carriage 21 immediately behind the head holder 34
A printed board 37 is mounted thereon, and a synthetic resin-made manifold member 35 having an ink storage chamber 35a therein is mounted on the printed board 37. The manifold member 35 has an ink cartridge 5 attached thereto. , A tubular member 38 for supplying ink to the ink storage chamber 35a is integrally formed.

At the rear end of the manifold member 35,
A recording head 36 having a front end part partially fitted and fixedly adhered thereto is integrally attached. Next, the recording head 3
6, a pair of thin-plate head substrates 40 and 41 made of a polarized piezoelectric material are disposed adjacent to each other on the left and right sides. Each of the head substrates 40 and 41 has a thin plate made of piezo or ceramics. Is sandwiched by an adhesive. At the outer end of each of the head substrates 40 and 41, a plurality of parallel narrow grooves 43 extending in the front-rear direction are formed at minute intervals, and each of the plurality of narrow grooves 43 is closed by a cover plate 42, respectively. I have. These head substrates 40, 4
A nozzle forming plate 44 made of synthetic resin and formed with a plurality of inkjet nozzles 45 in two rows is adhesively fixed to the rear ends of the cover plate 1 and the cover plate 42.

Since the pair of head substrates 40 and 41 have the same configuration, the left head substrate 40 will be described. As shown in FIG. 7, the polarization direction indicated by the dashed line arrow is directed toward the cover plate 42. The piezoelectric plate 40a made of a thin plate-like piezoelectric material (for example, piezoelectric ceramics) is oriented in the opposite direction (right direction), and the polarization direction indicated by the dashed line arrow is oriented in the direction of the cover plate 42 (left direction). A plurality of narrow grooves 43 are formed over the two piezoelectric plates 40a and 40b, and the plurality of narrow grooves 43 are partitioned. Are formed with a plurality of partition walls 46. And, among the plurality of narrow grooves 43, for example, 32 ink passages 47 are formed in every other narrow groove 43 between a plurality of pairs of adjacent partition walls 46. Then, the ink in the ink storage chamber 35a can be supplied to each of the plurality of ink passages 47.

As shown in FIGS. 5 and 7, on the upper and lower sides of each partition 46, a ground-side electrode 48 and a drive-side electrode 49 extending substantially the entire length of the ink passage 47 are provided. Have been. That is, as shown in FIG.
The grounded electrode 4
An electrode 49 to which a driving voltage V from a driving IC 50 to be described later is supplied is attached to a side surface of each partition wall 46 facing the narrow groove 43 other than the ink passage 47. Here, the partition walls 46 on both sides of the ink passage 47 and the partition walls 4
An actuator is composed of the electrodes 48, 49, etc. attached to the side surfaces of the actuator 6.

A drive IC for driving ink ejection
Numerals 50 are respectively attached to the left and right side surfaces (corresponding to side surfaces parallel to the arrangement direction of the plurality of ink passages 47 provided in the recording head 36) of the manifold member 35, and each drive IC 50
To perform one line of ink ejection. A plurality of electrodes 4 are provided on both left and right sides of the recording head 36.
A plurality of extraction electrodes 51 connected to 8 and 49 are formed forward, respectively, and a head-side terminal 52 is formed at the front end of each extraction electrode 51. Furthermore,
A drive IC 50 is provided on both left and right sides of the manifold member 35.
A plurality of extraction electrodes 53 connected to the output terminal portions are formed rearward, and a plurality of manifold terminals 54 corresponding to the plurality of head terminals 52 are formed at the rear end of the extraction electrodes 53. Have been.

As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, each head-side terminal 52 is connected to a corresponding manifold-side terminal 54 by wire bonding 55. On the other hand, several lead electrodes 56 connected to the input terminal of the drive IC 50 are formed in a hook shape, and the connection terminal 57 is provided at the end thereof.
Are formed. The printed circuit board 37 is connected to an FPC (flexible print circuit) 58 connected to a print control circuit (not shown) for outputting a clock and data signal and voltage composed of serial data for dot printing. At the same time, a wiring pattern 59 composed of a clock line, a data line, a voltage line, and an earth line is formed, and the terminal portion of the wiring pattern 59 and the corresponding connection terminal 57 are soldered (brazed).
Connected by

Here, the drive IC 50 determines from the data appearing on the data line which nozzle 45 should perform ink ejection based on the continuous clock pulse supplied from the clock line,
1 is applied with the voltage of the voltage line.

As shown in FIG. 8, when the drive voltage V output from the drive IC 50 is supplied to the electrodes 49 of the two partition walls 46 adjacent to the ink passage 47, the partition wall 46 above the ink passage 47 becomes The upper side orthogonal to the polarization direction indicated by the one-dot chain line is sheared substantially in the shape of a letter (thickness shear deformation), and the partition wall 46 below the ink passage 47 is sheared and deformed in the shape of a generally lower letter below. The capacity of the ink passage 47 is enlarged. At this time, when the ink is supplied to the ink passage 47 and the supply of the drive voltage V to the electrode 49 is stopped, the ink in the ink passage 47 is ejected as the shear deformation of the partition wall 46 is released. It is injected from the nozzle 45.

As described above, the ink storage chamber 3 for storing the ink supplied from the ink cartridges 5 to 8 is provided.
A plurality of ink passages 47 and a plurality of partition walls 46 and electrodes 48 in the vicinity of the ink passages 47; Ejecting device 30 including a recording head 36 provided with
33, the drive IC 50 for outputting a drive signal to these electrodes 49 is attached to the manifold member 35, so that the extraction electrodes 51 are used to supply power to the plurality of electrodes 49.
Is formed on the recording head 36 and the extraction electrode 5 is formed.
By forming the plurality of recording heads 3 on the manifold member 35, the electrical connection structure between the plurality of electrodes 49 and the output terminal of the driving IC 50 can be simplified.
6, the space between the recording heads can be reduced, the size of the carriage 21 on which the plurality of recording heads 36 are arranged and mounted can be reduced, and the size of the inkjet printer 1 can be further reduced.

Since the lead electrodes 56 for the signal lines of the input terminals of the drive IC 50 are several lines for data signals, control signals, etc., the input terminals of the drive IC 50 and the print control circuit for supplying various signals thereto. The connection structure with the device can also be simplified. Further, the heat generated in the drive IC 50 when the number of times of ink ejection is frequent is efficiently transmitted to the ink in the ink storage chamber 35a of the manifold member 35, so that the heat of the drive IC 50 is effectively radiated,
The heat raises the temperature of the ink and lowers its viscosity,
Ink ejection performance is improved.

Since the drive ICs 50 are mounted on the left and right sides of the manifold member 35 which are perpendicular to the recording direction of the recording head 36, that is, the direction of movement of the carriage 21, the drive ICs 50 of various sizes can be widened. Can be easily installed on the side that is becoming. Also,
A plurality of extraction electrodes 51 connected to a plurality of electrodes 48 and 49 are formed on the side surface of the recording head 36, a plurality of head-side terminals 52 are provided at the end of the plurality of extraction electrodes 51, and the side surface of the manifold member 35 is provided on the side surface of the manifold member 35. Is a drive IC
A plurality of extraction electrodes 53 connected to the output terminal section 50
Are formed, and a plurality of manifold-side terminals 54 corresponding to the plurality of head-side terminals 52 are provided at the terminal end thereof. Each of these head-side terminals 52 and each of the manifold-side terminals 54 are connected by wire bonding 55. , The two terminals 52, 54 can be easily and reliably connected.

Here, as a modification of the above embodiment,
As shown in FIG. 9, each of the head-side terminals formed at the end portions of the plurality of extraction electrodes 51 and each of the manifold-side terminals formed at the end portions of the plurality of extraction electrodes 53 are brought into direct contact with each other. Alternatively, the connection may be made by brazing using solder 60 or the like. Further, the head substrates 40 and 41 are formed of a single piezoelectric plate having one polarization direction, and electrodes are provided on only about half of the side face of each partition wall 46 on the base end side or the tip end side. 46 may be similarly sheared and deformed in a substantially V shape. Further, the present invention can be applied to an ink ejecting apparatus used in various ink jet printers, such as an ink ejecting apparatus having a recording head configured to eject ink by generating bubbles by overheating.

[0035]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a manifold member having an ink storage chamber connected to an ink supply source, and a recording head fixed to the manifold member and supplied with ink. An ink jet apparatus for a printer including a recording head having a plurality of ink passages and a plurality of actuators respectively provided in the vicinity of the ink passages. Since a drive IC for outputting a drive signal is attached, lead electrodes for supplying power to a plurality of actuators are formed on a recording head or a manifold member, so that an electrical connection structure between the plurality of actuators and an output section of the drive IC is formed. It can be simplified, and the space between printheads when multiple printheads are installed side by side Can be reduced, juxtaposed the plurality of recording heads can be miniaturized carriage mounting, it is possible further to reduce the size of the printer.

Further, since there are several signal lines at the input part of the drive IC for data signals and control signals, the connection structure between the input part of the drive IC and the print control circuit for supplying various signals to the input part is also simplified. be able to. Further, since the heat generated from the drive IC when the number of times of ink ejection is frequent is efficiently transmitted to the ink in the ink storage chamber of the manifold member, the heat of the drive IC is effectively dissipated, and As the temperature of the ink rises, its viscosity decreases, and the ink jetting performance improves.

According to the ink ejecting apparatus for a printer of the second aspect, the same effect as that of the first aspect is obtained, but the driving IC
Was attached to the side surface of the manifold member parallel to the arrangement direction of the plurality of ink passages provided in the recording head,
Drive ICs of various sizes can be easily mounted on the side surface of the widened manifold member.

According to the ink ejecting apparatus for a printer of the third aspect, the same effect as that of the first or second aspect can be obtained, except that the recording head is provided with a plurality of head-side terminals connected to a plurality of actuators. Since a plurality of manifold-side terminals connected to a drive IC and corresponding to the plurality of head-side terminals are provided on the manifold member, each of the head-side terminals and each of the manifold-side terminals are directly or wire-bonded, for example. Electrical connection can be easily made by brazing or the like.

According to the ink jetting device of the printer of the fourth aspect, the same effect as that of the third aspect is obtained, but since each head side terminal is connected to the corresponding manifold side terminal by wire bonding, these head side terminals are connected. The connection between the terminal and the manifold side terminal can be easily and reliably performed.

According to the ink ejecting apparatus for a printer of the fifth aspect, the same effect as that of the third aspect is obtained, but since each of the head-side terminals is connected to the corresponding manifold-side terminal by brazing, these head-side terminals are connected. The connection between the terminal and the manifold side terminal can be easily and reliably performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing an internal mechanism of a color inkjet printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged plan view of a carriage and an ink ejection device.

FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view of an ink ejecting apparatus.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged perspective view of the ink ejecting apparatus.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged perspective view from the back side of the ink ejecting apparatus.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of a main part of the ink ejecting apparatus.

FIG. 7 is a partially enlarged longitudinal sectional view of the head substrate when not driven.

FIG. 8 is a diagram corresponding to FIG. 7 during driving.

FIG. 9 is a plan view of an ink ejection device according to a modification.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a recording head and a printed circuit board according to a conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Color inkjet printer 30-33 Ink ejection device 35 Manifold member 35a Ink storage chamber 36 Recording head 45 Partition wall 47 Ink passage 48, 49 Electrode 50 Drive IC 51, 53 Leader electrode 52 Head side terminal 54 Manifold side terminal 55 Wire bonding

Claims (5)

[Claims] An ink supply chamber includes a manifold member having an ink storage chamber connected to an ink supply source, a recording head fixed to the manifold member and supplied with ink, a plurality of ink passages, and a plurality of ink passages. In an ink ejecting apparatus for a printer, comprising: a recording head having a plurality of actuators provided in the vicinity thereof; and a drive IC for outputting drive signals to the plurality of actuators of the recording head is attached to the manifold member. Characteristic ink jet device for printer. 2. The ink jetting device for a printer according to claim 1, wherein the driving IC is mounted on a side surface of the manifold member parallel to an arrangement direction of a plurality of ink passages provided in the recording head. . 3. A recording head comprising a plurality of head-side terminals connected to a plurality of actuators,
3. The ink ejecting apparatus for a printer according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of manifold-side terminals connected to a driving IC and corresponding to the plurality of head-side terminals are provided on the manifold member. 4. The ink jetting device according to claim 3, wherein each of the head terminals is connected to a corresponding one of the manifold terminals by wire bonding. 5. The ink jetting device according to claim 3, wherein each of the head terminals is connected to a corresponding one of the manifold terminals by brazing.