JPH11254678A - Printer and manufacture thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer, and a manufacturing method thereof, comprising an ink ejector having an ink jet head suitable for mass production in which production yield can be increased by setting the trench constituting an ink pressurization chamber deeper by a factor of 6 or more than the trench width and the wall thickness thereby suppressing defects high accuracy can be ensured in the barrier wall drive region with a minimum necessary trench length, size of the ink jet head and the material cost can be reduced and fine patterning is facilitated. SOLUTION: The ink jet head 1 comprises a substrate 3 constituting ink pressurization chambers 2, barrier walls 5 forming a plurality of trenches 4, and a nozzle plate 7 having nozzle holes 6 arrange in a row corresponding to the trenches 4 while being bonded thereto on the open end side. An upper substrate 8 to be coupled with an ink chamber is bonded to the top of the barrier walls 5 having side face arranged with an electrode 9 for applying a driving field. The trenches 4 made in parallel in the substrate have depth 6-10 times of the trench width and 6-20 times of the thickness of barrier wall in the chamber 2.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a variety of printing printers, recorders, facsimile machines, and printers for printing, forming images, etc. by ejecting ink as droplets from fine nozzle holes, or patterns in the printing and ceramic fields. The present invention relates to a printing apparatus having a high-precision, light-weight, small-sized inkjet head used for an ink ejecting apparatus or the like applied to forming and the like, and a method for manufacturing the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the spread of multimedia, as an interface for printing various types of small and lightweight information suitable for use in small lots and many kinds of products, printing is not required as a printing interface of the conventional impact type instead of a conventional printing system. Various non-impact printing apparatuses using an ejecting apparatus, a thermal transfer apparatus, and the like have been developed, and the range of use thereof has been expanded to various industrial fields.

[0003] Among such non-impact printing apparatuses, the ink ejecting apparatus has attracted attention for its future prospects because it is easy to increase the number of gradations and colors and the running cost is low.

[0004] The ink ejecting apparatus uses an ink jet head having a nozzle plate having a plurality of nozzle holes and an ink pressurizing chamber for generating pressure for ejecting ink droplets as main components. In general, the ink-jet head is provided with a partition wall on a substrate and a groove for forming a groove in order to individually eject ink droplets for each color from a nozzle hole of the nozzle plate and the nozzle plate. It is composed of a pressure chamber, an upper substrate and the like which have a role of a lid for sealing the ink pressure chamber.

[0005] Further, in the ink jet head,
The drop-on-demand type, which ejects only the necessary ink droplets by jetting ink droplets by generating pressure in the ink pressurizing chamber, is mainly used. Type and thermal jet type are adopted as typical methods.

[0006] In the Kaiser type, a thin wall is provided on at least a part of an upper substrate that seals an ink pressurizing chamber in which a plurality of parallel grooves are formed by partition walls, and the thin wall is deformed by a piezoelectric element or the like to apply ink. By changing the volume of the groove of the pressure chamber, an internal pressure is generated in the ink pressurizing chamber, and the ink is ejected as droplets.

In the thermal jet type, a heating element is provided in a part of the ink pressurizing chamber, and an internal pressure is generated by utilizing a volume expansion when the ink in the ink pressurizing chamber is boiled. Ink is ejected as droplets.

However, in the Kaiser type, it is difficult to reduce the size of the ink jet head because a piezoelectric element or the like must be further provided on the surface of the upper substrate, and the thermal jet type applies high heat to the ink. In addition, heat resistance is required for the ink itself, and there is a problem that response time is inferior because a selected area of the ink is narrowed and time is required for thermally expanding the ink.

To solve the above problem, FIG.
A plurality of grooves 20 arranged in parallel on a substrate 19 made of a piezoelectric material as shown in FIG.
An ink pressurizing chamber 24 composed of an upper substrate 23 that seals the groove 20, and a groove 2 on the open end side of the groove 20 of the ink pressurizing chamber 24.
There has been proposed a shear mode ink jetting device comprising an ink jet head having a structure in which a nozzle plate 26 having a nozzle hole 25 corresponding to 0 is joined. In this proposal, a driving voltage is applied to an electrode 22 and a piezoelectric material is applied. The ink in the groove 20 was pressurized by changing the volume of the groove 20 by deforming the partition 21 forming the groove 20 of the ink pressurizing chamber 24 by utilizing the shear mode deformation of FIG. Ink droplets are ejected from the nozzle holes 25 (see JP-A-7-276648).

[0010]

The ink jet head which constitutes the above-described proposed shear mode type ink ejecting apparatus is, like a conventional Kaiser type or thermal jet type,
There is no need to install a piezoelectric element on the surface of the upper substrate,
Also, since heat resistance is not required for the ink,
It was worth noting that miniaturization was possible, and that it was excellent in responsiveness and that high-speed printing was possible.

[0011] However, in the shear mode type ink ejecting apparatus, in order to form the groove of the ink pressurizing chamber of the ink jet head, a required number of cutting tools such as thin disk-shaped diamond blades are rotated from the piezoelectric material while rotating. Since the groove is formed by cutting the substrate, the end of the obtained groove has a shape obtained by transferring the curvature of the disk-shaped cutting tool.

Accordingly, in order to obtain a desired injection performance,
It is necessary to generate a sufficient internal pressure in the ink pressurization chamber by deforming the partition wall, and it is necessary to secure a sufficient partition driving area. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a long groove in consideration of the uncut portion. There is a problem that the ink jet head itself becomes large and the material cost increases.

In forming a groove in the substrate,
In the processing method using a cutting tool such as a thin disk-shaped diamond blade as described above, the groove width of the substrate depends on the thickness of the cutting tool such as a diamond blade, and the depth of the groove is equal to the depth of the cutting tool. At present, the groove width must be at least 90 μm or more in order to stably cut with the thinnest thickness because it depends on the cutting depth.

Also, the depth of the groove is limited to less than 6 times the groove width. If the depth of the groove is larger than that, the cutting tool is shaken and the dimensional accuracy of the groove is deteriorated. With the demand for higher precision, the thickness of such partition walls tends to be reduced, and in the processing method using the cutting tool,
The depth of the groove with respect to the thickness of the partition wall is also limited to less than 6 times,
Above that, there is a problem that the adjacent partition walls are easily chipped and cannot be cut with high accuracy.

In addition, the cutting conditions are very difficult, and if the feed rate, the cutting depth, the number of revolutions, and the like are not suitable, there are various problems such as chipping of the cutting tool itself such as a diamond blade. Each method satisfies the requirements of high precision, light weight, and miniaturization, and efficiently generates the internal pressure in the ink pressurizing chamber, thereby achieving the required printing,
There is a problem that it is difficult to cope with higher definition of an image or the like, and it is not suitable for mass production.

[0016]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems. An object of the present invention is to make the groove width of the substrate dependent on the thickness of the cutting tool or to determine the depth of the groove by the cutting depth of the cutting tool. And the depth of the groove with respect to the groove width and the thickness of the partition wall can be made 6 times or more, and defects such as chipping or defective shape of the adjacent partition wall can be reduced, and the manufacturing yield can be improved. , The partition drive area can be secured with a minimum necessary groove length with high accuracy, the size of the ink jet head can be reduced and the material cost can be reduced, and the required printing, image, etc. can be easily performed with higher definition. Another object of the present invention is to provide a printing apparatus having an ink ejecting apparatus including an ink jet head suitable for mass production and a method of manufacturing the same.

[0017]

The present inventors have conducted intensive studies in view of the above-mentioned problems, and as a result, have found that in a shear mode type ink ejecting apparatus, the depth of the groove or the width of the groove is made of a piezoelectric material. By laminating green sheets having a perforated shape, the groove width can be reduced, and the depth of the groove can be deeply formed, so that an inkjet head having a high-definition groove can be obtained. In addition, it has been found that the above-described perforation process can expand the partition driving region without requiring an uncut portion having a curvature by the conventional processing method, thereby making it possible to minimize the length of the groove. Invented the invention.

That is, in the printing apparatus of the present invention, at least a part of the partition of the ink jet head constituting the ink ejecting apparatus is made of a material having piezoelectricity, and is formed in parallel with the substrate in the ink pressurizing chamber of the ink jet head. The groove has a depth of 6 to 10 times the groove width and a thickness of 6 to 20 times the thickness of the partition wall. The partition wall is deformed and deformed by the shear mode of the piezoelectric material. And an ink jetting device comprising an ink jet head for jetting ink supplied to the groove as a droplet from a nozzle hole provided at one end of the groove.

Further, the width of the groove and the thickness of the partition wall constituting the ink pressurizing chamber are preferably 10 to 75 μm, and the width of the groove is 15 to 40 μm and the thickness of the partition wall. Is most preferably 10 to 40 μm.

Further, the method of manufacturing a printing apparatus according to the present invention is characterized in that a green sheet made of a material having piezoelectricity or a green sheet made of a material having piezoelectricity and a green sheet made of a material having no piezoelectricity is formed into a predetermined groove shape. Perforating, combining and laminating at least a part of the partition wall so as to be made of a material having piezoelectricity, cutting the laminate to a predetermined size, and debinding the obtained laminate. Thereafter, the step of firing and integrating, the step of forming an electrode on the side wall of the partition, and joining the upper substrate to the top of the partition,
An ink jet head is manufactured by a process of joining a nozzle plate having a nozzle hole formed on an open end side of a groove, and an ink jet apparatus is configured using the ink jet head.

It is optimal that each partition constituting the ink jet head is formed of one green sheet made of a material having piezoelectricity.

Another manufacturing method of the printing apparatus according to the present invention is the same as the manufacturing method described above, except that the green sheets are combined and laminated so that at least a part of the partition wall is made of a material having piezoelectricity. A step of debinding the obtained laminate, and then firing and integrating,
Producing the main part of the ink jet head by cutting the fired body to a predetermined size, forming an electrode on the side surface of the partition wall, joining the upper substrate to the top of the partition wall, and forming a nozzle hole on the open end side of the groove An ink jet apparatus is configured using an ink jet head manufactured by a step of joining the nozzle plates thus formed.

Each of the partitions constituting the ink jet head is optimally formed of a single green sheet made of a material having piezoelectricity.

[0024]

According to the printing apparatus and the method of manufacturing the same of the present invention,
Since the depth of the groove of the ink pressurizing chamber constituting the ink jet head is 6 to 10 times the groove width and the thickness of the partition is 6 to 20 times, the partition driving region in the shear mode is enlarged and the same. In order to obtain the ink jetting characteristics, the groove can be made shorter than before, the ink jet head itself can be made smaller and lighter, the material cost can be reduced, and the area occupied by the ink jetting device including such an ink jet head when it is incorporated is greatly reduced This also contributes to downsizing of the printing apparatus itself.

Further, the reduction in size and weight of the ink jet head contributes to an increase in the moving speed of the ink jet head and an improvement in positioning accuracy.

Further, the green sheets perforated into the groove depth shape or groove width shape are appropriately combined and laminated to form a partition wall constituting the ink pressurizing chamber. Then, after baking and integrating, or after baking and unifying, cut out to a predetermined shape and size to form an ink jet head constituting an ink ejecting apparatus, the depth and width of the groove of the ink pressurizing chamber can be freely set. It is possible to form a partition with a narrow groove width, a deep groove and a high-definition pitch, and it is also possible to set the thickness of a partition, especially with the thickness of one green sheet, and the jetting performance is more stable An ink jet head can be obtained.

[0027]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a printing apparatus and a method of manufacturing the same according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing a main part in a direction perpendicular to a groove direction of an ink jet head used in an ink ejecting apparatus constituting a printing apparatus according to the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a substrate having an ink pressurizing chamber 2, a partition wall 5 for forming a plurality of parallel grooves 4, and a nozzle having a nozzle hole 6 joined to the open end of the groove 4. And an upper substrate 8 connected to an ink chamber (not shown).
The electrode 9 for applying a driving electric field is formed on the side surface of the partition wall 5, and the nozzle holes 6 are formed in the nozzle plate 7 in rows corresponding to the grooves 4.

The depth 10 of the groove is 6 to 6 of the groove width 11.
When the depth of the groove is less than 6 times the groove width 11, sufficient pressure for the shear mode type can be obtained. When the thickness 12 of the partition wall is less than 6 times, a high-definition image quality cannot be obtained.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are cross-sectional views showing a main part of the other ink jet head used in the ink jetting apparatus constituting the printing apparatus of the present invention, the main part being perpendicular to the groove direction. 3 is formed of a member made of a material 17 having piezoelectricity, and FIG. 3 shows a member 5 made of a material 17 having piezoelectricity and a member 5 made of a material 18 having no piezoelectricity interposed therebetween. In FIG. 4, a member made of a material 18 having no piezoelectricity is laminated on a member made of a material 17 having piezoelectricity, and other members are the same as those in FIG. Yes, description is omitted.

Next, a method of manufacturing a printing apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 2 showing a manufacturing process of an ink jet head constituting an ink ejecting apparatus which is a main part of the printing apparatus.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an upper substrate 8 joined to the top of a partition 5 forming a plurality of parallel grooves 4 integrated with the substrate 3 and a nozzle hole 6 joined to the open end of the groove 4. An ink jet head comprising a nozzle plate 7 formed as described above.

First, a green sheet 13 made of a material having piezoelectricity and / or a material having no piezoelectricity is applied to a partition wall to be described later by a known method such as a doctor blade method, a pulling method, or a roll coater method. The molding was performed while controlling the thickness in consideration of the thickness or the depth of the groove.

The material having piezoelectricity that can be used in the present invention is not particularly limited, as long as it can use various piezoelectric modes such as a piezoelectric sliding effect, a piezoelectric longitudinal effect, and a piezoelectric transverse effect. Either one may be used, but among them, a lead zirconate titanate-based ceramic material is most suitable.

Next, a groove depth shape 14 or a groove width shape 15 is formed in the obtained green sheet 13 by, for example, punching a predetermined position of the green sheet by punching. The green sheet made of a photosensitive resin or the like may be formed by exposing and developing the green sheet made of a photosensitive resin or the like by using a photolithography technique. Just do it.

When the green sheets 13 are stacked so as to be orthogonal to the rows of the nozzle holes 6, the groove width can be set by the thickness of the green sheet. Can be appropriately selected, and the depth of the groove is determined by the size of the space formed.

When the green sheets 13 are stacked in parallel with the rows of the nozzle holes 6, the groove width is determined by the dimension of the space formed in the groove width shape, and the depth of the groove is determined by the thickness of the green sheet to be stacked. It can be set by the number of layers.

Therefore, based on the above design criteria, a green sheet made of a material having piezoelectricity and a green sheet made of a material having no piezoelectricity are appropriately combined, and at least a part of the partition is made of a material having piezoelectricity. The laminated body 16 is formed by laminating and bonding so as to be molded.

The width of the groove and the thickness of the partition are easy to control the thickness of the green sheet, high-definition printing based on the degree of the printed dots or pixels from the dimensional accuracy of the perforated, easy to obtain images, etc. From the viewpoint of sintering, the size after firing is preferably 10 to 75 μm, in particular, the groove width is 15 to 40 μm, and the thickness of the partition is 10 μm.
The range of from 40 μm to 40 μm is most preferable from the viewpoint of easy production of the green sheet and high quality such as printing and image.

Next, the laminating direction of the green sheets is not particularly limited, but from the viewpoint that the groove width can be stably and accurately mass-produced, the green sheets are laminated in a direction orthogonal to the row in which the nozzle holes are arranged. Is preferred.

When laminating the green sheets, depending on the characteristics of the organic binder and the like used for forming the green sheets, for example, laminating to a predetermined thickness via a contact liquid, or pressing the green sheets, After laminating, a laminate can be obtained by heating and pressing.

The laminate thus obtained is subjected to firing shrinkage allowance,
After cutting to predetermined dimensions in consideration of cutting allowance or grinding allowance,
A known binder removal treatment may be performed, followed by baking and integration, and machining such as polishing may be performed as necessary.

It is needless to say that the fired body may be cut into a predetermined size by a wire saw, a diamond disk or the like after the binder removal treatment and the heat treatment of the firing integration.

Thereafter, polarization treatment is performed in the base direction from the top end of the partition wall to produce an ink pressurizing chamber constituent member having a plurality of parallel grooves integrated with the substrate, and then at least a part of the side wall of the partition wall and the groove. In a small space provided at the end, an electrode for applying a driving electric field and a lead-out electrode, for example, a sputtering method, a plating method, a vapor deposition method, an ion plating method,
Alternatively, it is formed by a CVD method or the like.

The material applicable to such an electrode is not particularly limited, but metal materials such as copper, silver, gold, platinum, tungsten, and nickel, and perovskite-based conductive ceramic materials are preferably used. be able to.

On the other hand, for the upper substrate, a green sheet is formed in the same manner by using a material having the same piezoelectricity or a material having no piezoelectricity as the ink pressurizing chamber constituting member.
After removing the portion corresponding to the connection portion with the ink chamber on the green sheet, the green sheet is cut into a predetermined size to remove the binder,
It may be produced by a firing step, or by a binder removal process, or a cutting step after firing. However, the sintered body may be produced by removing or cutting out the connecting portion by machining.

On the other hand, the nozzle plate is formed by forming a nozzle hole by drilling a predetermined size with a laser or the like, and any material such as various plastics, metals, ceramics and the like can be used. For example, plastics such as polyethylene terephthalate, polyimide, polyether imide, polyether ketone, polyether sulfone, polycarbonate, cellulose acetate, or metals such as stainless steel, chromium molybdenum steel, aluminum, or alumina, zirconia, or lead zirconate titanate And the like. In particular, a plastic plate made of polyethylene terephthalate or polyimide is preferable from the viewpoint of ease of processing.

By assembling the members thus obtained by bonding them with an epoxy-based adhesive or the like, a shear mode ink jet head of an ink ejecting apparatus constituting the printing apparatus of the present invention is obtained.

In the printing apparatus of the present invention, the ink to be ejected is any one of a pigment and / or a dye and an aqueous solvent such as water or alcohol, or a non-aqueous solvent such as hexane or toluene. Is also applicable.

[0051]

Next, the printing apparatus of the present invention and its manufacturing method were evaluated as follows.

Example 1 First, a slurry comprising lead zirconate titanate powder, an organic binder, a solvent, and a dispersant was prepared, and a green sheet having a thickness of about 200 μm was formed using the slurry by a doctor blade method. .

Next, a green sheet in which a portion corresponding to the depth of the groove is perforated by a punching machine and a green sheet which is not perforated are prepared by a punching machine. The three green sheets thus obtained were alternately laminated via an adhesive liquid and pressed to produce a laminate.

Thereafter, the laminate was cut to a predetermined size using a diamond disk while considering the firing shrinkage of the laminate.

Next, a binder removal treatment is performed at a temperature of 450 ° C., followed by baking at a temperature of 1200 ° C. to integrate the ink pressurizing chamber constituent members. A gold electrode was formed on the upper half of the side surface and a portion corresponding to the extraction electrode of the groove by a sputtering method.

On the other hand, holes for ink chamber connection were punched in a green sheet having a thickness of about 200 μm, and eight layers were laminated and pressed in the same manner as described above. Cutting was performed to produce an upper substrate.

Further, a nozzle plate was prepared by piercing a nozzle hole in a polyimide plastic plate with a laser.

The members thus obtained were adhered to each other with an epoxy-based adhesive to form a shear mode ink jet head.

As a result, the ink jet head is
The outer dimensions are 1 mm in thickness, 56 mm in depth, and 12 mm in width. The groove of the ink pressurizing chamber has a rectangular cross section with a groove width of 70 μm and a groove depth of 450 μm, and a thickness of a partition wall forming the groove. The end of the groove is formed perpendicularly from the bottom of the groove. The end of the groove has a portion corresponding to a 2 mm long extraction electrode, the length of the groove is 10 mm, and the pitch of the groove is 140 mm.
μm.

Accordingly, the depth of the groove is 6.4 times the width of the groove and the thickness of the partition wall, and in the experiment of ejecting the ink droplet, the partition drive region can be sufficiently secured and the ink droplet can be sufficiently ejected. ,
Moreover, it was confirmed that a small-sized inkjet head capable of achieving high definition was obtained.

Example 2 First, a slurry comprising lead zirconate titanate powder, an organic binder, a solvent, and a dispersant was prepared, and a green sheet having a thickness of about 87.5 μm was formed using the slurry by a doctor blade method. Was molded.

Next, the green sheet is punched into a shape corresponding to the groove width by a punching machine, and a plurality of green sheets which have not been punched are prepared. The layers were laminated via an adhesive liquid and pressed to produce a laminate.

The obtained laminate was cut with a diamond disk in consideration of the firing shrinkage.

Thereafter, a binder removal treatment is performed at a temperature of 450.degree. C., followed by firing and integration at a temperature of 1200.degree. C. to produce an ink pressurizing chamber constituent member. A gold electrode was formed by a sputtering method on the upper half of the side surface of the partition wall and the portion corresponding to the lead electrode of the groove.

On the other hand, a hole for ink chamber connection was punched in a green sheet having a thickness of about 200 μm by punching, and eight layers of the green sheet were laminated and pressed in the same manner as in Example 1 to remove the binder from the binder. After that, the resultant was integrated by firing, and then cut into a predetermined size to produce an upper substrate.

Further, a nozzle plate was manufactured by piercing a nozzle hole with a laser on a polyimide plastic plate.

Next, each member was bonded and assembled with an epoxy adhesive to produce a shear mode ink jet head.

As a result, the ink jet head is
The outer dimensions are 1 mm in thickness, 56 mm in depth, and 12 mm in width. The groove of the ink pressurizing chamber has a rectangular cross section with a groove width of 70 μm and a groove depth of 450 μm, and a thickness of a partition wall forming the groove. The end of the groove is formed perpendicularly from the bottom of the groove. The end of the groove has a portion corresponding to a 2 mm long extraction electrode, the length of the groove is 10 mm, and the pitch of the groove is 140 mm.
μm.

Therefore, the depth of the groove is 6.4 times the groove width and the thickness of the partition wall, and in the ink droplet ejection experiment, the partition drive region can be sufficiently secured and the ink droplet can be sufficiently ejected. ,
Moreover, it was confirmed that a small-sized inkjet head capable of achieving high definition was obtained.

(Example 3) In Example 1, after producing the laminate, first, a binder removal treatment was performed at a temperature of 450 ° C, followed by firing and integration at a temperature of 1200 ° C.

Next, a shear mode ink jet head was produced in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the obtained fired body was cut with a diamond disk and machined to produce the ink pressurizing chamber constituting member. did.

As a result, the obtained ink-jet head had outer dimensions of 1 mm in thickness, 56 mm in depth, and 12 m in width.
m, the groove of the ink pressurizing chamber has a rectangular cross section having a groove width of 70 μm and a groove depth of 450 μm, and the thickness of a partition wall forming the groove is 70 μm, and the end of the groove is a groove. It is formed vertically from the bottom. The length of the groove is 10 mm, and the length of the groove is 10 mm. The pitch of the groove is 1 mm.
It was 40 μm.

Accordingly, the depth of the groove was 6.4 times the groove width and the thickness of the partition wall, and it was confirmed that the same result as in Example 1 was obtained even if the manufacturing method was changed.

(Example 4) In Example 2, after producing the laminated body, first, a binder removal treatment was performed at a temperature of 450 ° C, and then a firing and integration was performed at a temperature of 1200 ° C.

Next, a shear mode ink jet head was manufactured in the same manner as in Example 2 except that the obtained fired body was cut with a diamond disk and machined to manufacture the ink pressurizing chamber constituent members. did.

As a result, the obtained ink jet head had an outer dimension of 1 mm in thickness, 56 mm in depth, and 12 m in width.
m, the groove of the ink pressurizing chamber has a rectangular cross section having a groove width of 70 μm and a groove depth of 450 μm, and the thickness of a partition wall forming the groove is 70 μm, and the end of the groove is a groove. It is formed vertically from the bottom. The length of the groove is 10 mm, and the length of the groove is 10 mm. The pitch of the groove is 1 mm.
It was 40 μm.

Therefore, the depth of the groove was 6.4 times the groove width and the thickness of the partition wall, and it was confirmed that no difference was observed between the manufacturing methods.

Example 5 A shear mode ink jet head was manufactured in the same manner as in Example 2 except that 3086 green sheets were laminated.

As a result, the obtained ink jet head had an outer dimension of 1 mm in thickness, 216 mm in depth and 12 mm in width.
mm, the groove of the ink pressure chamber has a groove width of 70 μm,
The groove has a rectangular cross section with a depth of 450 μm. The thickness of a partition wall forming the groove is 70 μm. The end of the groove is formed perpendicularly from the bottom of the groove, and the end of the groove has a length of 2 mm. And the length of the groove portion was 10 mm, and the pitch of the groove was 140 μm. Accordingly, the depth of the groove was 6.4 times the groove width and the thickness of the partition wall, and it was confirmed that there was no difference from Examples 1 to 4.

(Example 6)
A shear mode ink jet head was produced in the same manner as in Example 2, except that 10800 green sheets of 5 μm were laminated.

As a result, the obtained ink jet head had an outer dimension of 1 mm in thickness, 216 mm in depth and 12 mm in width.
mm, the groove of the ink pressure chamber has a groove width of 20 μm,
The groove has a rectangular cross section with a depth of 160 μm, the thickness of a partition wall forming the groove is 20 μm, the end of the groove is formed perpendicularly from the bottom of the groove, and the end of the groove has a length of 2 mm. And the length of the groove was 10 mm, and the pitch of the groove was 40 μm.

Accordingly, the depth of the groove was eight times the width of the groove and the thickness of the partition wall, and an extremely high-definition and miniaturized linear ink jet head was obtained.

(Comparative Example 1) First, the external dimensions were 1 m in thickness.
m, depth 56 mm, width 14 mm made of lead zirconate titanate, a groove is cut by a dicing method using a diamond blade having a blade thickness of 95 μm to form an ink pressurizing chamber member, After the polarization treatment, a gold electrode was formed on the upper half of the side wall of the partition wall and a portion corresponding to the lead electrode of the groove by a sputtering method.

On the other hand, a hole for connecting the ink chambers was drilled in a lead zirconate titanate substrate having a thickness of 1.3 mm to form an upper substrate.

On the other hand, a nozzle plate was prepared by piercing a nozzle hole in a polyimide plastic plate with a laser.

Next, the above-mentioned members were adhered to each other with an epoxy adhesive to assemble them, thereby producing a shear mode ink jet head.

As a result, the obtained inkjet head had an outer dimension of 1 mm in thickness, 56 mm in depth, and 14 m in width.
m, the groove of the ink pressure chamber has a groove width of 100 μm,
The groove has a rectangular cross section with a depth of 400 μm, and the end of the groove has an arc shape to which the curvature of the diamond blade is transferred. The thickness of the partition wall forming the groove is 100 μm.
μm, the length at the bottom of the groove is 10 mm, and the length of the groove at the end of the groove is 1 mm.
2 mm, and the pitch of the grooves was 200 μm.

Therefore, the depth of the groove is four times the groove width and the thickness of the partition wall. In the experiment of ejecting ink droplets, the partition drive region cannot be sufficiently secured, and the partition wall is too thick. Since the partition walls could not be deformed, the resulting print had an extremely coarse pitch.

Comparative Example 2 A shear mode ink jet head was manufactured in the same manner as in Comparative Example 1, except that a diamond blade having a blade thickness of 80 μm was used.

As a result, the obtained ink jet head had an outer dimension of 1 mm in thickness, 56 mm in depth, and 14 m in width.
m, the groove of the ink pressurizing chamber has a rectangular cross section with a groove width of 85 μm and a groove depth of 400 μm, and the end of the groove has an arc shape in which the curvature of the diamond blade is transferred. The thickness of the partition wall forming the groove is also 85 μm.
The length of the groove is 10 mm at the bottom of the groove, and the length of the groove is 12 mm at the end of the groove.
mm, and the pitch of the grooves was 170 μm.

Therefore, the depth of the groove is 4.7 times the groove width and the thickness of the partition wall. In the experiment of ejecting ink droplets, the partition drive region cannot be sufficiently secured, and the partition wall is too thick. Since the partition walls cannot be deformed sufficiently, the obtained print has an extremely coarse pitch, and furthermore, 12 partial defects of the partition walls and 5 damages from the base of the partition walls are recognized, and there is no defect. No ink jet head was obtained.

As is clear from the above results, in each of the comparative examples, the length of the groove is long, so that the size of the ink jet head itself is increased, the material cost associated therewith is increased, and the pitch of the fine pitch is high. If the partition wall is molded, the partition wall itself may be damaged or damaged,
In the present invention, it can be seen that the total length of the groove can be shortened in any case, and the inkjet head itself can be reduced in size.

In the manufacturing process, the pitch of the grooves can be reduced by adjusting the thickness of the green sheets or the number of laminations of the green sheets, so that an ink jet head with high definition can be manufactured. Since the width of the groove and the thickness of the partition against the depth of the groove can be set to be 6 times or more, the partition driving region can be sufficiently secured, and the ink droplets can be ejected with a sufficient pressure. Such a long head can be easily manufactured.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment.

[0095]

As described above, according to the printing apparatus and the method of manufacturing the same of the present invention, the shear mode type ink jet apparatus
Part of the partition wall is made of a material having at least piezoelectricity,
The groove formed in the ink pressurizing chamber in parallel with the substrate has a depth of 6 to 10 times the groove width and a thickness of 6 to 20 times the partition wall thickness.
It is composed of an inkjet head that is twice as large, it is processed by drilling a groove shape in a green sheet, and a laminated body combining them is cut and debindered, and then fired and integrated, or cut out after firing, and cut out of the partition wall. After the electrodes are formed on the side surfaces, the upper substrate is bonded to the top of the partition wall, and the nozzle plate with the nozzle hole formed on the open end side of the groove is bonded and manufactured. To obtain the same ink ejection characteristics, the groove can be shorter than before,
The inkjet head itself can be reduced in size and weight, which contributes to an increase in the moving speed of the inkjet head and an improvement in positioning accuracy.

In the present invention, since the ink jet head itself can be reduced in size and weight, the material cost can be reduced. In addition, by adjusting the number of layers, a line printer head that does not need to be moved can be easily manufactured. It can be manufactured, and high-speed, high-resolution printing is also possible.

Furthermore, the area occupied by the ink jetting device including the ink jet head when the ink jetting device is incorporated is greatly reduced, so that the size of the printing device itself can be reduced, and the device can be applied as a printing device for various uses.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing a main part of an ink-jet head used in an ink ejecting apparatus constituting a printing apparatus of the present invention in a direction perpendicular to a groove direction.

FIG. 2 is a view illustrating a manufacturing process of an ink jet head constituting an ink ejecting apparatus which is a main part of the printing apparatus, for explaining a manufacturing method of the printing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing a main portion of another ink jet head used in an ink ejecting apparatus constituting the printing apparatus of the present invention in a direction perpendicular to a groove direction.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing a main part of another ink jet head used in an ink ejecting apparatus constituting the printing apparatus of the present invention in a direction perpendicular to a groove direction.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a partially broken structure of an ink jet head used in an ink ejecting apparatus constituting a conventional printing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 inkjet head 2 ink pressurizing chamber 3 substrate 4 groove 5 partition 6 nozzle hole 7 nozzle plate 8 upper substrate 9 electrode 10 groove depth 11 groove width 12 partition thickness 13 green sheet 14 groove depth shape 15 groove Width shape 16 laminated body 17 material having piezoelectricity 18 material having no piezoelectricity

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Masafumi Kato 1-4-4 Yamashita-cho, Kokubu-shi, Kagoshima Inside the Kyocera Research Institute (72) Inventor Makoto Yoshida 1-4-4 Yamashita-cho, Kokubu-shi, Kagoshima Kyocera (72) Inventor Kiyohiro Sakasegawa 1-4, Yamashitacho, Kokubu-shi, Kagoshima Prefecture Kyocera Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Toshihiko Nishioka 1-4-4 Yamashitacho, Kokubu-shi, Kagoshima Kyocera Co., Ltd. Inside the company research institute

Claims (7)

[Claims] A partition forming a plurality of grooves parallel to a substrate constituting an ink pressurizing chamber, at least a part of which is made of a material having piezoelectricity, and the partition is formed by a shear mode of the material having piezoelectricity. A printing apparatus comprising, as an ink ejecting apparatus, an ink jet head that changes the volume of a groove by deforming and deforming the groove and ejects ink supplied to the groove as droplets from a nozzle hole provided at one end of the groove. A printing apparatus characterized in that the depth of the groove forming the pressurizing chamber is 6 to 10 times the groove width and 6 to 20 times the thickness of the partition wall. 2. The groove width and the thickness of the partition wall are 10 to 75 μm.
The printing device according to claim 1, wherein 3. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the groove width is 15 to 40 μm, and the thickness of the partition is 10 to 40 μm. 4. A green sheet made of a material having piezoelectricity, or a green sheet made of a material having piezoelectricity and a green sheet made of a material having no piezoelectricity, wherein a plurality of parallel grooves have a depth shape or a groove width shape. After the perforating process, the green sheets are aligned, and at least a part of the partition walls are combined and laminated so that they are made of a material having piezoelectricity. Then, the laminated body is cut into a predetermined size, and the obtained laminated body is obtained. After binder removal, baking and integration, and then forming electrodes on the side surfaces of the partition walls, the upper substrate is bonded to the top of the partition walls, and the nozzle plate having a nozzle hole formed on the open end side of the groove is bonded to the ink. A method for manufacturing a printing device, comprising forming an ink jet head constituting an ejection device. 5. The method according to claim 4, wherein each partition is formed of one green sheet made of a material having piezoelectricity. 6. A green sheet made of a material having piezoelectricity or a green sheet made of a material having piezoelectricity and a green sheet made of a material having no piezoelectricity, wherein a plurality of parallel grooves having a depth shape or a groove width shape are provided. After the perforation process, the green sheets are aligned, and at least part of the partition walls are combined and laminated so as to be made of a material having piezoelectricity. Then, the laminated body is subjected to a binder removal treatment, and then fired and integrated. Then, the fired body is cut into a predetermined size, electrodes are formed on the side surfaces of the partition walls, and then the upper substrate is bonded to the top of the partition walls, and a nozzle plate having a nozzle hole formed on the open end side of the groove is bonded. A method for manufacturing a printing apparatus, comprising forming an ink jet head constituting the apparatus. 7. The method according to claim 6, wherein each of the partition walls is formed of a single green sheet made of a material having piezoelectricity.