JPS60262658A - Manufacture of ink jet head - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the titled head capable of high-quality print by adhering an ink channel plate formed with metal film of brazing material and a flat plate without a metal coat onto a bonded surface except a scheduled part for ink channel formation and forming an ink channel precisely. CONSTITUTION:A metal-plated layer is provided on the surface of a thin sheet 11 such as stainless steel, and after applying a positive-type photoresist layer 13 on the metal-plated layer, a photoresist film on a scheduled part for ink channel formation is removed. Next, a metal-plated lyer 12 is removed in an prearranged pattern by etching using the photoresist film 13 as a mask and after removing the photoresist film with a solvent, a nozzle 15 is formed by etching an ink channel plate 11 using the patterned metal-plated layer 12 as a mask. After this, a bottom plate 16 without adhesion of a metal-plated layer on the surface and an oscillator 17 are bonded onto the nozzle 15, thus obtaining a desired ink jet head.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an ink jet recording head of an inkjet recording apparatus, and more particularly to a method for forming the shape of an ink passage such as a nozzle for ejecting ink with high precision.

A voltage is applied to the piezoelectric element installed above the pressure chamber containing the print recording ink to distort it based on the print information, and the pressure caused by this distortion is transmitted to the pressure chamber, which communicates with the pressure chamber. An inkjet recording method is well known in which recording ink contained in a pressure chamber is jetted onto recording paper from a nozzle provided at one end of the recording paper.

This inkjet recording method is a non-impact recording method, generates little noise during print recording, and has a simple device structure, so it has recently been used in output devices of electronic computers, etc.

By the way, the shape of the nozzle through which this ink is ejected has a large effect on the flying direction of the ink and the atomization characteristics of the ink, so it is required to process and finish the nozzle with high precision.

[Conventional technology]

A plan view of such an inkjet head is shown in Figure 7.
Further, FIG. 8 shows a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA' in FIG. 7. As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, 1 is a nozzle for ejecting ink, 2 is a pressure chamber that accommodates ink and transmits the pressure from the piezoelectric element 3, 4 is an ink chamber, and 5 is a pressure chamber for storing ink and transmitting pressure from a piezoelectric element 3. is the ink supply tube.

The conventional method for forming such an inkjet head has already been proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 59-22763, and as shown in FIG.
A diaphragm 6 made of a thin stainless steel plate for transmitting the pressure is prepared. Further, as shown in FIG. 10, an ink passage plate 7 made of a thin stainless steel plate in which ink passages for the nozzle 1, pressure chamber 2, ink chamber 4, etc. described above are formed by etching is prepared, and furthermore, as shown in FIG. A bottom plate 9 made of a thin stainless steel plate with a through hole 8 for connecting the ink supply pipe 5 formed therein by etching as shown in FIG.
Prepare.

Next, these diaphragm 6, ink channel plate 7 and bottom plate 9
After applying nickel plating to each plate, these plates are stacked and heated in a reducing atmosphere such as hydrogen gas to melt the nickel plating layer, and the molten nickel atoms and each plate The bond was formed by the so-called diffusion bonding method, in which the constituent atoms of the stainless steel plates that make up the steel plate interdiffuse with each other.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, in the conventional method described above, as shown in FIG.
There is a problem that the nickel layer 10B formed on the surface of the nozzle 9 flows out due to aggregation during diffusion bonding, and the cross-sectional dimension of the nozzle 1 is not formed accurately.

In particular, the cross-sectional dimensions of the nozzle are minute, 50 μm x 50 μm, so this flowing nickel metal layer affects the cross-sectional dimensions of the nozzle.As a result, the metal layer flowing into the nozzle changes the flying direction of the ink. In the case of multi-nozzles in which a large number of ink are formed on a single channel plate, this effect is severe, causing phenomena such as misalignment of printed dots due to the direction of ink flight, resulting in an inkjet head with degraded printing quality. This can lead to problems such as:

[Means for solving problems]

The above problem is caused by the method of manufacturing an inkjet head with a □ structure in which multiple thin plates are laminated and bonded. This problem is solved by the method of manufacturing an inkjet head of the present invention, which is formed by joining a channel plate and a flat plate on whose surface the metal film is not adhered.

[Effect]

That is, in the method for manufacturing an inkjet head of the present invention, an ink flow path plate is prepared in which a metal film is selectively deposited on areas other than areas where ink passages such as nozzles are planned to be formed, and a gold M film is separately formed on the ink flow path plate. By preparing an unadhered diaphragm and other substrates such as a bottom plate, and stacking and diffusion bonding the ink passage plate, diaphragm, and bottom plate, the ink passages for nozzles, etc. This eliminates the phenomenon in which the metal layer melts and flows out, thereby obtaining an inkjet head having an ink passage with a highly accurate cross-sectional dimension.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

1 to 6 are cross-sectional views showing the method of manufacturing an inkjet head according to the present invention in the order of steps. For convenience of explanation, FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view taken along line B-B''. explain.

First, as shown in FIG. 1, a thin stainless steel plate 11 having a thickness of 0.1 is prepared.

Next, as shown in FIG. 2, a gold plating layer 2 having a thickness of 2 μm is formed on the surface of this thin plate 11 by electrolytic plating.

Further, as shown in FIG. 3, after applying a positive type photoresist film (trade name: AZ-1350) 13 to the surface of this thin plate 11, a photoresist film I on the nozzle formation area 14 is applied.
ll is removed using a photolithography method.

Next, using the thus patterned photoresist film 13 as a mask, the gold plating N12 is removed by etching using a gold etchant solution such as aqua regia so as to form a predetermined pattern.

Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 4, the photoresist film is removed with acetone.

Next, as shown in FIG. 5, the ink channel plate 11 is etched with a ferric chloride solution using the patterned gold plating layer 12 as a mask to form nozzles 15. In this embodiment, the case of forming the nozzle has been described, but the nozzle can be formed by patterning the photoresist 13 film formed on the ink channel plate into a predetermined pattern using a photomask suitable for thermal theory. It is possible to form an ink passage such as a pressure chamber of an ink passage plate or an ink chamber in parallel with the formation of the ink passage plate. If you do this,
The ink passage can be formed without a metal layer being deposited on the inner wall surface of the ink passage such as a nozzle.

Next, as shown in FIG. 6, the formed ink channel plate 1 is
1, the thickness of which is not coated with a metal layer is 0.4
A bottom plate 16 made of a stainless steel thin plate of 0.0 mm is installed, and the thickness of the ink flow path plate is 0.0 mm without a metal layer deposited on the surface of the ink flow path plate. With the diaphragm 17 made of a thin stainless steel plate of IN installed, the ink flow path plate 11, the bottom plate 16, and the diaphragm 17 are each diffusion bonded. In this way, since no metal layer is formed on the inner wall surface of the nozzle, there is no risk that the metal layer will flow out onto the inner wall surface of the nozzle during diffusion bonding and cause a change in the dimensions of the nozzle. A highly reliable inkjet head with precisely processed cross-sectional dimensions can be obtained.

In the above embodiments, the case where one nozzle is formed on a single ink flow path plate has been described, but a multi-nozzle inkjet head where a large number of nozzles are formed on a single ink flow path plate has been described. In this case, the method of the present invention becomes even more effective.

Also, when forming the ink channel plate, do not open the nozzles, pressure chambers, etc. by etching (the nozzles and pressure chambers should be etched until the thickness is approximately 1/2 of the thickness of the ink channel plate). The method of the present invention can also be applied to the case where an ink jet head is formed by preparing an ink flow path plate processed by the above method and bonding it to another substrate equipped with a piezoelectric element and an ink supply tube. It is possible.

Further, the ink channel plate may be plated with nickel instead of plated with gold.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the inkjet head manufacturing method of the present invention, an inkjet head whose ink passages such as nozzles are processed and finished with high precision can be obtained, so that a highly reliable inkjet with a stable ink flight direction can be obtained. There is an effect that the head can obtain.

[BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS] FIGS. 1 to 6 are cross-sectional views showing the method for manufacturing an inkjet head according to the present invention in order of process, FIG. 7 is a plan view of a general inkjet head, and FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view taken along line A-A', FIG. 9 is a plan view of the diaphragm of the inkjet head, FIG. 10 is a plan view of the ink channel plate of the inkjet head, and FIG. 11 is the inkjet head. FIG. 12 is a sectional view of a main part showing disadvantages of an inkjet head formed by a conventional method. In the figure, 11 is an ink channel plate, 12 is a gold plating layer,
13 is a photoresist film, 14 is a nozzle formation area, 1
5 is a nozzle, 16 is a bottom plate, and 17 is a diaphragm. Figure 1 2 Otsuishi Fuz211 Figure 6! ! i7 Figure 9 Figure 10

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a method for manufacturing an inkjet head having a structure in which a plurality of thin plates are laminated and bonded, an ink flow path plate having a metal film as a brazing material adhered to the joint surface excluding a portion where ink passages are to be formed; 1. A method for manufacturing an inkjet head, characterized in that the inkjet head is formed by bonding a flat plate on which a metal film is not adhered.