WO1983001107A1 - Ink jet print head - Google Patents
Ink jet print head Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- WO1983001107A1 WO1983001107A1 PCT/US1982/001257 US8201257W WO8301107A1 WO 1983001107 A1 WO1983001107 A1 WO 1983001107A1 US 8201257 W US8201257 W US 8201257W WO 8301107 A1 WO8301107 A1 WO 8301107A1
- Authority
- WO
- WIPO (PCT)
- Prior art keywords
- print head
- ink
- head according
- housing
- drive elements
- Prior art date
Links
- 238000007639 printing Methods 0.000 claims abstract description 19
- 239000011159 matrix material Substances 0.000 claims abstract description 11
- 239000011521 glass Substances 0.000 claims description 13
- 230000000694 effects Effects 0.000 claims 2
- 238000000034 method Methods 0.000 description 11
- 239000013078 crystal Substances 0.000 description 5
- 239000012530 fluid Substances 0.000 description 5
- 238000006073 displacement reaction Methods 0.000 description 4
- 230000006835 compression Effects 0.000 description 3
- 238000007906 compression Methods 0.000 description 3
- 238000011144 upstream manufacturing Methods 0.000 description 3
- LYCAIKOWRPUZTN-UHFFFAOYSA-N Ethylene glycol Chemical compound OCCO LYCAIKOWRPUZTN-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 2
- 238000010586 diagram Methods 0.000 description 2
- 230000001902 propagating effect Effects 0.000 description 2
- 239000000565 sealant Substances 0.000 description 2
- 238000010521 absorption reaction Methods 0.000 description 1
- 230000015572 biosynthetic process Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000010276 construction Methods 0.000 description 1
- 229920001971 elastomer Polymers 0.000 description 1
- 239000000806 elastomer Substances 0.000 description 1
- 238000005516 engineering process Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000010304 firing Methods 0.000 description 1
- WGCNASOHLSPBMP-UHFFFAOYSA-N hydroxyacetaldehyde Natural products OCC=O WGCNASOHLSPBMP-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 1
- 230000003116 impacting effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000007641 inkjet printing Methods 0.000 description 1
- 230000002452 interceptive effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 230000000644 propagated effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000010926 purge Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000011084 recovery Methods 0.000 description 1
- 229920002379 silicone rubber Polymers 0.000 description 1
- 239000004945 silicone rubber Substances 0.000 description 1
- 230000003068 static effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000006467 substitution reaction Methods 0.000 description 1
- XLYOFNOQVPJJNP-UHFFFAOYSA-N water Substances O XLYOFNOQVPJJNP-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 1
Classifications
-
- B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
- B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
- B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
- B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
- B41J2/005—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by bringing liquid or particles selectively into contact with a printing material
- B41J2/01—Ink jet
- B41J2/135—Nozzles
- B41J2/145—Arrangement thereof
- B41J2/155—Arrangement thereof for line printing
Definitions
- the present invention relates to an ink jet print head and, more particularly, to an ink jet print head which utilizes the so-called drop-on-demand method of operation.
- Non-impact printers have recently become very popular due to their quiet operation resulting from the absence of mechanical printing elements impacting on record media during printing.
- ink jet printers are particularly important as they permit high speed recording on plain untreated paper.
- ink jet printing methods have been developed over the past years.
- the ink is delivered under pressure to nozzles in a print head to produce a continuous jet of ink emitted through each nozzle.
- the ink jet is separated by vibration into a stream of droplets which are charged, and the flying droplets are either allowed to impact on a record medium or are electrostatically deflected for collection in a gutter for subsequent recirculation.
- the droplets are emitted by means of volum ⁇ displacement brought about in an ink chamber or channel of the print head by means of energization of a piezoelectric element.
- the volume displacement generates a pressure wave which propagates to the nozzles causing the ejection of ink droplets.
- the drop-on-demand method has several advantages over the other above-mentioned method.
- Ink jet printers using this method have a simpler structure requiring neither deflecting means for controlling the flight of the droplets nor the provision of an ink recovery system.
- An ink jet print head operating in a drop-on- demand manner is disclosed, for instance, in U.S. Patent No. 4,158,847. Since single drop-on-demand transducers have limited performance potential, several transducers are used in this patent to form a multiple nozzle print head. The nozzles are arranged in a straight line which lies at right angles to the line of printing and the head is arranged to be moved along the line of printing to print characters in a dot matrix manner.
- the physical dimensions of the piezoelectric elements which form sleeves around the individual ink channels create a design difficulty, which is overcome according to this patent by arranging the ink channels to extend in a radiating pattern from the nozzles.
- the converging channels arrive at the nozzles at different angles and a nozzle plate having parallel bores therein is provided to redirect the ink and determine the required parallel flight path for the ejected ink droplets.
- One of the disadvantages of this arrangement resides in the difficulty of accurately aligning the bores of the nozzle plate with the ink channels, particularly with the outermost ink channels whose angle deviates considerably from the perpendicular.
- Fig. 1 is a sectional view of a known type of transducer element used in the print head of the present invention
- Fig. 2 is a view of a cluster of transducers of Fig. 1 in two inclined rows thereof;
- Fig. 3 is a front view of a print head for housing a cluster of transducers
- Fig. 4 is a right side view of the print head of Fig. 3;
- Fig. 5 is a bottom view of the print head of
- Fig. 6 is a top view of the print head of Fig. 3;
- Fig. 7 is a sectional view taken along the plane 7-7 of Fig. 5;
- Fig. 8 is a side view of a cluster of transducers in one inclined row
- Fig. 9 is an end view of the cluster of transducers of Fig. 8 in one inclined row
- Fig. 10 is an end view of a cluster of transducers in three inclined rows
- Figs. 11A, 11B and 11C show a variation of the inlet end of the transducer ink chamber
- Fig. 12 is a time-displacement wave diagram of the phenomena of Fig. 11.
- Fig. 1 illustrates a transducer element of the pulse-on-demand type as disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 3,683,212.
- This kind of transducer permits a relatively fast loading or filling with ink, it permits reliably purging of any air bubbles in the ink and .it shows good performance of 2,000 drops or more per second in operating rates.
- the transducer element .20 of Fig. 1 includes an inlet tube 22 fitted over one end 24 of a glass tube 26 which is reduced or necked down at the other end to form a nozzle 28 for ejection of droplets 30 of ink onto record media 32 which is normally spaced a relatively small distance from the nozzle.
- the glass tube 26 serves as an elongated ink chamber around which is provided a piezoelectric crystal sleeve 34 which has an electrical lead 36 connected thereto.
- An electrical lead 38 is connected to a tinned region 27 of the glass tube 26 so as to provide electrical contact to the inner wall of the piezoelectric sleeve 34.
- the inlet tube 22 carries ink from a supply (not shown) and the tube 22 is made of a pliable grade of elastomer such as silicone rubber to provide for absorption of upstream propagating pressure pulses and to prevent these pulses from interfering with the ink drop generation process.
- a pliable grade of elastomer such as silicone rubber
- a grid or matrix of one dot per 0.015 inch vertical spacing and two dots per 0.030 inch horizontal spacing provides for small clustered units, as exemplified by the folded pattern shown in Fig. 2. It is seen that for a seven nozzle print head the grid is made up of three transducers being indexed to the right so as to interleaf with the upper four transducers. In other words, the transducers in one row are laterally offset with respect to the trans ducers in the other row.
- the folded cluster of printing elements reduces the required stroke, thereby reducing the cycle time of operation, increases printer thruput capability and subtracts directly from the printer width requirement.
- the required over travel for a full width print line is 0.180 inch.
- Figs. 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 show a print head 40 wherein the seven transducers 20 of Fig. 1 are packaged in a housing 42 having mounting lugs 44 and 46.
- An inlet connection 48 for the ink and a connection or port 50 for electrical leads are provided at the top and the right-side, respectively, of the housing 42.
- a chamber 52 in Fig. 7 is formed as an ink plenum in the upper portion of the housing 42 and a cover 54 fits over the walls of the chamber.
- the transducers 20 are positioned within the housing 42 of the print head 40 with the ends of the glass tubes 26 extending through a bulkhead 56 and into the ch-amber 52.
- a cement-type sealant 58 is applied in a thin layer on the bulkhead 56 and around the glass ends of the tubes 26 to provide a tight enclosure and to hermetically bond the bulkhead 56 to the housing 42 and the glass tubes 26 to the bulkhead 56.
- the transducers 20 are placed into the plastic housing 42 with the nozzle ends of the transducers extending through holes in the bottom wall of the housing corresponding to the slanted or inclined row pattern as seen in Fig. 5.
- the bulkhead 56 which has a matching hole pattern is set in place over the inlet ends of the glass tubes 26 and onto the shoulder provided in the wall of the housing to maintain the transducers in correct registration.
- the sealant 58 is then applied and the cover 54 is attached by bonding to the housing 42.
- the electrical leads 36 and 38 from each transducer 20 are brought out through the connection or port 50.
- Fig. 8 shows the seven transducer echelon cluster as briefly mentioned above which is appropriate for printing the N x 7 character matrix and arranged in a single inclined row as seen in the projection view of Fig. 9.
- These transducers are made up of the inlet tube 22, the glass tube 26, the nozzle 28 and the piezo electric crystal 34, and are spaced at typical dimensions as shown.
- FIG. 10 A modified array or pattern is shown in Fig. 10 wherein eighteen transducers are arranged in three inclined rows for use in higher resolution printing, and are spaced at typical dimensions.
- the triple arrangement of Fig. 10 is compared with the single row of Fig. 9, it is seen that the overall width of the pattern is 0.360 inch for both the single and the triple pattern in a typical spacing of 0.060 inch between transducers in the same row.
- Figs. 11A, 11B and 11C show a portion of a glass tube 60 which is provided with an inlet end 62 in a necked down configuration or reduced diameter aperture 64 for the purpose of reducing wave reflection during operation.
- the abrupt electrical pulsing of the piezoelectric crystal element 34 of the transducer 20 and the sudden reduction in volume within the ink chamber result in a system of elastic waves being generated in the fluid ink.
- This wave system not only causes a droplet of ink 30 to be expressed from the nozzle 28 (to the left in the view shown in Fig. 11) but members of the system also cause undesired disturbances to be propagated upstream against the supply of ink.
- One such of the elastic waves to be considered is the leading upstream propagating wave A in the plane near the end of the tube as seen in Fig. 11A.
- the wave is reflected in opposite sign, that is a compression wave is reflected as an expansion wave of equal strength and en expansion wave is reflected as a compression wave of equal strength.
- the wave is incident on the closed end of a tube, the wave reflects in kind and it is readily seen that the reflected wave could disrupt the ink droplet generation process.
- the wave As the original wave A passes or travels out of the tube 60 into a virtual open space or volume, the wave rapidly is weakened in that the initial pressure change, as rise or fall across the wave, abruptly reduces to a much smaller level.
- An adjustment in equilibrium for this reduction in pressure must be made in the channel of the tube 60 wherein the adjustment takes the form of a pressure wave C of the same family of waves as the wave B but opposite in strength or amplitude. It is thus seen that if the diameter ratio of D 2 to D 1 is suitably determined and adjusted for the pressures utilized in the operation, the waves B and C will be equal and opposite in strength or value.
- Fig. 12 is a plot of wave front displacement vs. time which is commonly called a wave diagram and shows the above-described phenomena or operating conditions in summary form.
- waves are plane waves, that the fluid is compressible and inviscid or non-sticky and that the fluid flow is described as being one-dimensional.
- Wave strength may be characterized by either the pressure change or the velocity change occurring across the wave and these relationships for waves A, B and C, are respectively:
- Equations 4 and 5 can be combined to provide Equation 6.
- the pressure at the throat P* is the same static pressure as in the region 4.
- Equation 6 may be replaced by
- V 3 V 1 Equation 12
- Equation 9 becomes
Landscapes
- Particle Formation And Scattering Control In Inkjet Printers (AREA)
Abstract
An ink jet print head (40) arranged to be moved along a printing line and including a housing (42) and a plurality of elongated, tubular, electrically pulsable, ink droplet drive elements (26, 34) disposed within the housing substantially parallel to each other in at least one row inclined with respect to the direction in which the print head (40) is arranged to be moved. An advantage of this arrangement is that it eliminates any problems arising with known arrangements in which the drive elements or ink channels extend at different angles from the perpendicular, while still providing close enough dot spacing for matrix printing.
Description
INK JET PRINT HEAD
Technical Field
The present invention relates to an ink jet print head and, more particularly, to an ink jet print head which utilizes the so-called drop-on-demand method of operation.
Background Art
Non-impact printers have recently become very popular due to their quiet operation resulting from the absence of mechanical printing elements impacting on record media during printing. Among such printers, ink jet printers are particularly important as they permit high speed recording on plain untreated paper.
Various ink jet printing methods have been developed over the past years. In the so-called continuous ink jet method the ink is delivered under pressure to nozzles in a print head to produce a continuous jet of ink emitted through each nozzle. The ink jet is separated by vibration into a stream of droplets which are charged, and the flying droplets are either allowed to impact on a record medium or are electrostatically deflected for collection in a gutter for subsequent recirculation.
In another method, which is known as the dropon-demand method, the droplets are emitted by means of volumέ displacement brought about in an ink chamber or channel of the print head by means of energization of a piezoelectric element. The volume displacement generates a pressure wave which propagates to the nozzles causing the ejection of ink droplets.
The drop-on-demand method has several advantages over the other above-mentioned method. Ink jet printers using this method have a simpler structure requiring neither deflecting means for controlling the flight of the droplets nor the provision of an ink recovery system.
An ink jet print head operating in a drop-on- demand manner is disclosed, for instance, in U.S. Patent No. 4,158,847. Since single drop-on-demand transducers have limited performance potential, several transducers are used in this patent to form a multiple nozzle print head. The nozzles are arranged in a straight line which lies at right angles to the line of printing and the head is arranged to be moved along the line of printing to print characters in a dot matrix manner. As the nozzles must be spaced closely together to provide adequately close spacing for the printed dots, the physical dimensions of the piezoelectric elements which form sleeves around the individual ink channels create a design difficulty, which is overcome according to this patent by arranging the ink channels to extend in a radiating pattern from the nozzles. The converging channels arrive at the nozzles at different angles and a nozzle plate having parallel bores therein is provided to redirect the ink and determine the required parallel flight path for the ejected ink droplets.
One of the disadvantages of this arrangement resides in the difficulty of accurately aligning the bores of the nozzle plate with the ink channels, particularly with the outermost ink channels whose angle deviates considerably from the perpendicular.
Disclosure of Invention
It is an object of the present invention to provide a multiple nozzle print head of a design which eliminates the above-mentioned alignment problem while still providing close enough dot spacing for dot matrix printing.
Brief Description of the Drawings Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Fig. 1 is a sectional view of a known type of transducer element used in the print head of the present invention;
Fig. 2 is a view of a cluster of transducers of Fig. 1 in two inclined rows thereof;
Fig. 3 is a front view of a print head for housing a cluster of transducers;
Fig. 4 is a right side view of the print head of Fig. 3; Fig. 5 is a bottom view of the print head of
Fig. 3;
Fig. 6 is a top view of the print head of Fig. 3;
Fig. 7 is a sectional view taken along the plane 7-7 of Fig. 5;
Fig. 8 is a side view of a cluster of transducers in one inclined row;
Fig. 9 is an end view of the cluster of transducers of Fig. 8 in one inclined row; Fig. 10 is an end view of a cluster of transducers in three inclined rows;
Figs. 11A, 11B and 11C show a variation of the inlet end of the transducer ink chamber; and
Fig. 12 is a time-displacement wave diagram of the phenomena of Fig. 11.
Best Method of Carrying Out the Invention
Referring now to the drawing. Fig. 1 illustrates a transducer element of the pulse-on-demand type as disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 3,683,212. This kind of transducer permits a relatively fast loading or filling with ink, it permits reliably purging of any air bubbles in the ink and .it shows good performance of 2,000 drops or more per second in operating rates.
The transducer element .20 of Fig. 1 includes an inlet tube 22 fitted over one end 24 of a glass tube
26 which is reduced or necked down at the other end to form a nozzle 28 for ejection of droplets 30 of ink onto record media 32 which is normally spaced a relatively small distance from the nozzle. The glass tube 26 serves as an elongated ink chamber around which is provided a piezoelectric crystal sleeve 34 which has an electrical lead 36 connected thereto. An electrical lead 38 is connected to a tinned region 27 of the glass tube 26 so as to provide electrical contact to the inner wall of the piezoelectric sleeve 34. When the piezoelectric crystal 34 is electrically pulsed, a droplet 30 of ink is ejected from the nozzle 28 by reason of the sudden constriction of the crystal 34 and the compression of the walls of- the tubing 26. The inlet tube 22 carries ink from a supply (not shown) and the tube 22 is made of a pliable grade of elastomer such as silicone rubber to provide for absorption of upstream propagating pressure pulses and to prevent these pulses from interfering with the ink drop generation process. By reason of the small diameter of the tubular type pulse-on-demand transducer, it is possible to cluster a number of these transducers in an arrangement or pat-tern so as to form a matrix print head in a compact area. Since the dot spacing in matrix printing is normally about 0.015 inch-vertically and since the small diameter of 0.050 inch for the individual transducer allows for such compact construction, a grid or matrix of one dot per 0.015 inch vertical spacing and two dots per 0.030 inch horizontal spacing provides for small clustered units, as exemplified by the folded pattern shown in Fig. 2. It is seen that for a seven nozzle print head the grid is made up of three transducers being indexed to the right so as to interleaf with the upper four transducers. In other words, the transducers in one row are laterally offset with respect to the trans ducers in the other row. In an arrangement wherein the seven transducers are in a single row, as in an echelon formation, such arrangement is appropriate for printing
an N x 7 character matrix having a cell size of 0.015 x 0.015 inch. It is sufficient to point out that the transducers in the cluster of Fig. 2 are separated by typical dimensions as shown for both horizontal and vertical directions in a regular modulus relative to the matrix cell dimension.
Since it is necessary for full width printing that all printing elements have a requirement to sweep or be moved past the first column of dots in a line and the last column of dots, it can be seen that the folded cluster of printing elements, as seen in Fig. 2, reduces the required stroke, thereby reducing the cycle time of operation, increases printer thruput capability and subtracts directly from the printer width requirement. In the seven nozzle folded pattern, the required over travel for a full width print line is 0.180 inch. The technology for providing firing pulses coordinated with carriage or print head motion and for selecting electrical channels to be actuated in accordance with data flow for printing with such folded cluster of printing elements is presently within the realm of conventional or well-known logic.
Figs. 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 show a print head 40 wherein the seven transducers 20 of Fig. 1 are packaged in a housing 42 having mounting lugs 44 and 46. An inlet connection 48 for the ink and a connection or port 50 for electrical leads are provided at the top and the right-side, respectively, of the housing 42. A chamber 52 in Fig. 7 is formed as an ink plenum in the upper portion of the housing 42 and a cover 54 fits over the walls of the chamber. The transducers 20 are positioned within the housing 42 of the print head 40 with the ends of the glass tubes 26 extending through a bulkhead 56 and into the ch-amber 52. A cement-type sealant 58 is applied in a thin layer on the bulkhead 56 and around the glass ends of the tubes 26 to provide a tight enclosure and to hermetically bond the bulkhead 56 to the housing 42 and the glass tubes 26 to the bulkhead 56.
In the assembly of the print head 40, the transducers 20 are placed into the plastic housing 42 with the nozzle ends of the transducers extending through holes in the bottom wall of the housing corresponding to the slanted or inclined row pattern as seen in Fig. 5.
The bulkhead 56 which has a matching hole pattern is set in place over the inlet ends of the glass tubes 26 and onto the shoulder provided in the wall of the housing to maintain the transducers in correct registration. The sealant 58 is then applied and the cover 54 is attached by bonding to the housing 42. The electrical leads 36 and 38 from each transducer 20 are brought out through the connection or port 50.
Fig. 8 shows the seven transducer echelon cluster as briefly mentioned above which is appropriate for printing the N x 7 character matrix and arranged in a single inclined row as seen in the projection view of Fig. 9. These transducers are made up of the inlet tube 22, the glass tube 26, the nozzle 28 and the piezo electric crystal 34, and are spaced at typical dimensions as shown.
A modified array or pattern is shown in Fig. 10 wherein eighteen transducers are arranged in three inclined rows for use in higher resolution printing, and are spaced at typical dimensions. When the triple arrangement of Fig. 10 is compared with the single row of Fig. 9, it is seen that the overall width of the pattern is 0.360 inch for both the single and the triple pattern in a typical spacing of 0.060 inch between transducers in the same row. In the double row of Fig. 2 and the triple row pattern of Fig. 10, a typical spacing of 0.030 inch between adjacent transducers in adjacent rows or 0.060 inch between adjacent transducers in the same row. provides an overall width of 0.180 inch between the centers of right and left transducers in the double row pattern and an overall width of 0.360 inch between centers of right and left transducers in the triple row pattern.
Figs. 11A, 11B and 11C show a portion of a glass tube 60 which is provided with an inlet end 62 in a necked down configuration or reduced diameter aperture 64 for the purpose of reducing wave reflection during operation. The abrupt electrical pulsing of the piezoelectric crystal element 34 of the transducer 20 and the sudden reduction in volume within the ink chamber result in a system of elastic waves being generated in the fluid ink. This wave system not only causes a droplet of ink 30 to be expressed from the nozzle 28 (to the left in the view shown in Fig. 11) but members of the system also cause undesired disturbances to be propagated upstream against the supply of ink.
One such of the elastic waves to be considered is the leading upstream propagating wave A in the plane near the end of the tube as seen in Fig. 11A. When such wave A reaches the open end of the tube, the wave is reflected in opposite sign, that is a compression wave is reflected as an expansion wave of equal strength and en expansion wave is reflected as a compression wave of equal strength. If the wave is incident on the closed end of a tube, the wave reflects in kind and it is readily seen that the reflected wave could disrupt the ink droplet generation process. Some alleviation or comforting of this condition can be gained or obtained by necking down or reducing the diameter of the inlet port or aperture 64 of the glass tube 60. The incident wave A is shown approaching the inlet port or aperture 64 at the time t = t1. The incident wave A leaves the glass tube 60 at time t = t2 at which time a reduced strength wave B is reflected by the change in cross-sectional area of the ink channel or chamber of the transducer and then starts to propagate downstream toward the nozzle or to the left in Fig. 11B.
As the original wave A passes or travels out of the tube 60 into a virtual open space or volume, the wave rapidly is weakened in that the initial pressure
change, as rise or fall across the wave, abruptly reduces to a much smaller level. An adjustment in equilibrium for this reduction in pressure must be made in the channel of the tube 60 wherein the adjustment takes the form of a pressure wave C of the same family of waves as the wave B but opposite in strength or amplitude. It is thus seen that if the diameter ratio of D2 to D1 is suitably determined and adjusted for the pressures utilized in the operation, the waves B and C will be equal and opposite in strength or value. By reason that the waves B and C are separated slightly in matter of time and space, such waves cannot merge with and cancel each other so that the result is a doublet or double wave across which a pressure change P3- P1 will be small and ideally zero compared to the original pressure change.
Fig. 12 is a plot of wave front displacement vs. time which is commonly called a wave diagram and shows the above-described phenomena or operating conditions in summary form.
In proceeding with an analysis of the wave reflection problem, it is assumed that the waves are plane waves, that the fluid is compressible and inviscid or non-sticky and that the fluid flow is described as being one-dimensional. Wave strength may be characterized by either the pressure change or the velocity change occurring across the wave and these relationships for waves A, B and C, are respectively:
P1-P0 = dc (V1-V0) Equation 1
P2-P1 = -dc (V2-V1) Equation 2
P3-P2 = -dc (V3-V2) Equation 3
wherein P=pressure
V=fluid velocity d=density c=speed of sound in the fluid .
and the subscripts denote the corresponding region or area of the ink chamber within the transducer.
In the manner of the aperture 64 at the inlet end 62 of the glass tube 60 acting as a throat, the steady flow conditions apply between and within regions 3 and 4 after the time t2. Using a superscript asterisk to denote these throat conditions, the following momentum and continuity equations may be applied.
P3-P* = ½ d (V*2-V3 2) Equation 4
dV*D2 2 = dV3D1 2 Equation 5
Equations 4 and 5 can be combined to provide Equation 6.
The pressure at the throat P* is the same static pressure as in the region 4.
P* = P 4 Equation 7
Since the emitted wave A* is relatively weak,
P4 = P0 (approximately) Equation 8
so that Equation 6 may be replaced by
A second relation between P3 and V3 may be obtained from Equations 1, 2 and 3. Noting that V0 = 0,
P3-P1 = -dc(V3-V1) Equation 10
But the condition to be imposed to insure no net change across the doublet is
P3 = P 1 (by imposition) Equation 11
therefore.
V3 = V1 Equation 12
Now making these substitutions in Equation 9 and using Equation 1 to substitute for V1 in terms of P1-P0, Equation 9 becomes
This result yields for the required diameter ratio,
In a typical case for water/glycol based ink, d = 1100 kg/m2 c = 1500 m/s P1-P0 = 100,000 pa
Claims
1. An ink jet print head arranged to be moved in operation along a printing line and including a housing and a plurality of electrically pulsable ink droplet drive elements disposed within the housing and operable to cause ink to be ejected from the print head in droplet form, characterized in that the drive elements (20) are elongated and are disposed substantially parallel to each other in at least one row inclined with respect to the direction in which the print head (40) is arranged to be moved.
2. Print head according to claim 1, charac terized in that each of said drive elements (20) includes a tubular member (26) and a sleeve (34) therearound for compressing the tubular member (26) to cause ejection of ink droplets from the tubular member (26).
3. Print head according to claim 2, characterized in that said tubular member (26) is of glass and has a reduced diameter portion formed into a nozzle.
4. Print head according to claira 3, characterized in that said sleeve (34) is a piezoelectric element.
5. Print head according to claim 2, characterized in that the inlet end (62) of said tubular member (60) has a reduced diameter aperture (64) for the purpose of reducing wave reflection during operation.
6. Print head according to claim 1, characterized in that said housing (42) includes an ink chamber (52) common to the said drive elements (20).
7. Print head according to claim 2, characterized in that said tubular members (20) are arranged
7. ( concluded) in two inclined rows to effect printing of dot matrix characters.
8. Print head according to claim 2, characterized in that said tubular members (20) are arranged in three inclined rows to effect the printing of high resolution dot matrix characters.
9. Print head according to either claim 7 or
8, characterized in that the tubular members (20) in one row are laterally offset with respect to the tubular members in another row.
Priority Applications (1)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
DE1982902973 DE88795T1 (en) | 1981-09-23 | 1982-09-14 | INK JET PRINT HEAD. |
Applications Claiming Priority (2)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
US06/305,052 US4418356A (en) | 1981-09-23 | 1981-09-23 | Ink jet print head |
US305,052810923 | 1981-09-23 |
Publications (1)
Publication Number | Publication Date |
---|---|
WO1983001107A1 true WO1983001107A1 (en) | 1983-03-31 |
Family
ID=23179106
Family Applications (1)
Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/US1982/001257 WO1983001107A1 (en) | 1981-09-23 | 1982-09-14 | Ink jet print head |
Country Status (5)
Country | Link |
---|---|
US (1) | US4418356A (en) |
EP (1) | EP0088795A4 (en) |
JP (1) | JPS58501510A (en) |
CA (1) | CA1186365A (en) |
WO (1) | WO1983001107A1 (en) |
Cited By (1)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
WO1988002698A1 (en) * | 1986-10-16 | 1988-04-21 | Siemens Aktiengesellschaft | Multilayer ink writing head |
Families Citing this family (19)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US4528576A (en) * | 1982-04-15 | 1985-07-09 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | Recording apparatus |
US4665409A (en) * | 1984-11-29 | 1987-05-12 | Siemens Aktiengesellschaft | Write head for ink printer devices |
US4605939A (en) * | 1985-08-30 | 1986-08-12 | Pitney Bowes Inc. | Ink jet array |
US4742365A (en) * | 1986-04-23 | 1988-05-03 | Am International, Inc. | Ink jet apparatus |
US4698644A (en) * | 1986-10-27 | 1987-10-06 | International Business Machines | Drop-on-demand ink jet print head |
US4877745A (en) * | 1986-11-17 | 1989-10-31 | Abbott Laboratories | Apparatus and process for reagent fluid dispensing and printing |
US6336708B1 (en) | 1992-09-18 | 2002-01-08 | Iris Graphics, Inc. | Ink jet nozzle |
JPH06164854A (en) * | 1992-11-19 | 1994-06-10 | Canon Inc | Copying machine and its method |
US5459501A (en) * | 1993-02-01 | 1995-10-17 | At&T Global Information Solutions Company | Solid-state ink-jet print head |
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US20030215957A1 (en) * | 1998-02-20 | 2003-11-20 | Tony Lemmo | Multi-channel dispensing system |
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US4231048A (en) * | 1977-12-29 | 1980-10-28 | Yutaka Kodama | Ink jet recording apparatus |
US4308546A (en) * | 1978-03-15 | 1981-12-29 | Gould Inc. | Ink jet tip assembly |
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GB1315763A (en) * | 1971-09-29 | 1973-05-02 | Casio Computer Co Ltd | Nozzle device for ink jet printing equipments |
US4194210A (en) * | 1976-03-29 | 1980-03-18 | International Business Machines Corporation | Multi-nozzle ink jet print head apparatus |
JPS5586767A (en) * | 1978-12-23 | 1980-06-30 | Seiko Epson Corp | Print head |
US4229748A (en) * | 1979-02-16 | 1980-10-21 | The Mead Corporation | Jet drop printer |
JPS55132266A (en) * | 1979-04-03 | 1980-10-14 | Ricoh Co Ltd | Flow channel structure of ink jet head |
JPS55142668A (en) * | 1979-04-24 | 1980-11-07 | Oki Electric Ind Co Ltd | Liquid drop injection type recording machine |
US4346393A (en) * | 1980-05-02 | 1982-08-24 | Burroughs Corporation | Matrix printer employing a special character font |
-
1981
- 1981-09-23 US US06/305,052 patent/US4418356A/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
-
1982
- 1982-08-19 CA CA000409728A patent/CA1186365A/en not_active Expired
- 1982-09-14 EP EP19820902973 patent/EP0088795A4/en active Pending
- 1982-09-14 JP JP57503001A patent/JPS58501510A/en active Pending
- 1982-09-14 WO PCT/US1982/001257 patent/WO1983001107A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation
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US4231048A (en) * | 1977-12-29 | 1980-10-28 | Yutaka Kodama | Ink jet recording apparatus |
US4308546A (en) * | 1978-03-15 | 1981-12-29 | Gould Inc. | Ink jet tip assembly |
Cited By (1)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
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WO1988002698A1 (en) * | 1986-10-16 | 1988-04-21 | Siemens Aktiengesellschaft | Multilayer ink writing head |
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
EP0088795A4 (en) | 1985-10-24 |
CA1186365A (en) | 1985-04-30 |
JPS58501510A (en) | 1983-09-08 |
EP0088795A1 (en) | 1983-09-21 |
US4418356A (en) | 1983-11-29 |
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