JPH11179923A - Method of manufacturing ink jet printer head - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] To prevent the adhesive from protruding into the groove to prevent the adhesive from blocking the ink discharge port, and to quickly bond the orifice plate to the head main body to bond the orifice plate. Prevents occasional displacement. An orifice plate (16) having an ink discharge opening is provided.
Is set on the vacuum chuck 18 of the alignment device 17 by suction. Further, the printer head main body 14 is positioned and fixed to the head positioning mechanism 20. Then, an adhesive is applied to the adhesive surface of the printer head body. When the application of the adhesive is completed, optical alignment is performed by the CCD cameras 28 and 29, and an orifice plate is attached to the adhesive surface of the printer head body, and pressure is applied. When the orifice plate can be bonded and fixed to some extent, the alignment device is removed, and ultraviolet light is applied to the bonding surface through the orifice plate to cure the adhesive.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an ink jet printer head.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When manufacturing an ink jet printer head, there is a step of bonding and fixing an orifice plate provided with a plurality of ink discharge ports to a head body, but conventionally, a thermosetting type is used for bonding the orifice plate to the head body. It was common to use one-part epoxy adhesives. Further, there is also known one using a two-part epoxy adhesive as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-137265.

[0003]

However, the one-part epoxy adhesive has a problem in that the viscosity of the adhesive is reduced at the time of heat curing, so that a high-resolution head, for example, a head in which grooves are formed at a pitch of 150 DPI or more, is used. At the time of bonding, the protrusion of the adhesive into the groove and into the ink discharge port has been a problem. For example, in a 150 DPI head, the pitch of the groove 3 on the side of the head body 1 is 169 μm, and the groove width is about 169 μm, as shown in FIG. 9A, the head body 1 and the orifice plate 2 in FIG. 9B. 80 μm. On the other hand, the orifice plate 2 has an ink discharge port 4 which is formed with a taper.
The outer diameter of the outlet hole is 30 μm, the taper angle is 30 degrees,
Assuming that the thickness of the orifice plate 2 is 50 μm, the hole diameter inside the ink discharge port 4 indicated by the broken line in the drawing is about 60 μm.
This is because there is only a margin of 20 μm for the groove width of 80 μm, and since the ink discharge port 4 is located at the center of the groove 3, the margin between the walls on both sides of the groove 3 and the inside of the ink discharge port 4 is 10 μm.
only about m. Therefore, there is a problem that the adhesive applied to the wall between the grooves has a tolerance of only about 10 μm, and if it exceeds this, a part or the whole of the ink discharge port 4 is blocked. Further, if the amount of the adhesive applied is reduced to prevent this, the adhesive strength becomes insufficient and problems such as peeling occur.

Further, in the case of using a two-part epoxy adhesive, there is a problem in that the property of the adhesive is such that the curing reaction proceeds even if the adhesive is left at room temperature, so that the workability is poor and it is not possible to cope with mass productivity. Was. It is also conceivable to attach an orifice plate made of a polyimide film with no ink ejection port to the head body and then open the ink ejection port.However, this is done by reverse tapering with a laser. It was necessary to open the ink discharge port, which required complicated processing, high accuracy, and was not suitable for practical use. Further, in the case of using a metal orifice plate in which the ink discharge ports are previously opened, a heat-curable adhesive is used due to the problem of solvent resistance, and the displacement of the orifice plate and the protrusion of the adhesive also occur. There is a problem that the ink ejection port is blocked by the ink.

Accordingly, the invention described in each of the claims can prevent the adhesive from protruding into the groove as much as possible, thereby preventing the adhesive from partially blocking the ink discharge port, and further reducing the orifice with respect to the head body. Provided is a method for manufacturing an ink jet printer head that can quickly bond plates, thereby preventing the orifice plate from being displaced during bonding.

[0006]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
A plurality of ink discharge ports are opened in advance, and an orifice plate made of a material that transmits ultraviolet light is prepared.When this orifice plate is adhered and fixed to the ink jet printer head main body, an ultraviolet curable adhesive is applied to the printer head main body. An object of the present invention is to apply an adhesive to an adhesive surface, and then apply an orifice plate to the adhesive surface of the printer head body and pressurize, and irradiate ultraviolet light to the adhesive surface of the printer head body via the orifice plate.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the case where a plurality of ink discharge ports are previously opened and an orifice plate made of a material which transmits ultraviolet light is prepared, and the orifice plate is adhered and fixed to the ink jet printer head main body, A UV / thermosetting adhesive is applied to the bonding surface of the printer head body, and then an orifice plate is attached to the bonding surface of the printer head body and pressurized, and the printer head body is bonded via the orifice plate. The object is to irradiate the surface with ultraviolet rays and further heat it.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the method for manufacturing an ink jet printer head according to the first or second aspect, an adhesive is applied to an adhesive surface of the ink jet printer head body, and an orifice plate is provided on the adhesive surface of the printer head body. After the application, the adhesive surface of the printer head is irradiated with ultraviolet rays via the orifice plate while applying pressure.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the method for manufacturing an ink jet printer head according to any one of the first to third aspects, the thickness of the adhesive applied to the bonding surface of the ink jet printer head body is set to 3 to 5 μm. I did it.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the method of manufacturing an ink jet printer head according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, an adhesive is applied to an adhesive surface of the ink jet printer head body by transfer. .

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of an inkjet printer head, having a predetermined pitch, a predetermined depth, a width,
Substrate 1 made of a piezoelectric member having a plurality of grooves 11 formed in length
2, a top plate 13 is adhered and fixed so as to close the upper opening of each groove 11, thereby forming an ink jet printer head main body 14.

An orifice plate 16 having a tapered ink discharge port 15 formed at a predetermined pitch is bonded and fixed to the front surface, which is the bonding surface of the printer head body 14, to form an ink jet printer head. Has become. The orifice plate 16 is made of, for example, a material that transmits ultraviolet light such as PET or polyethersulfone film, and its adhesive surface is subjected to a plasma treatment such as a corona treatment to increase the adhesive strength. The opening of the ink discharge port 15 with respect to the orifice plate 16 is performed by, for example, laser processing. Since the processing at this time is performed before the orifice plate 16 is attached to the printer head body 14, the tapered portion may be a forward tapered processing, and the operation is simple and short.

Next, the step of bonding the orifice plate 16 to the printer head body 14 will be described. As shown in FIG. 2, the orifice plate 16 having the ink discharge port 15 previously opened is suction-set on the vacuum suction chuck 18 using the vacuum suction chuck 18 and the vacuum pump 19 of the alignment device 17. Further, the printer head main body 14 is positioned and fixed to the head positioning mechanism 20. Then, an adhesive is applied to the front surface, which is the bonding surface of the printer head body 14 which is positioned and fixed.

The method of applying the adhesive at this time is, for example,
As shown in FIG. 3, an adhesive is screen-printed on a PET film 21 and wound around a transfer roller 22. The transfer roller 22 is rotated in the direction of the arrow in FIG. And applying an adhesive to the adhesive surface of the printer head body 14. As another method, as shown in FIG. 4, a roll coater 25 provided with a roller 23 and a transfer roller 24 rotating in the direction of an arrow in the figure is used, and an adhesive 27 is , And the adhesive is transferred from the roller 23 to the transfer roller 24.
There is a method of applying an adhesive to the adhesive surface of the printer head body 14 that moves in the direction of the arrow from the transfer roller 24 in the drawing.

Using these coating methods, an adhesive is applied to the adhesive surface of the printer head body 14 so that the thickness is about 3 μm to 5 μm. If the thickness of the adhesive is less than 3 μm, there is a possibility that poor adhesion may occur. If the thickness exceeds 5 μm, the amount of the adhesive protruding may be increased and the ink ejection port may be blocked. As the adhesive, for example, an ultraviolet curable adhesive such as UV300 (trade name) manufactured by Grace Japan is used. This adhesive is resistant to ink and has excellent transferability.

After the application of the adhesive to the bonding surface of the printer head body 14 is completed, the orifice plate is optically aligned by the CCD cameras 28 and 29 of the alignment device 17 so that the orifice plate is Then, pressure is applied to the orifice plate 16. The pressurizing method in this case includes, for example, a pressurizing method using a jig and a pressurizing method using an autoclave device, and pressurizing for several minutes or more. The pressing force at this time is set in a range of about 50 g to ¹ kg / cm ² . If the applied pressure is less than 50 g / cm ² , poor adhesion may occur. If the applied pressure exceeds 1 kg / cm ² , the adhesive may protrude and block the ink discharge ports. In addition, at this time, in order to make the coating thickness of the adhesive uniform, a temperature at which misregistration does not matter, for example,
It may be heated within 40 to 50 ° C.

When the orifice plate 16 is fixed to the printer head main body 14 to some extent, the printer head main body 14 is removed from the alignment device 17, and as shown in FIG. Printer head body 14 through
Is irradiated for about several tens seconds to several minutes to cure the adhesive.

Thus, the adhesive on the bonding surface can be cured in a short time, and the processing cost can be reduced. Further, since the ink can be cured at normal temperature, the displacement between the printer head main body 14 and the orifice plate 16 can be eliminated, and the amount of the adhesive protruding into the groove can be minimized.
Can be reliably prevented from being blocked by the adhesive. Thus, a good ink jet printer head can be manufactured.

In this embodiment, the orifice plate 16 is positioned and adhered to the adhesive surface of the printer head main body 14, and then pressure is applied to the orifice plate 16 so that the orifice plate is adhered and fixed to some extent. Irradiation is performed to cure the adhesive. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the vacuum suction chuck 18 is formed of a member that transmits ultraviolet light such as quartz glass and Orifice plate 1
After aligning and pasting 6, the adhesive may be cured by applying ultraviolet light to the orifice plate 16 while applying pressure to the orifice plate 16 and irradiating the adhesive surface with ultraviolet light. .

Further, in this embodiment, the case where the opening of the ink discharge port in the orifice plate 16 is performed by laser processing has been described. However, the present invention is not necessarily limited to this, and other methods such as pressing or etching may be used. May be performed.

As the ink jet printer head manufactured in this manner, for example, there are a bubble jet type ink jet printer head as shown in FIG. 6 and an ink jet printer head using a piezoelectric member as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8. .

The ink jet printer head shown in FIG.
The heating element layer 3 is provided on the bottom surface of the ink chamber 31 formed by the groove.
2, a heating element 35 composed of an electrode layer 33 and a protective layer 34 is arranged, and the front surface of the ink chamber 31 is
Is closed by an orifice plate 37 provided with a. This is because a predetermined voltage pulse is applied to the heating element 35 to generate a bubble in the ink chamber 31, thereby changing the pressure in the ink chamber 31 and ejecting the ink droplet from the ink discharge port 36 of the orifice plate 37. It is to discharge.

In the ink jet printer head shown in FIG. 7, a large number of partition walls 43 made of a piezoelectric member polarized in the direction of the arrow in FIG. A large number of grooves having a predetermined width, depth, and length are formed by the partition walls 43, and a large number of ink chambers 46 are formed by closing the tops of the grooves with a top plate 45 having a common electrode 44 formed on the bottom surface, and , The front surface of the ink chamber 46 is closed by an orifice plate 48 provided with an ink discharge port 47.
This is because a predetermined voltage pulse is applied between the individual electrode 42 and the common electrode 44 to cause a distortion in the partition 43 of the piezoelectric member, thereby changing the pressure in the ink chamber 46 and causing the orifice plate 48 Ink droplets are ejected from the ink ejection port 47.

In the ink jet printer head shown in FIG. 8, two piezoelectric members 51 and 52 polarized in directions opposite to each other as shown by arrows in the figure are attached with an adhesive.
A large number of grooves having a predetermined width, depth, and length are formed at a predetermined pitch, and a large number of ink chambers 54 are formed by closing the tops of the grooves with a top plate 53. The electrode 55 is formed and the front surface of the ink chamber 54 is
6 is closed by an orifice plate 57 provided with the same. This is because, by applying a predetermined voltage pulse between the adjacent electrodes 55, the piezoelectric member between the ink chambers 54 is distorted, whereby the pressure in the ink chambers 54 is changed and the orifice plate 5 is changed.
Ink droplets are ejected from the ink ejection port of No. 7.

In this embodiment, the case where an ultraviolet-curable adhesive is used as the adhesive has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this case. Good. In this case, the adhesive fixing of the orifice plate to the printer head main body is performed by applying an adhesive to the bonding surface of the printer head main body, positioning the orifice plate using an alignment device, and affixing the orifice plate to the bonding surface of the printer head main body. After the pressure is applied, the adhesive is cured by irradiating ultraviolet rays. Alternatively, the adhesive is cured by irradiating ultraviolet rays while applying pressure. Up to this point, it is the same as the above-described embodiment. The difference is that the adhesive is further cured by further heating. The heating temperature at this time needs to be set to be equal to or lower than the heat resistant temperature of the orifice plate. For example, as the orifice plate, P
When an ET film is used, the heating temperature must be set to 80 ° C. or lower. Thus, as an adhesive,
Even if a thermosetting adhesive is used, the same function and effect as those of the above-described embodiment can be obtained.

[0026]

According to the present invention, it is possible to prevent the adhesive from protruding into the groove as much as possible, whereby it is possible to prevent the adhesive from partially blocking the ink discharge port, and furthermore, the head main body. The orifice plate can be quickly bonded to the orifice plate, thereby preventing the orifice plate from shifting during bonding.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a state in which an orifice plate according to an embodiment of the present invention is separated.

FIG. 2 is a view for explaining a method of bonding and fixing an orifice plate to an ink jet printer head body in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a method of applying an adhesive to the ink jet printer head body in the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a view showing another example of a method of applying an adhesive to the ink jet printer head body in the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a view for explaining an ultraviolet irradiation method in the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of the ink jet printer head manufactured in the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a view showing another example of the ink jet printer head manufactured in the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing another example of the inkjet printer head manufactured in the embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a view for explaining a problem at the time of bonding and fixing an orifice plate in the related art.

[Explanation of symbols]

 14: inkjet printer head body 15: ink ejection port 16: orifice plate 17: alignment device

Claims (5)

[Claims] An orifice plate made of a material that transmits ultraviolet light is prepared in advance by forming a plurality of ink discharge ports, and when the orifice plate is bonded and fixed to an ink jet printer head body, an ultraviolet curable adhesive is used. Is applied to the adhesive surface of the printer head body, and then, the orifice plate is adhered to the adhesive surface of the printer head body and pressed, and ultraviolet light is applied to the adhesive surface of the printer head body via the orifice plate. A method for manufacturing an ink jet printer head, comprising irradiating. 2. A method for preparing an orifice plate made of a material which transmits ultraviolet light, by previously opening a plurality of ink discharge ports, and bonding and fixing the orifice plate to an ink jet printer head main body. Is applied to the adhesive surface of the printer head main body, and then the orifice plate is adhered to the adhesive surface of the printer head main body and pressed, and the adhesive surface of the printer head main body is passed through the orifice plate. A method for manufacturing an ink jet printer head, which comprises irradiating the substrate with ultraviolet rays and further heating the same. 3. An adhesive is applied to an adhesive surface of the ink jet printer head body, and an orifice plate is attached to the adhesive surface of the printer head body. Then, the adhesive surface of the printer head body is pressed through the orifice plate while applying pressure. 3. The method for manufacturing an ink jet printer head according to claim 1, wherein ultraviolet light is irradiated on the ink jet printer head. 4. The method for manufacturing an ink jet printer head according to claim 1, wherein the thickness of the adhesive applied to the bonding surface of the ink jet printer head body is set to 3 to 5 μm. 5. The method for manufacturing an ink jet printer head according to claim 1, wherein an adhesive is applied to the bonding surface of the ink jet printer head body by transfer.