Patent Application
20090096838
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus and a control method of the ink jet recording apparatus and particularly relates to an ink jet recording head for ejecting ink by utilizing thermal energy generated from a thermal energy transducer. More specifically, the present invention relates to a recording head structure for suppressing a difference in temperature, between a plurality of recording element substrates, of ink to be supplied to the plurality of recording element substrates mounted in a full-line type recording head.
An ink jet recording apparatus of a type in which a plurality of recording heads each including a plurality of recording elements is fixed in parallel with each other and a recording medium is scanned with the recording heads to effect recording. The ink jet recording apparatus of this type is characterized by a recording speed higher than that of a so-called serial scanning type ink jet recording apparatus in which recording is effected by performing scanning with a recording head.
The ink jet recording apparatus effects image recording such as printing by ejecting ink from a recording head to be attached onto a recording medium. The ink jet recording apparatus facilitates downsizing of the recording head and can record a high-definition image at high speed. Further, the ink jet recording apparatus provides a low running cost and is of a non-impact type, thus resulting in less noise. In addition, the ink jet recording apparatus has the advantage of, e.g., easily recording a color image by using multi-color ink. Of the above-described ink jet recording apparatus, the full-line type ink jet recording apparatus using a line type recording head including a multiplicity of ejection nozzles arranged in a width direction of the recording medium can further increase in recording speed.
An embodiment of a recording head used in the full-line type ink jet recording apparatus is shown in
First, referring to
Next, a regular rout of ink supply to each of the recording element substrates will be described. Ink introduced from an ink introducing port 206 into the recording head successively enters respective individual liquid chambers 204a to 204e formed in the supporting member 202 while flowing in the common liquid chamber 205 in a longitudinal direction of the recording head. The ink flowing into the individual liquid chambers 204a to 204e is supplied to each of nozzle arrays of odd-numbered array of recording element substrates 201a to 201e and each of nozzle arrays of even-numbered array of recording element substrates 201f to 201i. Bubbles generated in the recording element substrates 201a to 201e are moved upward in the individual liquid chambers 204a to 204e by buoyancy and are collected at an upper portion of the common liquid chamber 205. These bubbles are considered that they include remaining bubbles generated by ejecting ink through actuation of the heat generating resistors, bubbles generated from air dissolved in the ink, and bubbles entering the individual liquid chambers through constituent members of the recording head. The bubbles collected at the upper portion of the common liquid chamber 205 are discharged from a discharging port 207 for bubble removal together with the ink by circulation of the ink flowing from the ink introducing port 206 toward the discharging port 207, thus being collected by an unshown ink container. The individual liquid chambers 204a to 204e are formed in such a shape that the ink can be supplied smoothly and the bubble removal is not adversely affected.
Next, a conveying process of the recording medium and a recording process on the recording medium will be described. Referring to the bottom view of
With higher-speed recording, the number of ejections of ink from one nozzle per unit time is increased, thus increasing electric energy consumption. As a result, an increase in amount of heat generation of the recording element substrates 201a to 201i is caused to occur. The increased amount of heat is principally conducted from the recording element substrates 201a to 201i to the supporting member 202 except for heat dissipated into an outside of the recording head together with the ejected ink. The heat conducted to the supporting member 202 is absorbed by ink flowing in the common liquid chamber 205 on the opposite side surface of the supporting member 202. When an amount of heat absorption of the ink in the common liquid chamber 205 is increased, a temperature of the ink in the common liquid chamber 205 is higher at a downstream position more distant from the ink introducing port 206. For this reason, in a more downstream recording element substrate, heat is less conducted to the supporting member, so that an amount of temperature rise is increased. Further, in the more downstream recording element substrate, the ink higher in temperature is supplied through the individual liquid chamber 204.
That is, heat of an upstream recording element substrate is transmitted to the downstream recording element substrate by the medium of the ink flowing in the common liquid chamber 205. For this reason, thermal imbalance such that a more downstream recording element substrate is liable to be higher in temperature occurs and is more noticeable with higher-speed recording leading to increase the amount of heat generation, so that a difference in temperature between the recording element substrates is increased.
An abscissa of the graph represents a distance corresponding to a position of the recording head with respect to a longitudinal direction of the recording head, and an ordinate of the graph represents temperatures of recording element substrates. At both end portions of each recording element substrate, temperature sensors 230a and 230b are provided so as to permit measurement of temperature at the both end portions. A plot of the temperatures from these temperature sensors is the graph shown in
As seen from this graph, during temperature rise, a temperature distribution of the recording head with respect to the longitudinal direction is such that a temperature at a central portion is higher and a temperature at an end portion is lower. Further, with respect to the recording element substrate on an ink introducing side, it is possible to confirm that a large temperature gradient occurs between left and right ends.
As described above, when the temperature difference between the recording element substrates is increased, a difference in ejection amount, i.e., a difference in density is also increased, thus adversely affecting a recording quality.
Therefore, in order to realize the high-speed recording while retaining the recording quality in the full-line type ink jet recording apparatus, there arises a problem to be solved such that the temperature difference between the recording element substrates is suppressed. In order to solve this problem, there have been conventionally proposed constitutions such that an end of a heat pipe is connected along a recording head as a heat uniformizing means (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,402,160 and 5,451,989). In these heat uniformizing means for the conventional full-line type ink jet recording head, the heat pipe absorbs local heat of the recording head generated by ejection of ink and quickly diffuses the local heat through the entire recording head, so that it is possible to keep the entire recording head at a temperature as uniform as possible by suppressing the local temperature rise of the recording head.
However, in the case of using the heat pipe, additional cost is incurred and a connecting operation of the heat pipe to the recording head requires skills. Therefore, a production cost is further increased, thus leading to an expensive recording head.
Further, in the case of incorporating the heat pipe into the full-line type ink jet recording head shown in
A principal object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet recording head capable of suppressing an increase in temperature gradient in recording element substrate and increases in differences in temperature and density between recording element substrates with a simple constitution and no unnecessary increase in width of the recording head.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink jet recording head comprising:
a plurality of recording element substrates each including at least one nozzle array having a plurality of nozzles for ejecting ink and heat generating resistors for ejecting the ink by thermal energy;
a common liquid chamber having an ink introducing port for supplying the ink to the nozzles and a discharging port for discharging the introduced ink outside the ink jet recording head; and
a supporting member on which the recording element substrates are mounted and in which a plurality of individual liquid chambers for supplying the ink to associated ones of the recording element substrates and a plurality of ink inlet ports for supplying the ink from the common liquid chamber to associated ones of the individual liquid chambers are formed,
wherein the individual liquid chambers are arranged in a direction of flow of the ink flowing from the ink introducing port toward the discharging port, and
wherein at least in an upstreammost individual liquid chamber with respect to the direction, an ink flow passage length from an associated ink inlet port to a nozzle located upstream with respect to the direction is longer than an ink flow passage length from the associated ink inlet port to a nozzle located downstream with respect to the direction.
According to the present invention, it is possible to suppress an increase in temperature gradient in recording element substrate and increases in differences in temperature and density between recording element substrates with a simple constitution and no unnecessary increase in width of the recording head.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent upon a consideration of the following description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Herein, an “upstream side” refers to a side on which ink is supplied to an ink jet recording head and a “downstream side” refers to a side on which a bubble is discharged from the ink jet recording head through a discharging port.
In the following embodiments, as an example of a recording apparatus using an ink jet recording method, a printer will be described.
Herein, “recording” (also referred to as “print”) represents not only formation of significant information such as a character or graphics but also formation of an image, a pattern, or the like on a recording medium, irrespective of significance or insignificance or processing of a medium.
The recording medium refers to not only paper used in a general recording apparatus but also various ink-receivable materials such as clothes, plastics, metal plates, ceramics, woods, and leathers.
The ink (also referred to as a “liquid”) is widely interpreted similarly as in the definition of the recording (print). That is, the “ink” represents a liquid subjected to formation of an image, a pattern, or the like, processing of a recording medium, or processing of ink (e.g., coagulation or insolubilization of a colorant in ink to be provided onto the recording medium) by being provided onto the recording medium.
In this embodiment, a recording head 13 includes four recording heads 131 to 134 for ejecting inks of black (K), cyan (C), magenta (M) and yellow (Y). These recording heads 131 to 134 are driven by a control portion described later and eject ink droplets of associated ones of the inks to effect color recording.
A sheet-like recording medium (hereinafter referred to as a “recording sheet”) ST is fed from an unshown sheet feeding portion and is electrostatically adsorbed by a conveyer belt 12 to be moved below the recording head 13. At this time, recording is effected. The conveyer belt 12 as a conveying device is an annular elongated member and is stretched by a driving roller 15 and supporting rollers 16 and 17. The conveyer belt 12 is rotationally driven to convey the recording sheet ST. A cleaning mechanism 18 is used to remove ink deposited on the conveyer belt 12.
To the recording heads 131 to 134, temperature sensor units 1311 to 1314 for detecting temperatures of the recording heads are provided, respectively. Each of the temperature sensor units is disposed at both end portions of an associated recording element substrate with respect to a longitudinal direction of the recording element substrate.
A control portion (unit) 20 includes a CPU 21, an ROM 22, an RAM 23, a gate array 24, and an image memory 25. In the ROM 22, a program is stored. In the RAM 23, work data necessary for control is stored. The gate array 24 outputs a drive control signal for the conveyer belt driving roller 15, an image signal and a control signal which are to be sent to the recording head 13, a drive control signal for the cleaning mechanism 18, and the like. The image memory 25 temporarily stores recording data received from an external device by the gate array 24.
First, the schematic structure of the ink jet recording head in this embodiment will be described with reference to
Nine recording element substrates 1a to 1i each provided with a plurality of nozzle arrays (four nozzle arrays in this embodiment) are mounted on one side surface of a supporting member 2 in a staggered fashion. That is, these recording element substrates 1a to 1i are arranged in a flow direction of ink flowing in a common chamber 5 from an ink introducing port 6 toward a discharging port 7. In each of nozzles, a heat generating resistor for ejecting ink by heat energy is provided.
In the supporting member 2, individual liquid chambers 4 (41a to 41e in
As a material for the supporting member 2, it is generally possible to use a ceramic material such as alumina (e.g., having a thermal conductivity of 32 W/mK). On an opposite side surface of the supporting member 2, ink inlet ports 8a to 8e for supplying ink to the individual liquid chambers 4 are formed for the recording element substrates, respectively. On the supporting member 2, a contaminar chip 3 in which the common liquid chamber 5 for retaining the ink in a negative pressure state is hermetically fixed to the supporting member 2 so as not to cause ink leakage.
Next, a supply route of the ink to each of the recording element substrates will be described. The ink introduced from the ink introducing port 6 into the recording head successively enters the ink inlet ports 8a to 8e while flowing in the common liquid chamber 5 in a longitudinal direction of the recording head. The ink successively entering the ink inlet ports 8a to 8e is supplied to odd-numbered nozzle arrays of the recording element substrates 1a to 1e through the individual liquid chambers 41a to 41e. The ink is similarly supplied to even-numbered nozzle arrays of the recording element substrates 1a to 1e.
Bubbles generated in the recording element substrates 1a to 1e are moved upward in ink supply passages in the individual liquid chambers 41a to 41e by buoyancy and pass through the ink inlet ports 8a to 8e to gather at an upper portion of the common liquid chamber 5. The bubbles gathering at the upper portion of the common liquid chamber 5 are discharged from the discharging port 7 for bubble removal together with the ink by circulation of the ink flowing from the ink introducing port 6 toward the discharging port 7 for bubble removal, thus being collected in an unshown ink container.
Next, a conveying process of the recording medium and a recording process on the recording medium will be described. Referring to the bottom view of
Next, a conduction route of heat generated in the recording element substrate 1 (1a to 1i) by ejection of the ink droplets will be described. An amount of heat obtained by subtracting heat carried by the ejected ink and kinetic energy of the ejected ink from electric power supplied to the recording element substrate 1 for ejecting the ink droplets corresponds to an amount of heat generated in the recording element substrate 1. An amount of heat obtained by subtracting an amount of heat released from the recording element substrate 1 to the ambient air is conducted to the supporting member 2. In this case, a direct contact portion between the recording element substrate 1 and the supporting member 2 is a small frame portion which is an adhesive portion between the recording element substrate 1 and the supporting member 2, and heat is conducted through the ink in the individual liquid chamber 4. However, the ink has a poor thermal conductivity (0.68 W/mK), so that abrupt propagation of heat does not occur. As described above, a temperature of the ink flowing from the ink inlet ports 8a to 8e is gradually increased.
An upstreammost individual liquid chamber 41a with respect to the flow direction (of the ink flowing in the common liquid chamber 5 from the ink introducing port 6 toward the discharging port 7) has an asymmetrical cross-sectional configuration with respect to a center line c of the recording element substrate 1a with respect to the flow direction. That is, the ink inlet port 8a of the individual liquid chamber 41a is formed at a position apart from an end portion 6a, to which the ink introducing port 6 is provided, with respect to a longitudinal direction of the recording head. Therefore, in the individual liquid chamber 41a, a flow passage length from the ink inlet port 8a to a nozzle array closer to the end portion 6a of the recording element substrate 1a is longer than a flow passage length from the ink inlet port 8a to a nozzle array more distant from the end portion 6a of the recording element substrate 1a. In other words, the individual liquid chamber 41a has such a structure that an ink flow passage length from the ink inlet port 8a to a nozzle located upstream with respect to the flow direction is longer than an ink flow passage length from the ink inlet port 8a to a nozzle located downstream with respect to the flow direction.
Further, both side walls 1a1 and 1a2 of the individual liquid chamber 41a provide different inclination angles α and β. The inclination angles α and β are angles of the side walls with respect to a flow passage cross section of the ink inlet port 8a. In this embodiment, the inclination angle β is 90 degrees and the inclination angle α is 90 degrees or less. Although not shown, an individual liquid chamber 41f for the recording element substrate 1f, of the even-numbered array of the recording element substrate 1f to 1i, closest to the ink introducing port 6, i.e., located upstreammost with respect to the flow direction.
The individual liquid chamber 41a has the above-described structure, so that it is possible to considerably decrease a temperature difference with respect to the recording element substrate 1a.
That is, with respect to nozzles formed on the recording element substrate 1a at a position immediately below the ink inlet port 8a, the flow passage length from the ink inlet port 8a to the downstream nozzles is short, so that cool ink is supplied. On the other hand, with respect to opposite nozzles closer to the end portion 6a, the flow passage length from the ink inlet port 8a to the upstream nozzles is long, so that gradually warmed ink is supplied.
The individual liquid chambers 41a to 41e also have an asymmetric cross-sectional configuration with respect to a center line (not shown) of an associated recording element substrate (1b-1e) but are different from the individual liquid chamber 41a in that the ink inlet ports 8b to 8e are formed closer to the end portion 6a, i.e., upstream with respect to the flow direction. Therefore, in the individual liquid chambers 41b to 41e, the flow passage length from the ink inlet ports 8b to 8e to nozzle arrays closer to the end portion 6a for the recording element substrates 1b to 1e (upstream with respect to the flow direction) is shorter than the flow passage length from the ink inlet ports 8b to 8e to nozzle arrays more distant from the end portion 6a (downstream with respect to the flow direction).
Further, an inclination angle α of a side wall 1b1 of the individual liquid chamber 41b and an inclination angle β of a side wall 1b2 of the individual liquid chamber 41b are also different from each other. The inclination angle α is 90 degrees or less and the inclination angle β is 90 degrees. Although not shown, the individual liquid chambers 41c to 41e and individual liquid chambers 41g to 41i for the even-numbered array of the recording element substrates 1f to 1i also have a similar structure.
In the ink jet recording head of this embodiment, the individual liquid chamber 4a has the above-described structure, so that a temperature difference with respect to the recording element substrate 1a can be considerably decreased. Therefore, it is possible to considerably decrease a difference in temperature between both end portions of the ink jet recording head.
In the case of the ink jet recording head having the individual liquid chamber 204a as shown in
Referring to
On the other hand, individual liquid chambers 42b, 42c and 42d sandwiched between the individual liquid chambers 42a and 42e have a symmetrical configuration with respect to a center line C of an associated recording element substrate 1b, 1c or 1d. That is, ink inlet ports 9b, 9c and 9d are provided with the center line C as a center thereof and provided with both side walls having the same inclination angle.
A graph showing a temperature distribution in the case of using the ink jet recording head having such individual liquid chambers 42a to 42e is shown in
In
The conventional ink jet recording head had, as shown in
Each of the individual liquid chambers 42a to 42e is formed in a configuration suitable for an associated recording element substrate correspondingly to a position of the associated recording element substrate.
In the individual liquid chambers 42a and 42e, the ink inlet ports 9a and 9e are formed at a position distant from an upstream end portion (for the ink inlet port 9a) or a downstream end portion (for the ink inlet port 9e) with respect to a longitudinal direction (ink flow direction) of the recording head. In the individual liquid chambers 42b to 42d, the ink inlet ports 9b to 9d are formed with the center line C of the associated recording element substrate (1b to 1d) as a center.
In this embodiment, individual liquid chambers 43a to 43e have axially symmetrical configuration with respect to a center line C of the individual liquid chamber 43c. That is, the individual liquid chambers 43a and 43e are axially symmetrical and the individual liquid chambers 43b and 43d are axially symmetrical. For this reason, in the individual liquid chambers 43a to 43e, the ink flow passage from an associated ink inlet port to a nozzle located upstream with respect to the flow direction is equal to the ink flow passage from an associated ink inlet port to a nozzle located downstream with respect to the flow direction.
In the individual liquid chamber 43a, a center line Ca of the ink inlet port 11a located distant from the end portion 6a and downstream of a center line C of the recording element substrate 1a by a distance L1. Further, an inclination angle α1 of a side wall 1a1 and an inclination angle β1 of a side wall 1a2 of the individual liquid chamber 43a are different from each other. In this embodiment, the inclination angles α1 and β1 are 90 degrees or less but α1<β1. That is, the inclination angle α1 on the upstream side closer to the end portion 6a is smaller than the inclination angle β1 on the downstream side more distant from the end portion 6a, so that a length of the side wall 1a1 is longer than a length of the side wall 1a2. However, the length of the side wall 1a1 in this embodiment is shorter than that in First Embodiment shown in
In the individual liquid chamber 43b, a center line Cb of the ink inlet port 11a located distant from the end portion 6a and downstream of a center line C of the recording element substrate 1b by a distance L2. Incidentally, L1>L2. Further, an inclination angle α2 of a side wall 1b1 and an inclination angle β2 of a side wall 1b2 of the individual liquid chamber 43b are different from each other. In this embodiment, the inclination angles α2 and β2 are 90 degrees or less but α2<β2. When the individual liquid chamber 43b is compared with the upstream individual liquid chamber 43a closer to the end portion 6a, the inclination angles α2, β2, α1 and β1 satisfy α1<α2 and β1<β2. Further, the lengths of the side walls 1b1, 1b2, 1a1 and 1a2 satisfy 1b1<1a1 and 1b2<1a2. Thus, the side wall 1b1, the inclination angle α2 the side wall 1b2, and the inclination angle β2 of the individual liquid chamber 43a are optimized so as to minimize a temperature gradient of the recording element substrate 1b more distant from the end portion 6a than the recording element substrate 1a.
Of the individual liquid chambers 43a to 43e, the center individual liquid chamber 43c has an axially symmetrical configuration with respect to the center line C thereof, which is also a center line of the ink jet recording head. For this reason, in the individual liquid chamber 43c, the flow passage length from the ink inlet port 11c to a nozzle located upstream with respect to the flow direction is equal to the flow passage length from the ink inlet port 11c to a nozzle located downstream with respect to the flow direction.
The individual liquid chamber 43d is, as described above, axially symmetrical with the individual liquid chamber 43b with respect to the center line C of the individual liquid chamber 43c, thus having a structure similar to that of the individual liquid chamber 43b.
The individual liquid chamber 43e is axially symmetrical with the individual liquid chamber 43a with respect to the center line C of the individual liquid chamber 43c, thus having a structure similar to that of the individual liquid chamber 43a.
As described above, the flow passage length from the ink inlet port (11a to 11c) to the nozzle located upstream with respect to the flow direction is gradually decreased from the upstreammost individual liquid chamber 43a toward the downstream individual liquid chamber 43c with respect to the flow direction.
On the other hand, the flow passage length from the ink inlet port (11e to 11c) to the nozzle located downstream with respect to the flow direction is gradually decreased from the downstreammost individual liquid chamber 43e toward the upstream individual liquid chamber 43c with respect to the flow direction.
In this embodiment, as described above, in the individual liquid chambers 43a to 43e, positions of the ink inlet ports, magnitudes of the inclination angles and lengths of the side walls are set in view of positions of the recording element substrate 1a to 1e in order to minimize a temperature gradient with respect to the recording element substrate 1a to 1e.
In this embodiment, the constitution in which the individual liquid chambers 43a, 43b, 43d and 43e have symmetrical cross-sectional configuration with respect to the center line (of the recording head is described but the present invention is not limited thereto. That is, the individual liquid chambers are not required to be symmetrical so long as the temperature gradient with respect to each of the recording element substrates can be decreased.
While the invention has been described with reference to the structures disclosed herein, it is not confined to the details set forth and this application is intended to cover such modifications or changes as may come within the purpose of the improvements or the scope of the following claims.
This application claims priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 259901/2007 filed Oct. 3, 2007, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007-259901 | Oct 2007 | JP | national |
