BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of an ink jet recording cartridge of the first embodiment in which the respective parts are disassembled;
FIG. 2A is a plan view illustrating a top face of a recording element substrate;
FIG. 2B is a plan view illustrating a back face of the recording element substrate;
FIG. 3 is a plan view illustrating a support member having a salient of the first embodiment;
FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view schematically illustrating a part of a joint section of the salient formed in the support member and the recording element substrate;
FIG. 5 illustrates stress caused when sealant in the support member including the salient cures and shrinks;
FIG. 6 illustrates sealant filled between the recording element substrate and the electric wiring substrate by a needle;
FIG. 7 is a plan view illustrating a support member and a salient of the second embodiment;
FIG. 8 is a plan view illustrating a support member and a salient of the third embodiment;
FIG. 9A is a longitudinal cross sectional view illustrating sealant filled into a support member;
FIG. 9B is a top view illustrating sealant filled into the support member;
FIG. 10 is a perspective view illustrating a conventional ink jet recording cartridge;
FIG. 11 is a plan view illustrating conventional support substrate and support plate;
FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional view taken along a line C-C of FIG. 10; and
FIG. 13 illustrates how stress in the sealant is applied to the recording element substrate.
DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS
First Embodiment
Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail.
FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view illustrating an ink jet recording cartridge of this embodiment in which the respective parts are disassembled. FIG. 2A is a plan view showing a top face of a recording element substrate H1101. FIG. 2B illustrates a back face of the recording element substrate H1101. The recording element substrate H1101 includes, at one side of an Si substrate having a thickness of 0.62 mm, a plurality of energy generation elements for discharging ink (not shown) (hereinafter also may be referred to as heater) and an electric wiring (not shown) (e.g., AI) for supplying power to the respective energy generation elements that are formed by a film formation technique. The recording element substrate H1101 also includes a plurality of ink flow paths (not shown) provided to correspond to the respective heaters and a plurality of ink discharge opening H1103 that are formed by a photolithography technique. An ink supply opening H1102 for supplying ink to a plurality of ink flow paths is provided in a face opposite to the face including an ink discharge opening.
An electric wiring substrate H1301 includes: a device hole DH for attaching the recording element substrate H1101; an electrode terminal H1302 corresponding to an electrode H1104 of the recording element substrate H1101; and an external signal input terminal H1303 for receiving a control signal from a recording apparatus body. This external signal input terminal H1303 and the electrode terminal H1302 are connected by a copper foil wiring.
FIG. 3 is a plan view illustrating a support member H1501 having a salient H1503 of this embodiment. The support member H1501 is formed by a resin molding and uses in this embodiment resin material mixed with glass filler of 35% for improving the rigidity. This support member H1501 has an ink supply path H1502 from an ink storage section H1506 (see FIG. 5) and has, at a joint face H1504 with the recording element substrate, salients H1503 at both sides of the ink supply path H1502 that are provided so as to be in parallel with the ink supply path H1502.
FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view schematically illustrating a part of a joint section of the salients H1503 formed in the support member H1501 and the recording element substrate H1101. The recording element substrate H1101 is adhered to the support member H1501 by thermosetting adhesive agent H1201 and the recording element substrate H1101 is surrounded by the sealant H1202. The adhesive agent H1201 and the sealant H1202 desirably have a low curing temperature, cure in a short time, and have ink resistance. In this embodiment, the adhesive agent H1201 and the sealant H1202 are thermosetting resin mainly including epoxy resin. When this adhesive agent is used, an adhesion layer is provided to have a thickness of about 50 μm. The adhesive agent H1201 and the sealant H1202 used in this embodiment provide, when cured for one hour at 100 degrees, desired performances such as the above-described ink resistance and adhesiveness. The above adhesive agent and sealant H1202 are not limited to the above ones and may be other ones so long as they satisfy conditions required by the respective ink jet recording heads.
FIG. 5 illustrates stress caused when the sealant H1202 cures and shrinks in the support member H1501 including the salient H1503 of this embodiment. The existence of the salient H1503 as described above can reduce the volume to which the sealant H1202 is filled and thus the volume of filled sealant H1202 can be reduced. Consequently, the volume of the filled sealant H1202 adjacent to the recording element substrate H1101 is also reduced and the amount of the curing and shrinkage is also reduced. Thus, the stress applied to the recording element substrate H1101 can be reduced. Thus, an influence by the dislocation of the recording element substrate H1101 for example can be reduced to a level causing no problem.
In this embodiment, the salient H1503 is provided so as to face an end face in the longitudinal direction of the recording element substrate H1101. The reason is that, as can be seen from FIGS. 2A and 2B, the end face in the longitudinal direction of the recording element substrate H1101 is close to the ink supply opening and thus an external force to the end face in the longitudinal direction tends to cause the recording element substrate H1101 to deform or be broken. The salient also can be provided at a position in parallel with an end section that is not in the longitudinal direction. In this case, the stress applied to the recording element substrate H1101 also can be reduced to prevent the dislocation by the stress.
The interval between this salient H1503 and the recording element substrate H1101 is preferably minimized. The minimized interval can further reduce the stress applied to the recording element substrate H1101.
Next, the following section will describe how to prevent the adhesive agent H1304 from being protruded from a space between the support member H1501 and the electric wiring substrate H1301 when the adhesive agent H1304 is provided therebetween to fix the former and the latter.
FIG. 6 illustrates sealant H1202 filled in the space between the recording element substrate H1101 and the electric wiring substrate H1301 by a needle H1203. The salient H1503 provided in a sealing coating region prevents the stress of the sealant from increasing. The electric wiring substrate H1301 has an opening section that is smaller than the opening section of the joint face of the electric wiring substrate H1301 of the support member H1501 to provide a space under the electric wiring substrate H1301 to store the adhesive agent H1304. This can prevent the adhesive agent H1304 from protruding to the upper face and side face of the electric wiring substrate H1301, thus preventing the adhesive agent H1304 to be attached to an adhesion tool used in the manufacture process.
Second Embodiment
The second embodiment in the present invention will be described with reference to the drawing.
FIG. 7 is a plan view illustrating the support member H1501 and the salient H1503 of this embodiment.
The second embodiment has the same structure as that of the first embodiment except for the length of the salient H1503. The salient H1503 of the second embodiment is obtained by shortening both end sections in the longitudinal direction of the salient of the first embodiment to communicate a sealing groove H1505B adjacent to the recording element substrate H1101 with a sealing groove H1505A not adjacent to the recording element substrate H1101. The structure as described above allows filled sealant to pass both side ends of the salient H1503 to flow into both of the filling grooves H1505A and 1505B, thus providing an identical fluid level to sealant in both of the filling grooves. Then, the sealant H1202 is filled until the fluid level of sealant is at the same height as that of a face of the recording element substrate H101 having the discharge opening.
When the recording apparatus performs a recording operation, ink or dust for example attached to a discharge opening face is wiped so that the nozzle can always discharge ink in a correct manner. When a face formed by the sealant H1202 is different from a face having the discharge opening of the recording element substrate H1101 to prevent ink from being wiped, ink may be left on the sealant H1202 and has an increased viscosity. When the ink having an increased viscosity is transferred by the subsequent wiping operation to the discharge opening, the ink may clog the discharge opening. In order to avoid the defect as described above, the sealant H1202 is filled to the same height as that of the face of the recording element substrate H1101 having the discharge opening.
Although this embodiment shortened both side ends of the salient H1503, the above objective also can be achieved by shortening one side end or by eliminating the center part of the salient so as to divide the salient H1503 at the center. However, both filling groove preferably communicate to each other at end sections in consideration of an influence by the stress on the recording element substrate H1101. Alternatively, instead of perfectly removing a part of the salient, the salient also may include a notch through which the sealant H1202 can flow.
Third Embodiment
The third embodiment in the present invention will be described with reference to the drawing. FIG. 8 is a plan view illustrating the support member H1501 and the salient H1503 of the third embodiment. FIG. 9A is a longitudinal cross sectional view illustrating sealant filled to the support member. FIG. 9B is a top view illustrating sealant filled to the support member. The third embodiment provides, as in the above-described embodiments, the salient H1503 to reduce the influence by the stress to the recording element substrate H1101. The third embodiment has the same structure as that of the second embodiment except for that the filling groove H1505B in which the sealant H1202 is filled has a shallower depth. The existence of the filling groove H1505B having a shallower depth as in this embodiment can reduce the amount of filled sealant H1202 to reduce the shrinkage after the curing. This can reduce the stress applied to the recording element substrate H1101. Furthermore, the volume of the filling groove H1505B is designed to be higher than that of the adhesive agent H1304 when the adhesive agent H1304 protrudes. Thus, the adhesive agent H1304 is prevented from protruding to the upper face or side face of the electric wiring substrate.
The structure as described above can reduce an absolute amount of the sealant H1202 to reduce the stress to the recording element substrate H1101 when the sealant H1202 cures and shrinks. Thus, an ink jet recording head can be realized that can provide a recording operation with a high recording quality.
While the present invention has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments. The scope of the following claims is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent structures and functions.
This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-136702, filed May 16, 2006, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
Patent Application
20070285465
