Liquid droplet jetting head and method of manufacturing liquid droplet jetting head

Abstract

A piezoelectric actuator, a cavity plate, a base plate, and a supply plate are common in normal specifications, black high-speed focused specifications, and color-image focused specifications, but other plates such as a manifold plate, a damper plate, a spacer plate, and a nozzle plate are produced according to these specifications. A center of a communicating hole which connects a pressure chamber and a nozzle is gradually shifted in a paper feeding direction, and a position at which the nozzle is formed is also shifted in the paper feeding direction. Accordingly, it is possible to decrease the number of manufacturing lines and to reduce the manufacturing cost as compared to those in a conventional method of manufacturing a liquid droplet jetting head.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a basic structure of an ink-jet recording apparatus;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a head holder 9 when viewed from a nozzle surface

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an arrangement of pressure chambers and nozzles according to normal specifications, in an ink-jet head held by the head holder 9 shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4A is a diagram showing an arrangement of nozzles shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 4B is a diagram showing positions of forming the nozzles;

FIG. 5A is an enlarged view of the pressure chamber and the nozzle shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5B is a vertical cross-sectional view of a portion from a piezoelectric actuator up to the nozzle, in a portion viewed from a direction of an arrow VB-VB in FIG. 5A;

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an arrangement of pressure chambers and nozzles of an ink-jet head according to black high-speed specifications;

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an arrangement of nozzles shown in FIG. 6;

FIG. 8A is an enlarged view of the pressure chamber and the nozzle shown in FIG. 6;

FIG. 8B is a vertical cross-sectional view of a portion from a piezoelectric actuator up to the nozzle, in a portion viewed from a direction of arrow VIIIB-VIIIB in FIG. 8A;

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an arrangement of pressure chambers and nozzles of an ink-jet head according to the color-image focused specifications;

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an arrangement of nozzles shown in FIG. 9;

FIG. 11A is a table in which, positions of forming an active portion according to each of the specifications are put together;

FIG. 11B is a table in which, shifting positions according to the color-image focused specifications, and according to the black high-speed focused specifications with respect to normal specifications are put together;

FIG. 12A is a diagram showing a plates-providing step;

FIG. 12B is a diagram showing a selecting step and a stacking step;

FIG. 13A is a diagram showing an arrangement of pressure chambers and nozzles of the normal specifications;

FIG. 13B is a diagram showing a pitch and a gap between the nozzles;

FIG. 13C is a diagram showing a direction for explaining a position of forming of the nozzle;

FIG. 14 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a portion from a piezoelectric actuator up to the nozzle, in a portion viewed from a direction of an arrow X-X in FIG. 12A;

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing an arrangement of pressure chambers and nozzles according to conventional black high-speed focused specifications;

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an arrangement of pressure chambers and nozzles according to conventional color-image focused specifications;

FIG. 17A is a diagram showing a position of nozzle for each of the specifications; and

FIG. 17B is a table showing combinations of nozzle rows used, according to a recording mode.

Claims

1. A method for manufacturing liquid droplet jetting heads which have a plurality of specifications, and each of which includes a cavity unit having a plurality of nozzles which jet a droplet of a liquid, a plurality of pressure chambers which accommodate the liquid, and a plurality of liquid channels which connect the nozzles and the pressure chambers respectively, and an actuator which selectively applies a jetting pressure to the liquid in the pressure chambers, the method comprising steps of: a plates-providing step for providing a nozzle-plate group which includes a plurality of nozzle plates in which the nozzles are formed in different patterns; an intermediate-plate group which includes a plurality of intermediate plates in which the liquid channels are formed in a different pattern respectively; and a cavity plate in which the pressure chambers are formed;a selecting step for selecting a nozzle plate among the nozzle-plate group which corresponds to a predetermined specification among the specifications and an intermediate plate among the intermediate-plate group which corresponds to the predetermined specification; anda stacking step for stacking the nozzle plate and the intermediate plate selected in the selecting step, and the cavity plate.

2. The method for manufacturing the liquid droplet jetting head according to claim 1, wherein the intermediate plates include a manifold plate in which the liquid channels and a common liquid chamber accommodating the liquid to be supplied to the pressure chambers are formed; the plates-providing step further includes providing a supply plate in which a plurality of throttles is formed, the throttles supplying the liquid from the common liquid chamber to the pressure chambers, having a channel resistance higher than a channel resistance of the pressure chambers, and connecting the common liquid chamber with the pressure chambers, when the supply plate is stacked into the cavity unit;the cavity plate and the supply plate are commonly used for the specifications; andthe stacking step further includes stacking the supply plate.

3. The method for producing the liquid droplet jetting head according to claim 2, wherein the throttles are formed as grooves in the supply plate; the plates-providing step further includes providing a base plate which is common in the specifications and which has communicating holes formed therein, the common holes connecting the pressure chambers with the throttles respectively when the base plate is stacked between the cavity plate and the supply plate; andthe stacking step further includes stacking the base plate on the supply plate to cover openings of the throttles.

4. The method for manufacturing the liquid droplet jetting head according to claim 1, wherein the liquid channels, which are to be mutually communicated when the intermediate plates are stacked, are formed in the intermediate plates; and the stacking step further includes stacking each of the intermediate plates between the cavity plate and one of the nozzle plates such that the liquid channels are mutually communicated to thereby connect the pressure chambers and the nozzles respectively.

5. The method for providing the liquid droplet jetting head according to claim 4, wherein the intermediate plates include a manifold plate in which the liquid channels and the common liquid chamber which accommodates the liquid to be supplied to the pressure chambers are formed.

6. The method for manufacturing the liquid droplet jetting head according to claim 4, wherein the intermediate plates include a manifold plate in which a common liquid chamber accommodating the liquid to be supplied to the pressure chambers is formed; and a damper plate which is to be stacked on the manifold plate and in which the liquid channels and a damper elastically deformable by a pressure vibration in the common liquid chamber are formed; and the stacking step further includes stacking the damper plate between the manifold plate and one of the nozzle plates such that the damper faces the common liquid chamber.

7. The method for manufacturing the liquid droplet jetting head according to claim 4, wherein the intermediate plates include a spacer plate in which the liquid channels are formed; and the stacking step further includes stacking the spacer plate such that the spacer plate is adjacent to a surface, of one of the nozzle plates, on a side of the cavity plate.

8. The method for manufacturing the liquid droplet jetting head according to claim 1, wherein: the liquid is an ink, and the liquid droplet jetting head is an ink-jet head which performs printing in a dot matrix manner by the ink jetted from the nozzles while moving in a predetermined direction with respect to the recording medium;the pressure chambers are arranged in a matrix form, in the cavity plate in the predetermined direction and in an orthogonal direction orthogonal to the predetermined direction;the nozzles connecting to the pressure chambers respectively are arranged in the matrix form, in each of the nozzle plates in the predetermined direction and in the orthogonal direction;the liquid channels are arranged in the matrix form, in each of the intermediate plates in the predetermined direction and in the orthogonal direction;the plates-providing step includes providing the nozzle plates in which positions of the nozzles in the orthogonal direction are mutually different and the intermediate plates in which positions of the liquid channels are mutually different;the selecting step includes selecting one of the nozzle plates in which the nozzles are formed at positions corresponding to one of the specifications and one of the intermediate plates in which the liquid channels are formed at positions corresponding to the positions of the nozzles; andthe stacking step includes stacking the selected nozzle plate and intermediate plate.

9. The method for manufacturing the liquid droplet jetting head according to claim 8, wherein: the pressure chambers forms a first pressure chamber group jetting a first liquid droplet and a second pressure chamber group jetting a second liquid droplet having a volume greater than a volume of the first liquid droplet, the first and second pressure chamber groups being arranged in the predetermined direction; andthe specifications include a specification in which the first pressure chamber group accommodates a color ink, and the second pressure chamber group accommodates a black ink.

10. The method for manufacturing the liquid droplet jetting head according to claim 9, wherein the specifications includes another specification in which a pressure chamber included in the second pressure chamber group accommodates the color ink.

11. A liquid droplet jetting head which jets a droplet of a liquid, comprising: a cavity unit having a plurality of nozzles arranged in a predetermined surface; a plurality of pressure chambers which accommodate the liquid; and a plurality of liquid channels which connect the nozzles and the pressure chambers respectively, and which have portions extending in a vertical direction to the predetermined surface and other portions extending in a direction different from the vertical direction; andan actuator which is arranged on the cavity unit and which selectively applies a jetting pressure to the liquid in the pressure chambers.

12. The liquid droplet jetting head according to claim 11, wherein the liquid channels include a first liquid channel extended in a first direction different from the vertical direction, and a second liquid channel extended in a second direction different from the vertical direction and the first direction.

13. The liquid droplet jetting head according to claim 11, wherein the cavity unit includes a first pressure chamber row and a second pressure chamber row arranged to be parallel to each other; each of the first pressure chamber row and the second pressure chamber row includes a plurality of pressure chambers having an elongated shape, and which are arranged in a predetermined direction; anda length of a pressure chamber included in the first pressure chamber row, in a longitudinal direction of the pressure chamber is greater than a length of another pressure chamber included in the second pressure chamber row, in the longitudinal direction of the pressure chamber.

14. The liquid droplet jetting head according to claim 13, wherein a size of a nozzle, among the nozzles, connected to the pressure chamber in the first pressure chamber row is greater than a size of another nozzle connected to the pressure chamber in the second pressure chamber row.