JP2006198828A - Orifice plate for liquid delivering head and its manufacturing method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain an orifice plate with a good pitch precision of a delivering hole and with no sticking of a by-product caused by abrasion of laser processing around the delivering hole. <P>SOLUTION: A releasable member formed of a film substrate coated with a pressure-sensitive adhesive is laminated on a water-repellency-treated film-like resin being an original material of the orifice plate while a definite tension stronger than a tension applied on the film-like resin. It is wound up so that the curved inside becomes the inside of a roll, and the delivering hole is formed vertically to the laminating direction by laser processing. After the laser processing, the releasable member is released and cutting into an orifice plate shape is performed to manufacture the orifice plate. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to the formation of a liquid ejection head that performs recording by ejecting liquid to form flying droplets, and an ejection port (hereinafter also referred to as an orifice) that ejects liquid.

  The present invention also provides a printer, a copying machine, a facsimile having a communication system, and a word processor having a printer section for recording on a recording medium such as paper, thread, fiber, fabric, leather, metal, plastic, glass, wood, ceramics, etc. The present invention is applicable to an industrial recording apparatus combined with various processing apparatuses.

  [Recording] in the present invention means not only giving an image having a meaning such as a character or a figure to a recording medium but also giving an image having no meaning such as a pattern.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an ink jet recording apparatus that performs recording by discharging a recording liquid (ink) from an ejection port of a liquid ejection head is known as an excellent recording apparatus in terms of low noise and high speed recording.

  As for the ink jet recording method, various methods have been proposed and improved so far, and some have been commercialized, and others are currently being put into practical use.

  This type of liquid ejection head includes, for example, an orifice plate 40 having an ejection port 41 for ejecting ink as shown in FIG. 1 and a top plate 60 for forming a flow path 61 communicating with each ejection port 41. A substrate (hereinafter referred to as a heater board) 50 having an energy generating element (hereinafter referred to as a heater) 51 that constitutes a part of the flow path 61 and generates energy for ejection.

  The orifice plate 40 has a fine discharge port 41 for discharging ink, and this discharge port 41 is an important factor that affects the discharge performance of the liquid discharge head. That is, the orifice plate 40 of the liquid discharge head is required to have good workability because it has a fine discharge port 41 and high ink resistance because it is in direct contact with ink.

  With recent advances in recording technology, high-speed and high-definition recording is being demanded. For this reason, the discharge port 41 is formed with a small size (discharge port diameter) and high density. It has come to be. As a result, at present, the most commonly used method is to process the discharge port by fine processing by excimer laser ablation on a resin film material such as polysulfone, polyethersulfone, polyphenylene oxide, polyphenylene sulfide, polypropylene, and polyimide.

  However, in the conventional processing, a phenomenon has been observed in which minute fragments, which are thought to be made of carbon or carbide, adhere to the periphery of the discharge port when the resin workpiece is decomposed and removed by ablation with an excimer laser.

If the thing removed by the laser when drilling the discharge port with the excimer laser adheres to the periphery of the discharge port, the physical properties, particularly the wetness with respect to the ink, change in the portion where the deposit is present and not. On the other hand, it is desirable that the surface of the orifice plate 40 be uniform so that unnecessary ink reservoirs do not exist. For this reason, if an adhering substance is present in a certain portion and the ink is accumulated, the flying direction of the droplet is not stable, and good recording cannot be performed. In addition, when the ink pool becomes large, the ejection of droplets becomes impossible and the recording cannot be performed. For this reason, the deposited carbon layer and the minute fragments made of carbon or carbide have been removed using ultrasonic cleaning, adhesive tape, or the like as a secondary processing step after irradiation with laser light. In JP-A-2000-229412, a peelable member is attached in advance to at least one surface of the discharge port forming member, and then the discharge port forming member is irradiated with laser light to form a discharge port. The method of peeling is shown.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-229412

  With recent advances in recording technology, high-speed and high-definition recording has been demanded. For this reason, the number of discharge ports is increased, the size thereof is small, and the density is high-definition and high-definition. Formation was required. Further, when the orifice plate is joined to the head body prepared in advance, if the liquid passage on the main body side and the discharge port pitch of the orifice plate are shifted, the ink discharge performance is affected and the print quality is deteriorated.

  Therefore, the pitch accuracy between the discharge ports is required more than ever.

  However, in a state where the peelable member is pasted on the film-like resin, a plurality of discharge ports 41 are formed by irradiating laser light from the surface where the peelable member of the film-like resin is not stuck, and then the peelable member is peeled off. And before and after peeling a peelable member, the pitch between several discharge ports formed in the film-like resin sometimes changed. If the amount of change is constant, the discharge port pitch can be corrected in advance, but if the variation in the amount of change is large, an error occurs in the discharge port pitch dimension.

  In addition, even when laminated so that relative tension does not substantially occur, by storing in a wound state, different tension is applied to both films, and the relative tension of the film after unwinding changes, In some cases, peeling occurred.

  The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems, prevents the adhering of minute debris, which seems to be composed of carbon or carbide, which is a by-product during ablation, around the discharge port, and has high reliability and high pitch accuracy. The object is to obtain a liquid discharge head of good quality.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes a plurality of energy generating elements that generate energy for discharging a liquid as flying droplets, and a plurality of flow paths in which each of the plurality of energy generating elements is disposed. In the manufacturing method of the orifice plate in a liquid discharge head comprising a head body and an orifice plate having a plurality of discharge ports joined to the head body and communicating with the flow path, A process for producing a long film by laminating a long film-like peelable member on the discharge port forming surface side under a stronger constant tension applied to the resin on the film, and a peelable part of the film-like resin Irradiating a laser from the surface where the agent is not laminated to form a plurality of discharge ports by simultaneously processing the film-like resin and the peelable part; and A step of peeling the peelable portion agent from the film-like resin, characterized in that a step of cutting the film-like resin to the orifice plate shape.

  In the above invention, since the laminate is always applied to the peelable member with a constant tension stronger than the tension applied to the film-like resin, the longitudinal direction of the peelable member after lamination is tensioned in the direction in which the film shrinks, and the width direction The tension is applied in the direction that extends slightly. Therefore, the film-like resin is laminated in a state in which a constant tension is applied in the direction of extending in the longitudinal direction and in the direction of shrinking in the width direction although it is slight.

  In the present invention, the discharge port is formed in a direction perpendicular to the laminating direction of the long film.

  In the above invention, since the discharge ports are formed in a direction perpendicular to the laminating direction, a plurality of discharge ports are formed by irradiating a laser from the surface where the peelable member is not laminated in a state where the peelable member is stuck on the film-like resin. Even if the peelable member is formed and then peeled off, the peelable member is always laminated with the same tension, so the pitch between the plurality of ejection openings formed in the film-like resin is always before and after the peelable member is peeled off. Change at the same value.

  Moreover, in this invention, when winding the laminated long film, the curved inner side is wound up inside a roll, It is characterized by the above-mentioned.

  In the above invention, by performing the winding direction in the curling direction after lamination, it is possible to prevent variations in the amount of change in the discharge port pitch due to delamination during winding and film rolling.

  As described above, according to the present invention, the peelable member is laminated in a state in which a constant tension stronger than that of the film-like resin is applied, so that the peelable member extends in the longitudinal direction and the width direction. On the other hand, tension acts in the direction of contraction. When the film-like resin is laminated in this state, the peelable member is subjected to inertial force to return to the original state, and tension is applied in the direction of contraction in the longitudinal direction and in the direction of extension in the width direction. On the other hand, tension is applied to the film-like resin in the extending direction in the longitudinal direction and in the contracting direction in the width direction.

  In this state, laser processing is performed from the non-laminated surface, a plurality of discharge ports are formed perpendicular to the laminating direction, and the peelable member is peeled off, the pitch of the film-like resin discharge ports is always reduced before and after peeling. It becomes.

  Also, if the peelable member is laminated with a strong tension, the laminated film-like resin is curled with the peelable member inside, and the film-like resin is less likely to be curled by winding in that direction. Furthermore, it is possible to prevent the laminate from peeling off during winding.

  In addition, since the adhesive force of the peelable member is large enough not to peel at the time of the laser irradiation, and the film-like resin is adjusted to a small value so as not to cause plastic deformation when the adhesive member is removed from the film-like resin, It does not occur that the peelable member is peeled off from the film-like resin at the time of laser irradiation, and minute fragments that are considered to be made of carbon or carbide produced by ablation are attached to the periphery of the discharge port. Moreover, since adhesive force is adjusted, when removing a peelable member from film-form resin, film-form resin does not carry out plastic deformation.

  From the above, it is possible to obtain an orifice plate having good discharge port pitch accuracy and having no by-products during laser ablation around the discharge port.

  Furthermore, by using the orifice plate, a liquid discharge head having high reliability and good print quality can be obtained.

  Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a liquid discharge head to which a discharge head manufacturing method according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied. The orifice plate 40 is shown separately. Reference numeral 50 denotes a substrate in which a plurality of energy generating elements (discharge heaters) 51 arranged on a silicon substrate and electrical wiring such as aluminum for supplying electric power are formed by a film forming technique. Reference numeral 60 denotes a top plate provided with a partition for dividing each of the plurality of liquid paths 61 and a common liquid chamber for storing ink to be supplied to the liquid paths 61, and the ink is supplied from an ink tank (not shown). Is done.

  The head body including the plurality of liquid paths 61 and the plurality of energy generation elements 51 is configured by joining the substrate 50 and the top plate 60 so that the energy generation elements 51 are disposed in the respective liquid paths 61. ing. On the front end surface of the head body, that is, on the surface including the bonding surface 44a of the substrate 50 with the orifice plate 40 and the bonding surface 44b of the top plate 60 with the orifice plate 40 as shown in FIG. An opening is arranged.

  On the other hand, the orifice plate 40 is formed with a plurality of discharge ports 41 respectively communicating with the liquid passages 61. In addition, convex portions 45 that are independent for each of the ejection ports 41 are formed around the ejection ports 41 on the joint surface of the orifice plate 40 with the head main body 46, and the convex portions 45 fit into the liquid path 61. In this state, the head main body 46 and the orifice plate 40 are joined by the adhesive resin 42 at the joining surfaces 44a and 44b.

  In this liquid discharge head, bubbles are generated on the energy generating element 51 by the thermal energy generated from the energy generating element 51 acting on the ink in the liquid path 61, and the bubbles are generated from the discharge port 41. Ink is ejected.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically showing a part of a production line used in the method for producing a liquid ejection head according to the embodiment of the present invention. The production line shown in FIG. 3 is for producing a long film 75 which is a base material of the orifice plate 40 shown in FIG. In this production line, a process of producing a long film 75 by laminating a peelable member 73 on the discharge port forming surface side of the long film resin 74 is performed. As shown in FIG. 3, the pressure-sensitive adhesive 71 is applied while the film base 83 of the peelable member is continuously unwound from the unwinding roll A <b> 70, and is dried in a drying furnace 72. Although this coating was performed using a slot die coating head, a commonly used coating method such as gravure coating or spray coating may be used. Here, a polyethylene terephthalate film (hereinafter referred to as PET film) having a thickness of 20 μm was used as the film base 83 of the peelable member. Here, the film width is 300 mm and the film length is 200 m, but can be arbitrarily set according to the apparatus and specifications. As the adhesive 71, 10 μm of acrylic adhesive was applied and dried at 70 ° C. The line speed was 1 m / min. The aging of the pressure-sensitive adhesive 71 may be completed in the drying furnace 72, or the aging may be terminated after lamination as long as it does not affect the surface of the film-shaped resin.

  The adhesive force was adjusted to such a small value that the film-like resin 74 did not undergo plastic deformation when the peelable member 73 was removed from the film-like resin 74.

  Next, a method for producing a film-like resin will be described. A 50 μm thick polysulfone film (FS1200 manufactured by Sumitomo Bakelite Co., Ltd.) was used as the film resin 74.

  First, a water repellent layer is formed on one surface. As the water repellent treatment agent, CTX-CZ5A manufactured by Asahi Glass Co., Ltd. was used. When forming a water-repellent layer on the surface of the film-like resin, first the hydrophilic surface of the water-repellent agent coating is made hydrophilic by corona treatment, and after silane treatment for improving adhesion, the film-like resin is used using a micro gravure coater. A water repellent was applied while winding 74 in the longitudinal direction, followed by continuous drying at 150 ° C. for 3 minutes. The line speed was 1 m / min. Once wound up, it was post-baked at 140 ° C. for 5 hours. The film-like resin 74 produced in this way is unwound from the unwinding roll B80, and laminated with the peelable member 73 with the laminating roll A76 and laminating roll B77 as shown in FIG. A long film 75 was prepared.

  Next, the adhesive was aged by holding at 40 ° C. for 3 days.

  Next, an ejection port was formed using an excimer laser. The long film was cut in advance by dividing a 300 mm width into a 48 mm width over a total length of 200 m.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram schematically showing a laser processing machine for forming discharge ports in a long film. The laser beam machine shown in FIG. 7 includes an excimer laser oscillator 10, a condensing lens 11 that condenses the laser 13 emitted from the excimer laser oscillator 10, and a laser 13 that passes through the condensing lens 11. A mask 12 for irradiating a predetermined portion is provided. The laser 13 emitted from the excimer laser oscillator 10 is applied to the long film 75 through the condenser lens 11 and the mask 12. The long film 75 is stored in a rolled state. Here, a part of the long film 75 is flattened by unwinding the roll-shaped long film, and the laser 13 is placed on the flat portion. Irradiate. On the surface where the film-like resin 74 and the peelable member 73 are simultaneously processed by irradiating a laser from the surface of the long film 75 where the peelable member 73 is not laminated, and the water-repellent layer 81 of the film-like resin 74 is formed. A plurality of discharge ports 41 having an opening size of φ20 μm and a pitch of 42.3 μm were formed. The discharge port array was formed in a direction perpendicular to the laminating direction of the long film 75 as shown in FIG. Next, the shape corresponding to the convex portion 45 of FIG. 2 was formed around the discharge port 41 by irradiating the laser 13 from the surface of the long film 75 where the peelable member 73 is not laminated. By adjusting the number of pulses, the periphery was removed so that the height of the convex portion was 10 μm.

  Next, the peelable member 73 was peeled while being continuously wound from the film-like resin 74 of the long film 75. Here, the process is performed in a separate process from the laser processing, but a peelable member take-up machine may be attached to the laser processing machine and peeled off immediately after the laser processing.

  When processing as described above is performed, a by-product at the time of discharge port processing by an excimer laser is observed. Since this by-product exists on the peelable member 73, the peelable member 73 is peeled off. Thus, the film-like resin 74 can be removed without being present on the surface of the water-repellent layer 81.

  Next, the long film 75 in which the discharge port 41 was formed and wound in a roll shape was cut into a 1 inch size necessary for each liquid discharge head, and the orifice plate 40 was manufactured.

  Next, a manufacturing method of the liquid discharge head after the orifice plate 40 is manufactured will be described.

  After the orifice plate 40 is created, the orifice plate 40 is bonded to the head main body 46 created in a process different from the process described above by the adhesive resin 42. The adhesive resin 42 used here is made into a B stage (cured intermediate state) while maintaining tackiness by irradiating ultraviolet rays, and after the curing and shrinkage of the adhesive resin 42 is completed, it is subjected to thermocompression bonding or the adhesive resin 42. An epoxy-based adhesive capable of adhering members to each other by further ultraviolet irradiation was used.

  As the adhesive resin, a material that can be bonded only by thermocompression bonding without using the B stage may be used.

  First, the epoxy adhesive resin 42 as described above is transferred to the joint surfaces 44a and 44b of the head body 46 by a transfer method, and ultraviolet rays are irradiated to make the adhesive resin 42 into a B-stage.

  Next, the respective convex portions 45 of the orifice plate 40 are caused to enter the liquid passages 61 corresponding to the respective convex portions 45, and the convex portions 45 are engaged with the tip portions of the liquid passages 61.

Next, a load of 1 kg / cm ² is applied to the orifice plate 40 from the surface of the orifice plate 40 where the convex portion 45 is not formed, and the orifice plate 40 and the head body 46 are brought into close contact with each other and the state is maintained. The orifice plate 40 was thermocompression bonded to the head body 46 at a temperature of 60 ° C. to complete the curing of the adhesive resin.

  The liquid discharge head shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is manufactured through the steps described above.

  According to the manufacturing method of the liquid discharge head of this embodiment, since the peelable member is continuously laminated in a long film shape, the lamination can be performed under certain conditions as compared with the case of laminating with individual films. No air bubbles are generated by air traps.

  Moreover, when laminating the peelable member in a state in which a constant tension stronger than that of the film-like resin is applied, the peelable member acts in a direction extending in the longitudinal direction and a direction shrinking in the width direction. When the film-like resin is laminated in this state, the peelable member is subjected to inertial force to return to the original state, and tension is applied in the direction of contraction in the longitudinal direction and in the direction of extension in the width direction. On the other hand, tension is applied to the film-like resin in the extending direction in the longitudinal direction and in the contracting direction in the width direction.

  When laser processing is performed from the non-laminated surface in this state, a plurality of discharge ports are formed perpendicular to the laminating direction and the peelable member is peeled off, the pitch of the film-like resin discharge ports is always reduced before and after peeling. Become.

  Further, when a strong tension is applied to the peelable member, the laminated film-like resin is curled with the peelable member inside. By winding in that direction, it is difficult for the film-like resin to be sprinkled, and it is possible to prevent the laminate from peeling off during winding.

  Further, since the adhesive force of the peelable member is adjusted so as not to peel at the time of the laser irradiation, and adjusted so that the film-like resin does not undergo plastic deformation when the adhesive member is removed from the film-like resin, It does not occur that the peelable member is peeled off from the film-like resin at the time of laser irradiation, and minute fragments that are considered to be made of carbon or carbide produced by ablation are attached to the periphery of the discharge port. Moreover, since adhesive force is adjusted, when removing an adhesive member from film-form resin, film-form resin does not carry out plastic deformation.

  From the above, it is possible to obtain an orifice plate having good discharge port pitch accuracy and having no by-products during laser ablation around the discharge port.

  Furthermore, by using the orifice plate, a liquid discharge head having high reliability and good print quality can be obtained.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view for explaining a liquid discharge head to which the liquid discharge head manufacturing method of the present invention is applied. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the liquid discharge head shown in FIG. 1 along the flow path direction. The figure which showed typically a part of manufacturing line used for the manufacturing method of the liquid discharge head of this invention. The figure which shows the structure of a elongate film. The figure for demonstrating the lamination direction of the elongate film of the Example of this invention. The figure for demonstrating the discharge port formation method of the elongate film of the Example of this invention. The figure which shows typically the laser processing machine for forming a discharge port in a elongate film.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Excimer laser oscillator 11 Condensing lens 12 Mask 13 Laser 40 Orifice plate 41 Discharge port 42 Adhesive resin 44a Joining surface 44b Joining surface 45 Convex part 46 Head main body 50 Substrate 51 Energy generating element 60 Top plate 61 Liquid path 62 Liquid chamber 64 Supply Port 68 Take-up roll 69 Adhesive supply port 70 Unwind roll A
71 Adhesive 72 Drying furnace 73 Peelable member 74 Film-like resin 75 Long film 76 Laminate roll A
77 Laminate Roll B
78 Tension roll B
79 Tension roll A
80 Unwinding roll B
81 Water repellent layer 82 Adhesive layer 83 Film substrate layer 84 Tension A
85 Tension B

Claims (12)

A head body including a plurality of energy generating elements that generate energy for discharging liquid as flying droplets, and a plurality of flow paths in which each of the plurality of energy generating elements is disposed, and is connected to the head body In the manufacturing method of the orifice plate in a liquid discharge head comprising an orifice plate having a plurality of discharge ports respectively communicating with the flow path,
A process for producing a long film by laminating a long film-like peelable member on the discharge port forming surface side of the long film-like resin in a state where a stronger constant tension is applied to the film-like resin, A step of irradiating a laser from a surface where the peelable part of the film-like resin is not laminated to form a plurality of discharge ports by simultaneously processing the film-like resin and the peelable part; and A method for producing an orifice plate in a liquid discharge head, comprising: a step of peeling from a film-like resin; and a step of cutting the film-like resin into an orifice plate shape.   2. The method for manufacturing an orifice plate in a liquid discharge head according to claim 1, wherein when the laminated long film is wound, the curved inner side is wound on the inner side of the roll.   2. The method for manufacturing an orifice plate in a liquid discharge head according to claim 1, wherein the discharge ports are formed in a direction perpendicular to the laminating direction of the long film.   The adhesive strength of the peelable member is large enough not to peel when irradiated with the laser, and small enough that the film-like resin does not undergo plastic deformation when the peelable member is removed from the film-like resin. A method for manufacturing an orifice plate in the liquid discharge head according to claim 1.   2. The method for manufacturing an orifice plate in a liquid discharge head according to claim 1, wherein a water repellent layer is formed on the surface of the surface on which the peelable part of the film-like resin is laminated.   The method of manufacturing an orifice plate in a liquid discharge head according to claim 1, wherein the laser is an excimer laser.   2. The method for manufacturing an orifice plate in a liquid discharge head according to claim 1, wherein the film base material layer of the peelable member is formed of a material that can be ablated by an excimer laser.   2. The method for manufacturing an orifice plate in a liquid discharge head according to claim 1, wherein the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer of the peelable member is formed of a material that can be ablated by an excimer laser.   2. The orifice in the liquid discharge head according to claim 1, wherein the film-like resin is made of any material of polysulfone, polyethersulfone, polyphenylene sulfide, polyether ether ketone, polyparaphenylene terephthalamide, and polyimide. Plate manufacturing method.   A long film for producing an orifice plate, characterized by being produced by the production method according to any one of claims 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9.   An orifice plate manufactured by the manufacturing method according to claim 1.   A liquid discharge head manufactured using the orifice plate according to claim 11.

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