JP4307795B2 - Droplet discharge head and inkjet recording apparatus - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
[Industrial application fields]
The present invention relates to a droplet discharge head, an ink cartridge, an ink jet recording apparatus, and a method for manufacturing a droplet discharge head.
[0002]
[Prior art]
An ink jet recording apparatus used as an image recording apparatus (image forming apparatus) such as a printer, a facsimile machine, a copying apparatus, a plotter, etc., has a nozzle for ejecting ink droplets and an ink flow path (discharge chamber, pressure chamber, pressurization) communicating with the nozzle. And an ink jet head as a droplet discharge head equipped with a liquid chamber, a liquid chamber, an ink chamber, etc.) and a driving means for pressurizing the ink in the ink flow path. Examples of the droplet discharge head include a droplet discharge head that discharges a liquid resist as droplets and a droplet discharge head that discharges a DNA sample as droplets. The following description will focus on an inkjet head.
[0003]
In such an ink jet recording apparatus, it is necessary to increase the number of nozzles in order to achieve multiple colors, high image quality, and high speed. Therefore, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3261919, an ink chamber corresponding to each nozzle row is formed by a single nozzle plate provided with a plurality of nozzle rows, a silicon substrate, a stainless steel plate, and the like. There is known an ink jet head in which one flow path plate and one vibration plate forming a wall surface of each ink chamber are stacked and fixed to one frame member.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the above-described conventional inkjet head, since the ink chambers corresponding to the plurality of nozzle rows are all formed on one flow path plate, it is inevitable that the flow path plate is enlarged. There are challenges.
[0005]
However, in many cases, the flow path plate is formed by etching a plurality of flow path plate patterns on a silicon wafer, a stainless steel plate, or the like. One large flow path plate and a plurality of small area flow patterns are used. With the road plate, there is a problem that even if the total area is the same, the total area of the flow path plate that can be taken out by the former is reduced, and the loss in the case of failure due to dust or the like increases. Since the flow path plate belongs to an expensive part even in the ink jet head, yield is improved and cost reduction is an essential issue.
[0006]
The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a droplet discharge head capable of improving the yield and reducing the cost, and an ink jet recording apparatus equipped with the droplet discharge head.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
To solve the above problems, the liquid drop discharge head of the present invention, a mounting nozzle plate provided with nozzles for discharging liquid droplets, are each to form a pressurized fluid chamber nozzle is communicated communicating with different nozzles A flow path unit in which a plurality of flow path plates and a deformable vibration plate that forms at least one wall surface of the liquid chamber are stacked, an electromechanical conversion element that deforms the vibration plate, and the electromechanical conversion element are fixed. A plurality of actuator units including one substrate, and the flow path unit and the actuator unit are integrally fixed by a single frame member in which a common liquid chamber is formed .
[0008]
Here, the flow path unit has a configuration having one nozzle plate for a plurality of flow path plates, a configuration having a plurality of diaphragms corresponding to each of the plurality of flow path plates, or a plurality of flow path plates In contrast, a configuration having one diaphragm is provided.
[0010]
Still another droplet discharge head according to the present invention includes a flow path unit in which a nozzle plate, a plurality of flow path plates, and a single vibration plate are stacked, and an actuator unit that includes an electromechanical transducer and a single substrate. The flow path unit and the actuator unit are integrally fixed by a single frame member.
[0011]
In each of the liquid droplet ejection heads according to the present invention, the actuator unit can include an electrical board electrically connected to the electromechanical transducer.
[0012]
An ink jet recording apparatus according to the present invention includes a liquid droplet ejection head according to the present invention that ejects ink droplets.
[0013]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. An ink jet head according to a first embodiment of a droplet discharge head of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 is an exploded perspective view of the head, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the head along the longitudinal direction of the liquid chamber.
[0014]
In this ink jet head, two flow path units 1 and two actuator units 2 corresponding to the respective flow path units 1 are integrally fixed by a single frame member 3, and a nozzle cover 4 is further mounted.
[0015]
Each flow path unit 1 is formed by bonding and laminating a flow path plate 11, a vibration plate 12 bonded to the lower surface of the flow path plate 11, and a nozzle plate 13 bonded to the upper surface of the flow path plate 11. The nozzle communication path 15 a, which is a flow path through which the nozzle 15 that discharges ink droplets, communicates, the pressure liquid chamber 16, and the common liquid chamber 18 for supplying ink to the pressure liquid chamber 16 through the ink supply port 19. An ink supply path 17 is formed.
[0016]
Each actuator unit 2 deforms the diaphragm 12 of the flow path unit 1 to laminate two rows as electromechanical conversion elements which are pressure generating means (actuator means) for pressurizing ink in the pressurized liquid chamber 16. A piezoelectric element 21 and a substrate 22 for bonding and fixing the piezoelectric element 21 are provided. A strut portion 23 is provided between the piezoelectric elements 21. The column portion 23 is a portion formed simultaneously with the piezoelectric element 21 by dividing the piezoelectric element member. However, since the drive voltage is not applied, the column portion 23 is a simple column.
[0017]
In the actuator unit 2, an electrical component member 24 such as an FPC for connection to a drive circuit (drive IC) (not shown) is connected to the piezoelectric element 21 to constitute a unit. By using the electrical component member 24 as a unit component, the handling becomes easy.
[0018]
The frame member 3 is formed with a penetrating portion 31 for accommodating the actuator unit 2, a recess serving as the common liquid chamber 18, and an ink supply hole 32 for supplying ink to the common liquid chamber 18 from the outside. The frame member 3 is formed of, for example, an epoxy resin or polyphenylene sulfite by injection molding.
[0019]
Then, each flow path unit 1 and the actuator unit 2 are joined with an adhesive, and the actuator unit 2 is joined to the frame member 3 with the adhesive 5 to fix the flow path unit 1 and the actuator unit 2 integrally. is doing.
[0020]
And by attaching the nozzle cover 4 to this, the peripheral part of the nozzle plates 15 and 15 (however, the side opposite to the other nozzle plate 15 is excluded from the edge, that is, the head central part side is excluded). In addition, the outer periphery of the head is covered so that ink adhering to the surface of the nozzle plate 15 does not enter the inside. One opening 41 is formed in the nozzle cover 4.
[0021]
Here, the flow path plate 11 is formed by, for example, subjecting a single crystal silicon substrate having a crystal plane orientation (110) to anisotropic etching using an alkaline etching solution such as an aqueous potassium hydroxide solution (KOH), so that the nozzle communication path 15a, The pressurizing liquid chamber 16 and the ink supply passage 17 are formed with recesses and holes, but the invention is not limited to a single crystal silicon substrate, and other stainless steel substrates, photosensitive resins, and the like can also be used.
[0022]
The vibration plate 12 is formed from a nickel metal plate, and is produced by, for example, an electroforming method (electroforming method). Other metal plates, resin plates, or a joining member between a metal and a resin plate are used. It can also be used. The diaphragm 12 has a thin portion 25 for facilitating deformation and a thick portion 26 for joining to the piezoelectric element 21 at a portion corresponding to the pressurized liquid chamber 16 and a portion corresponding to the support portion 23. Also, a thick portion 27 is formed at the joint portion with the frame member 3, the flat surface side is adhesively bonded to the flow path plate 11, the thick portion 25 is adhesively bonded to the piezoelectric element 21, and the thick portion 26 is joined to the support 23 and the thick part 27 is joined to the support 23 (not shown in FIG. 2) and the frame member 3 with the adhesive 5.
[0023]
The nozzle plate 13 forms a nozzle 15 having a diameter of 10 to 30 μm corresponding to each pressurized liquid chamber 16 and is bonded to the flow path plate 1 with an adhesive. The nozzle plate 13 may be made of a metal such as stainless steel or nickel, a combination of a metal and a resin such as a polyimide resin film, silicon, or a combination thereof. Further, a water repellent film is formed on the nozzle surface (surface in the ejection direction: ejection surface) by a known method such as a plating film or a water repellent coating in order to ensure water repellency with ink.
[0024]
The piezoelectric element 12 is a stacked piezoelectric element (here, PZT) in which piezoelectric materials and internal electrodes are alternately stacked. In this embodiment, the ink in the pressurized liquid chamber 16 is pressurized using the displacement in the d33 direction as the piezoelectric direction of the piezoelectric element 21, but the pressure is applied using the displacement in the d31 direction as the piezoelectric direction of the piezoelectric element 21. A configuration may be adopted in which the ink in the liquid chamber 16 is pressurized. Alternatively, a structure in which one row of piezoelectric elements 21 is provided on one substrate 22 may be employed.
[0025]
In the ink jet head configured as described above, by selectively applying a drive pulse voltage of 20 to 50 V to the piezoelectric element 21, the piezoelectric element 21 to which the pulse voltage has been applied expands in the stacking direction, and the diaphragm 12 is deformed in the direction of the nozzle 15, the ink in the pressurized liquid chamber 16 is pressurized by the volume / volume change of the pressurized liquid chamber 16, and ink droplets are ejected (jetted) from the nozzle 15.
[0026]
As the ink droplets are ejected, the liquid pressure in the pressurized liquid chamber 16 decreases, and a slight negative pressure is generated in the pressurized liquid chamber 16 due to the inertia of the ink flow at this time. Under this state, when the voltage application to the piezoelectric element 21 is turned off, the diaphragm 12 returns to the original position, and the pressurized liquid chamber 16 becomes the original shape. To do. At this time, ink is filled from the common liquid chamber 18 into the pressurized liquid chamber 16. Therefore, after the vibration of the ink meniscus surface of the nozzle 5 is attenuated and stabilized, a pulse voltage is applied to the piezoelectric element 21 for discharging the next ink droplet to discharge the ink droplet.
[0027]
Note that the driving method of the head is not limited to the above example (pushing), and it is also possible to perform striking or pulling-pushing depending on the direction to which the driving waveform is given.
[0028]
Thus, in this inkjet head, a plurality of flow path units 1, 1 in which the nozzle plate 13, the flow path plate 11, and the vibration plate 12 are laminated, and the actuator unit 2 including the electromechanical conversion element 21 and the substrate 22, 2, and the plurality of flow path units 1 and 1 and the actuator units 2 and 2 are integrally fixed by one frame member 3, so that the yield of the nozzle plate, the flow path plate and the vibration plate is improved. In addition, the bonding area when these three components are laminated and bonded is not increased, and the loss in the event of a bonding failure is small, so the yield in the bonding process is improved.
[0029]
Next, an inkjet head according to a second embodiment of the droplet discharge head of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of the head, and FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the head along the longitudinal direction of the liquid chamber. Omitted.
[0030]
In this ink jet head, two flow path units 1 and two actuator units 2 corresponding to the respective flow path units 1 are integrally fixed by a single frame member 3, and a nozzle cover 4 is further mounted. 4, the nozzle plate of each flow path unit 1 is formed by forming a central cover portion 43 covering the gap A generated between the flow path units 1 and 1 at the central portion in the nozzle arrangement direction of the openings 41 of the first embodiment. The two openings 42 and 42 corresponding to 13 and 13 are formed.
[0031]
As a result, the gap A generated between the flow path units 1 and 1 is covered with the central cover portion 43 of the nozzle cover 4, so that the ink on the surface of the nozzle plate 13 enters the gap A by the head maintenance / recovery operation (wiping or the like). Further, it is possible to prevent the image stains that are accumulated and the accumulated ink falls on the recording medium during the recording operation and contaminates the recording surface.
[0032]
Next, an inkjet head according to a third embodiment of the droplet discharge head of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view of the head, and FIG. 6 is a sectional view of the head along the longitudinal direction of the liquid chamber. Omitted.
[0033]
This ink jet head includes a flow path unit 1 in which one nozzle plate 13, two flow path plates 11 and 11 and two vibration plates 12 and 12 are stacked, and two flow path plates 11 and 11 of the flow path unit 1. The corresponding two actuator units 2 are integrally fixed with one frame member 3, and a nozzle cover 4 is further mounted. The nozzle cover 4 has a single opening 41 as in the first embodiment. It is a thing.
[0034]
In this way, by using one nozzle plate 13 for the two flow path plates 11, 11, the gap A formed between the two flow path plates 11, 11 is covered with the nozzle plate 13. The ink on the surface of the nozzle plate 13 penetrates into and accumulates in the gap A due to the maintenance and recovery operation (wiping or the like), and further, the accumulated ink falls on the recording medium during the recording operation and stains the recording surface. Can be prevented.
[0035]
In addition, the single nozzle plate 13 improves the positional accuracy between the nozzle rows, and since the nozzle plate 13 is one surface, it is easy to perform the wiping operation by the head maintenance mechanism, and only one cap on the nozzle surface is required. It becomes like this.
[0036]
Next, an inkjet head according to a fourth embodiment of the droplet discharge head of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 7 is an exploded perspective view of the head, and FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view of the head along the longitudinal direction of the liquid chamber. Omitted.
[0037]
This ink jet head corresponds to the two flow path plates 11 and 11 of the flow path unit 1 and the flow path unit 1 in which one nozzle plate 13, two flow path plates 11, 11 and one vibration plate 12 are laminated. The two actuator units 2 are integrally fixed by a single frame member 3, and a nozzle cover 4 is further mounted. The nozzle cover 4 has a structure having one opening 41 as in the first embodiment. It is.
[0038]
Thus, the nozzle plate 13 covers the gap A formed between the two flow path plates 11 and 11 by using the nozzle plate 13 and the vibration plate 12 for the two flow path plates 11 and 11 as one. As a result of the head maintenance and recovery operation (wiping, etc.), the ink on the surface of the nozzle plate 13 penetrates into and accumulates in the gap A, and the accumulated ink falls onto the recording medium during the recording operation and stains the recording surface. Can be prevented.
[0039]
In addition, the single nozzle plate 13 improves the positional accuracy between the nozzle rows, and since the nozzle plate 13 is one surface, it is easy to perform the wiping operation by the head maintenance mechanism, and only one cap on the nozzle surface is required. It becomes like this.
[0040]
In addition, since one diaphragm 12 is used, all the flow path plates 11 and 11 can be joined to the diaphragm 12, and even when adhesive unevenness occurs when the frame member and the diaphragm are joined. Further, it is possible to prevent a step from occurring on the bonding surface between the nozzle plate and the flow path plate.
[0041]
Next, an ink cartridge provided with a droplet discharge head according to the present invention will be described with reference to a perspective explanatory view of FIG.
The ink cartridge 100 is obtained by integrating the ink jet head 102 according to any of the above embodiments having the nozzle 101 and the like, and the ink tank 103 that supplies ink to the ink jet head 102.
[0042]
Thus, in the case of an ink tank integrated head, a defective head immediately leads to a defect of the entire ink cartridge. Therefore, the yield of the head can be improved, so that the yield of the entire head integrated ink cartridge can be improved.
[0043]
Next, an example of an ink jet recording apparatus equipped with an ink jet head which is a liquid droplet ejection head according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 10 is a perspective explanatory view of the recording apparatus, and FIG. 11 is a side explanatory view of a mechanism portion of the recording apparatus.
[0044]
This ink jet recording apparatus includes a carriage movable in the main scanning direction inside the recording apparatus main body 111, a recording head comprising the ink jet head according to the present invention mounted on the carriage, an ink cartridge for supplying ink to the recording head, and the like. A paper feed cassette (or a paper feed tray) 114 on which a large number of sheets 113 can be stacked from the front side is detachably attached to the lower part of the apparatus main body 111. In addition, the manual feed tray 115 for manually feeding the paper 113 can be opened, the paper 113 fed from the paper feed cassette 114 or the manual feed tray 115 is taken in, and the printing mechanism unit 112 takes the required After the image is recorded, it is discharged to a discharge tray 116 mounted on the rear side.
[0045]
The printing mechanism 112 holds a carriage 123 slidably in the main scanning direction by a main guide rod 121 and a sub guide rod 122 which are guide members horizontally mounted on left and right side plates (not shown). (Y), cyan (C), magenta (M), black (Bk) each head is composed of an ink jet head that is a liquid droplet ejection head according to the present invention for ejecting ink droplets of each color, and a plurality of ink ejection openings are mainly used. They are arranged in a direction crossing the scanning direction and mounted with the ink droplet ejection direction facing downward. Also, each ink cartridge 125 for supplying each color ink to the head 124 is replaceably mounted on the carriage 123. A head integrated ink cartridge can also be used.
[0046]
The ink cartridge 125 has an air port that communicates with the atmosphere upward, a supply port that supplies ink to the inkjet head below, and a porous body filled with ink inside, and the capillary force of the porous body Thus, the ink supplied to the inkjet head is maintained at a slight negative pressure.
[0047]
Further, although the heads 124 of the respective colors are used here as the recording heads, a single head having nozzles for ejecting ink droplets of the respective colors may be used.
[0048]
Here, the carriage 123 is slidably fitted to the main guide rod 121 on the rear side (downstream side in the paper conveyance direction), and is slidably mounted on the sub guide rod 122 on the front side (upstream side in the paper conveyance direction). is doing. In order to move and scan the carriage 123 in the main scanning direction, a timing belt 130 is stretched between a driving pulley 128 and a driven pulley 129 that are rotationally driven by a main scanning motor 127. The carriage 123 is reciprocally driven by forward and reverse rotation of the main scanning motor 127.
[0049]
On the other hand, in order to convey the sheet 113 set in the sheet cassette 114 to the lower side of the head 124, the sheet 113 is guided from the sheet feeding cassette 114 to the sheet feeding roller 131 and the friction pad 132. A guide member 133, a transport roller 134 that reverses and transports the fed paper 113, a transport roller 135 that is pressed against the peripheral surface of the transport roller 134, and a tip that defines the feed angle of the paper 113 from the transport roller 134 A roller 136 is provided. The transport roller 134 is rotationally driven by a sub-scanning motor 137 through a gear train.
[0050]
A printing receiving member 139 is provided as a paper guide member that guides the paper 113 fed from the transport roller 134 on the lower side of the recording head 124 corresponding to the movement range of the carriage 123 in the main scanning direction. On the downstream side of the printing receiving member 139 in the paper conveyance direction, a conveyance roller 141 and a spur 142 that are rotationally driven to send the paper 113 in the paper discharge direction are provided, and paper discharge that further sends the paper 113 to the paper discharge tray 116 A roller 143 and a spur 144, and guide members 145 and 146 forming a paper discharge path are disposed.
[0051]
At the time of recording, the recording head 124 is driven according to the image signal while moving the carriage 123, thereby ejecting ink onto the stopped sheet 113 to record one line. Record the line. Upon receiving a recording end signal or a signal that the trailing edge of the sheet 113 reaches the recording area, the recording operation is terminated and the sheet 113 is discharged. In this case, the inkjet head according to the present invention constituting the head 124 has improved controllability of ink droplet ejection and suppressed characteristic fluctuations, so that an image with high image quality can be recorded stably.
[0052]
A recovery device 147 for recovering defective ejection of the head 124 is disposed at a position outside the recording area on the right end side in the movement direction of the carriage 123. The recovery device 147 includes a cap unit, a suction unit, and a cleaning unit. The carriage 123 is moved to the recovery device 147 side during printing standby, and the head 124 is capped by the capping unit, and the ejection port portion is kept in a wet state to prevent ejection failure due to ink drying. Further, by ejecting ink that is not related to recording during recording or the like, the ink viscosity of all the ejection ports is made constant and stable ejection performance is maintained.
[0053]
When a discharge failure occurs, the discharge port (nozzle) of the head 124 is sealed by the capping unit, and bubbles and the like are sucked out from the discharge port by the suction unit through the tube. Is removed by the cleaning means to recover the ejection failure. Further, the sucked ink is discharged to a waste ink reservoir (not shown) installed at the lower part of the main body and absorbed and held by an ink absorber inside the waste ink reservoir.
[0054]
Thus, in this ink jet recording apparatus, since the present invention is equipped with a low cost ink jet head, the cost can be reduced.
[0055]
In the above embodiment, the liquid droplet ejection head according to the present invention is applied to an ink jet head. However, a liquid droplet other than ink, for example, a liquid droplet ejection head for ejecting a liquid resist for patterning, a gene analysis sample The present invention can also be applied to a droplet discharge head for discharging.
[0056]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the liquid drop discharge head of the present invention, and Roh nozzle plate provided with nozzles for discharging liquid droplets, are each to form a pressurized fluid chamber nozzle is communicated communicating with different nozzles A flow path unit in which a plurality of flow path plates and a deformable vibration plate that forms at least one wall surface of the liquid chamber are stacked, an electromechanical conversion element that deforms the vibration plate, and the electromechanical conversion element are fixed. And a plurality of actuator units including one substrate, and the flow path unit and the actuator unit are integrally fixed by a single frame member in which a common liquid chamber is formed. As well as improving the bonding yield, the cost can be reduced, the head maintenance operation is facilitated, and image smearing can be prevented.
[0057]
According to another droplet discharge head according to the present invention, a flow path unit in which a nozzle plate, a plurality of flow path plates, and a plurality of vibration plates are stacked, and an actuator unit including an electromechanical conversion element and one substrate. Since the flow path unit and the actuator unit are integrally fixed with one frame member, the yield of the components of the flow path unit is improved and the joining yield is also improved, so that the cost can be reduced and the head maintenance operation is performed. Can be prevented, and image smearing can be prevented.
[0058]
According to still another droplet discharge head according to the present invention, a flow path unit in which a nozzle plate, a plurality of flow path plates, and a single vibration plate are laminated, an actuator unit including an electromechanical transducer and a single substrate, Since the flow path unit and the actuator unit are integrally fixed with one frame member, the yield of the components of the flow path unit is improved and the joining yield is also improved, so that the cost can be reduced and the head can be maintained. The operation is facilitated, image smearing can be prevented, and further, it is possible to prevent a step from being generated between the nozzle plate and the flow path plate.
[0059]
Since the ink jet recording apparatus according to the present invention includes the liquid droplet ejection head according to the present invention that ejects ink droplets, the yield of the head can be improved and the cost of the recording apparatus can be reduced.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of an ink jet head according to a first embodiment of a droplet discharge head of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the head along the longitudinal direction of a liquid chamber. FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of an inkjet head according to a second embodiment of the discharge head. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view along the longitudinal direction of the liquid chamber of the head. Exploded perspective view of the inkjet head FIG. 6 is a sectional explanatory view along the longitudinal direction of the liquid chamber of the head. FIG. 7 is an exploded perspective explanatory view of the inkjet head according to the fourth embodiment of the droplet discharge head of the invention. 8 is a sectional view of the head along the longitudinal direction of the liquid chamber. FIG. 9 is a perspective view of an ink cartridge integrally formed with the droplet discharge head according to the present invention. FIG. 10 is equipped with the droplet discharge head according to the present invention. Inkjet Side view of a mechanism portion of the perspective view FIG. 11 the recording apparatus illustrating an example of the recording apparatus [Description of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Channel unit, 2 ... Actuator unit, 3 ... Frame member, 4 ... Nozzle cover, 11 ... Channel plate, 12 ... Vibration plate, 13 ... Nozzle plate, 15 ... Nozzle, 16 ... Pressurized liquid chamber, 17 ... Ink supply path, 18 ... Common liquid chamber.

Claims (6)

Formation and Bruno nozzle plate provided with nozzles for ejecting liquid droplets, a plurality of channel plate, each forming a pressurized fluid chamber in which the nozzle communicates communicates with the different nozzles, at least one wall of said liquid chamber A flow path unit in which a deformable diaphragm is laminated,
An electromechanical transducer that deforms the diaphragm, and a plurality of actuator units including one substrate that fixes the electromechanical transducer;
A liquid droplet ejection head, wherein the flow path unit and the actuator unit are integrally fixed by a single frame member in which a common liquid chamber is formed . 2. The liquid droplet ejection head according to claim 1, wherein the flow path unit has one nozzle plate for the plurality of flow path plates. 3. The droplet discharge head according to claim 1, wherein the flow path unit includes a plurality of vibration plates corresponding to the plurality of flow path plates. 4. 3. The droplet discharge head according to claim 2 , wherein the flow path unit has one vibration plate for the plurality of flow path plates. 4. In the liquid droplet ejecting head according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the droplet discharge head to the actuator unit, which comprises an electrical component mounting board that is electrically connected to the electro-mechanical conversion element. 6. An ink jet recording apparatus comprising a liquid droplet ejecting head for ejecting ink droplets, wherein the liquid droplet ejecting head is the liquid droplet ejecting head according to any one of claims 1 to 5 .

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