JPH09187951A - Method for manufacturing inkjet recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) Abstract: Since the position accuracy of a recording head can be accurately set, the ejection direction of ink droplets is accurate, the printing quality can be significantly improved, and the manufacturing can be performed with a simple manufacturing apparatus. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for manufacturing an inkjet recording device which can shorten the process and has high manufacturing yield and excellent productivity and mass productivity. SOLUTION: A plurality of recording heads each having a nozzle hole for ejecting ink, and a position determining step of mounting and positioning an electric board unit for transmitting an ink ejection control signal to the recording head, and a recording head. The recording head temporary fixing step of temporarily fixing the electric substrate unit, the synthetic resin applying step of applying an elastic synthetic resin to the front surface of the ink supply member in which the ink flow path is formed before curing, and the front surface of the ink supply member And an ink supply member fixing step of joining to the bottom surface of the electric substrate unit and the synthetic resin applied to the bottom surface of the recording head.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an ink jet recording apparatus which ejects ink to print or print on recording paper.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, inkjet recording apparatuses have come to be widely used as output printers for home office computers because of their quietness during recording, high-speed recording capability, and easy colorization. Such an ink jet recording apparatus performs recording by ejecting ink into droplets and ejecting the ink to adhere to recording paper. The inkjet recording apparatus is roughly classified into a continuous method and an on-demand method according to a method of generating droplets and a method of controlling flight direction. . The continuous method is a method disclosed in, for example, US Pat. No. 3,604,029, in which ink droplets are electrostatically attracted and the generated droplets are recorded by selectively adhering the droplets onto a recording paper. Is to do. It is not suitable for high-speed recording because it requires a high voltage to generate small droplets and it is difficult to form multiple nozzles. The on-demand system is a system disclosed in, for example, US Pat. No. 3,474,120, and an electric recording signal is added to a piezoelectric vibrating element attached to a recording head having a nozzle hole for ejecting a small droplet, and this electric signal is transmitted. Recording is performed by changing to mechanical vibration of the piezo-vibration element and causing small droplets to project from the nozzle holes and adhere to the recording paper according to this mechanical vibration. The on-demand method is simple because it ejects ink from the nozzle holes for recording, and unlike the continuous method, it is not necessary to collect the droplets that were not required for recording the medium image of the ejected droplets. Although it is possible to configure, it is difficult to make a multi-nozzle because it is difficult to process the recording head and it is extremely difficult to miniaturize the piezo-vibration element. It had the drawback of not being suitable. As another example of the on-demand method, the method disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,179,042 is easy to form a multi-nozzle having high energy exchange efficiency as compared with a method using mechanical vibration energy by means such as a piezoelectric vibrating element. There is such a feature. In particular, with the recent colorization of computer displays, printers, which are output devices, are also required to be colorized, and inkjet recording apparatuses using heat energy are rapidly expanding for the reasons described above.

A conventional ink jet recording apparatus and its manufacturing method will be described. FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of a conventional inkjet recording apparatus, and FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view of another example of the conventional inkjet recording apparatus. In FIGS. 4 and 5, 100 is a conventional ink jet recording apparatus,
The head case 101 is formed in a box shape and protects each device. In the recording head 102, ink droplets are ejected from a nozzle hole onto recording paper to perform printing or printing. The electric board 103 transmits a control signal for controlling ejection of ink droplets to the recording head 102. Reference numeral 104 is another example of a conventional inkjet recording apparatus. The recording head 105 ejects ink droplets. The base substrate 106 fixes the recording head 105 and at the same time transmits a control signal for operating the recording head 105 to the recording head 105. The recording head unit 107 includes a recording head 105 and a base substrate 106. In the head case 108, the recording head units 107 are arranged in parallel and a plurality of recording heads 105 are arranged. Ink supply member 109
Is connected to an ink flow path (not shown) of the recording head 105 and supplies ink to the recording head 105. The lid 110 is stretched over one surface of the head case 108 to protect each device. The wiring board 111 supplies a control signal, an operation signal, or a current to the base substrate 106. The fixing member 112 fixes the end of the ink supply member 109 to the lid 110.

In the conventional ink jet recording apparatus 100, the recording head 102 is an expensive resin such as PES (polyether sulfone) but an ink cartridge made of a molding material excellent in dimensional accuracy, chemical resistance and mechanical strength, and an epoxy resin. Had been fixed through. Further, in the conventional inkjet recording apparatus 104, the recording head 105
Was fixed using a base substrate 106 and an epoxy-based die bond resin.

Recently, printer users have strongly demanded low price and high image quality. Since low-priced inkjet recording apparatuses are required to have a print quality equivalent to that of electrophotographic printers, inkjet recording apparatus manufacturers have a so-called D number of printing points (dots) per inch.
PI from 300 to 360 DPI to 600 to 720 DPI
The printing quality is improved by doubling. As described above, in order to improve the printing quality, it is necessary to improve the accuracy of accurately ejecting the ejected ink droplets at a predetermined position, that is, the accuracy of landing. Particularly in the case of a color ink jet recording apparatus, the relative landing accuracy of a plurality of recording heads is important because a plurality of colors such as cyan, magenta and yellow are superposed to form a desired color.

[0006]

However, in the above-described conventional method for manufacturing an ink jet recording apparatus, since the recording head is directly fixed to the ink cartridge or the base substrate, the recording is performed by the parallelism or flatness of the ink cartridge or the base substrate. Since the positional accuracy of the head is disturbed, the positional accuracy of the recording head cannot be maintained accurately. Therefore, there is a problem in that the ejection direction of the ink droplets is inaccurate, the landing accuracy of the ink droplets is low, and it is difficult to make printing fine. Further, in the method of fixing the recording heads to the base substrate, in order to arrange a plurality of recording heads in parallel, the positions in the three directions of X, Y and Z must be adjusted for each recording head.
There is a problem that accurate positioning is difficult, and at the same time, positioning is complicated and a large jig or a manufacturing apparatus has to be used, resulting in poor workability and poor productivity and mass productivity.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems of the prior art. Since the positional accuracy of the recording head can be set accurately, the ejection direction of ink droplets becomes accurate, the printing quality can be remarkably improved, and simple manufacturing is possible. An object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing an inkjet recording apparatus that can be manufactured by the apparatus, can shorten the manufacturing process, and has high manufacturing yield and excellent productivity and mass productivity.

[0008]

To achieve this object, the present invention is directed to a plurality of recording heads having nozzle holes for ejecting ink and an electric board unit for transmitting an ink ejection control signal to the recording heads. Positioning step for mounting and positioning the recording head on a fixing jig, temporary recording head fixing step for temporarily fixing the recording head and the electric substrate unit, and synthetic resin applying step for applying elastic synthetic resin to the bottom surface of the recording head before curing. And an ink supply member fixing step of joining the front surface of the ink supply member in which the ink flow path is formed to the bottom surface of the electric substrate unit and the synthetic resin applied to the bottom surface of the recording head.

As a result, the recording heads can be arranged with high density and with high positional accuracy, the ejection direction of the ink droplets can be accurately controlled, and high quality printing and printing can be realized. At the same time, it is possible to obtain a method for manufacturing an inkjet recording apparatus that can simplify the manufacturing apparatus, simplify the manufacturing process, and improve productivity and mass productivity.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The invention according to claim 1 of the present invention comprises a plurality of recording heads provided with nozzle holes for ejecting ink and an electric board unit for transmitting a control signal for ink ejection to the recording heads. A position determining step of mounting and positioning on a fixing jig, a recording head temporary fixing step of temporarily fixing the recording head and the electric substrate unit, and a synthetic resin applying step of applying elastic synthetic resin to the bottom surface of the recording head before curing. , The ink supply member fixing step of joining the front surface of the ink supply member in which the ink flow path is formed to the bottom surface of the electric substrate unit and the synthetic resin applied to the bottom surface of the recording head, the dimensional accuracy By positioning the recording heads on a high fixing jig, it is possible to accurately and densely determine the positional accuracy of the plurality of recording heads arranged in parallel. In addition, since the recording head and the ink supply member are bonded to each other through a synthetic resin having elasticity before being cured and not directly bonded, dimensional error or deformation of the ink supply member does not disturb the positional accuracy of the recording head, and The position can be accurately arranged. Furthermore, since the ink supply member is fixed after positioning with the fixing jig, it is possible to manufacture with a simple device without requiring a special and complicated assembling device.

According to a second aspect of the invention, a plurality of recording heads having nozzle holes for ejecting ink and an electric board unit for transmitting an ink ejection control signal to the recording heads are attached to a fixing jig for positioning. A position determining step, a recording head temporary fixing step of temporarily fixing the recording head and the electric substrate unit, an O ring setting step of mounting an O ring on the bottom surface of the recording head, and an ink supply member with an ink flow path formed. The ink supply member fixing step of joining the front surface to the bottom surface of the electric substrate unit and the O ring mounted on the bottom surface of the recording head is performed, and the recording head and the ink supply member are not directly joined by the O ring. Therefore, the positional accuracy of the recording head is not disturbed by the ink supply member. Further, since the step of hardening the O-ring is not necessary, the manufacturing time can be shortened.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to FIGS. (Embodiment 1) A method of manufacturing an inkjet recording apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. 1A is a cross-sectional view of an essential part showing a position determining step in the first embodiment, and FIG. 1B is a perspective view of an essential part showing a recording head temporary fixing step in the first embodiment. FIG. 1C is a main-portion cross-sectional view showing the ink supply member fixing step in the first embodiment.

1A to 1C, the fixing jig 1 determines the arrangement position of the recording head 6 and the electric board unit A. The pedestal portion 2 is projected on the surface of the fixing jig 1 at a predetermined interval, and the recording head 6 is placed on the upper surface to determine the position of the recording head 6. The base substrate mounting surface 3 mounts the base substrate 8 and determines its position. The air suction hole 4 exhausts air downward, and the recording head 6 and the base substrate 8 placed on the upper surface.
Suction the bottom of the and fix its position. The position determining pins 5 are provided on the upper surface of the fixing jig 1 at predetermined intervals so as to project from the base substrate 8
The position of the base substrate 8 which is inserted into the position determining hole 10 formed in the base substrate 8 is determined. The recording head 6 is internally provided with an ink heating means such as a heater or an electrode. By driving the ink heating means based on image data, bubbles are generated in the ink, and the bubbles are provided in front of the bubbles due to volume expansion of the bubbles. An ink droplet is ejected from the nozzle hole 7a to form an image having an ink dot pattern on the recording paper. The nozzle plate 7 is stretched over the upper surface of the recording head 6 and has nozzle holes 7a.
Are perforated. The base substrate 8 is formed by pressing aluminum. An FPC (flexible pattern cable) 9 has a function of transmitting a control signal, a driving current and the like to the recording head 6, and a copper foil laminated on a base substrate 8 via a thermosetting epoxy resin or the like and etched on a polyimide sheet is formed. It is formed by stacking. The electric board unit A includes a base board 8 and an FPC 9. Positioning hole 1
0 is punched at predetermined positions of the base substrate 8 and the FPC 9 to determine the position of the base substrate 8 and at the same time, the fixing pin 16 of the ink supply member 14 is inserted to fix the ink supply member 14 and the base substrate 8. The driver IC 11 is the base substrate 8
The recording head 6 arranged above is driven. The recording head 6 is provided in the opening 12. The temporary fixing portion 13 is provided between the recording head 6 and the FPC 9 and serves to temporarily fix the both, and is made of an ultraviolet curable resin (UV resin) or the like. The ink supply member 14 supplies ink to the recording head 6 and at the same time fixes and supports the recording head 6 and the base substrate 8 and is molded with a relatively inexpensive polystyrene resin, ABS resin or the like that is easy to mold and is relatively inexpensive. The ink flow path 15 is perforated in the ink supply member 14 to supply ink to the recording head 6. Fixing pin 16
Is provided on the front surface of the ink supply member 14 and is provided with a position determining hole 10
And the base substrate 8 and the ink supply member 14 are fixed. The wire 17 connects the recording head 6 and the driver IC 11 with a gold wire or an aluminum wire by wire bonding. The voids 18 are formed between the recording head 6 and the ink supply member 14 at intervals of 50 to 150 microns so that an error in the positional accuracy of the ink supply member 14 does not disturb the positional accuracy of the recording head 6. The synthetic resin 19 absorbs deformation so that the position of the recording head 6 does not shift when the ink supply member 14 is joined, and seals the ink flow path 15 to prevent ink leakage.

First, as shown in FIG. 1A, the recording head 6 and the electric substrate unit A are placed on the pedestal portion 2 and the base substrate placing surface 3 of the fixing jig 1 to determine their respective positions. The electric board unit A is the position determining pin 5 of the fixing jig 1.
The position determining hole 10 is inserted in the position to determine the position. Since the recording head 6 is brought into contact with the pedestal portion 2, the vertical position is uniquely determined, and it is only necessary to determine the front-back and left-right lateral positions. The driver IC 11 is placed and fixed on the upper surface of the base substrate 8. When the positions of the recording head 6 and the electric board unit A are determined, air is sucked from the air suction holes 4 to fix the recording head 6 and the electric board unit A (position determining step). Next, as shown in FIG. 1B, the recording head 6 and the FPC 9 are erected with an ultraviolet curable resin (UV resin) and then irradiated with ultraviolet rays to be cured to temporarily fix the recording head 6 and the electric substrate unit A. (Recording head temporary fixing step). The fixing jig 1 is removed, and an elastic synthetic resin is applied to the bottom surface of the recording head 6 before curing (synthetic resin applying step). Further, the driver IC 11 and the recording head 6 are connected by wire bonding. As shown in FIG. 1C, the fixing pin 16 of the ink supply member 14 is inserted into the position determining hole 10 and the electric substrate unit A on which the recording head 6 is temporarily fixed is joined to the ink supply member 14. At this time, the ink supply member 14
Since the recording head 6 and the recording head 6 are bonded to each other via the synthetic resin 19, the position where the recording head 6 is temporarily fixed can be secured by the elastic deformability of the synthetic resin 19 (ink supply member fixing step). Synthetic resin 1 by leaving it for a predetermined time
Allow 9 to cure. Furthermore, wire 17 and driver IC
11 is sealed with an epoxy resin or an ultraviolet curable resin to protect it from mechanical and chemical loads.

A sealing material such as an O-ring may be used as the synthetic resin 19. At this time, the synthetic resin application process can be changed to an O-ring installation process.

Next, the ink jet recording apparatus will be described with reference to the drawings. 2 is a perspective view of a main part of the inkjet recording apparatus, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a main part of the head section of the inkjet recording apparatus. In FIG. 2, the skeleton 2
0 incorporates and protects each device. The carriage 21 moves in parallel to move the recording head 6 to a desired position. The ink tank 22 is black for color printing,
Various inks such as cyan, magenta, and yellow are stored separately. The head unit 23 includes a plurality of recording heads 6.
Are arranged. The shaft 24 supports the carriage 21 so that the carriage 21 can freely move in the longitudinal direction. The carriage 21 slides on the platen 25. On the recording paper 26, ink droplets are attached to print or print.

In FIG. 3, the electric board unit A, the recording head 6, the nozzle plate 7, the nozzle holes 7a, and the driver IC 1 are shown.
1, the ink supply member 14, and the head portion 23 have already been described, and a description thereof will be omitted. The joint portion 27 is an ink flow path (not shown) from the ink tank 22 to the ink supply member 14.
Supply ink to. A filter (not shown) for trapping dust and air bubbles is attached to the end of the joint portion 27. The filter has a filtration particle size of about 10μ.
It is intricately meshed with stainless ultrafine wire to make it about m. Ultrasonic welding is used for the filter and the ink supply member 14 to melt and bond the molding material by vibrating frictional heat generated by ultrasonic waves.

[0018]

As described above, according to the present invention, after the recording head and the electric substrate unit are positioned by the fixing jig, the synthetic resin and the O-ring are interposed without directly contacting the recording head and the ink supply member. Since they are joined together, it is possible to accurately set the position accuracy of the recording head, especially the vertical position of the nozzle holes, and to improve the parallel arrangement density of the recording heads. It can be performed. Moreover, a simple manufacturing apparatus can be used, the number of steps can be shortened, workability is excellent, and mass productivity can be improved. Since the driver IC is directly arranged on the metal base substrate made of aluminum or the like having a high thermal conductivity, the thermal conductivity is high, the heat dissipation is excellent, and the durability is high. At the time of wire binding, since the driver IC is mounted on the base substrate which is a rigid body, the vibration absorption rate of ultrasonic vibration is small and the wire bonding is performed reliably and the durability is improved and the production yield is high. Excellent in performance.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1A is a cross-sectional view of an essential part showing a position determining step in the first embodiment. FIG. 1B is a perspective view of an essential part showing a temporary fixing step of a recording head in the first embodiment. Cross-sectional view of main parts showing the ink supply member fixing step in FIG.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a main part of an inkjet recording apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a main part of a head section of the inkjet recording apparatus.

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of a conventional inkjet recording device.

FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view of another example of the conventional inkjet recording apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Fixing jig 2 Base part 3 Base substrate mounting surface 4 Air suction hole 5 Position determination pin 6 Recording head 7 Nozzle plate 7a Nozzle hole 8 Base substrate 9 FPC 10 Position determination hole 11 Driver IC 12 Opening 13 Temporary fixing part 14 Ink supply member 15 Ink flow passage 16 Fixing pin 17 Wire 18 Void 19 Synthetic resin 20 Body 21 Carriage 22 Ink tank 23 Head part 24 Shaft 25 Platen 26 Recording paper 27 Joint part 100 Inkjet recording device 101 Head case 102 Recording head 103 Electric Substrate 104 Inkjet recording device 105 Recording head 106 Base substrate 107 Recording head unit 108 Head case 109 Ink supply member 110 Lid 111 Wiring board 112 Fixing member

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A position determining step for mounting and positioning a plurality of recording heads having nozzle holes for ejecting ink and an electric board unit for transmitting an ink ejection control signal to the recording heads to a fixing jig. A recording head temporary fixing step of temporarily fixing the recording head and the electric substrate unit, and an ink supply member fixing for joining the bottom surface of the electric substrate unit and the bottom surface of the recording head to the front surface of the ink supply member in which the ink flow path is formed. A method for manufacturing an inkjet recording apparatus, which comprises: 2. A position determining step of mounting and positioning a plurality of recording heads having nozzle holes for ejecting ink and an electric board unit for transmitting a control signal of ink ejection to the recording heads to a fixing jig. A recording head temporary fixing step of temporarily fixing the recording head and the electric substrate unit, an O ring setting step of mounting an O ring on the front surface of the ink supply member in which an ink flow path is formed, and a front surface of the ink supply member A method of manufacturing an inkjet recording apparatus, comprising: a bottom surface of the electric substrate unit; and an ink supply member fixing step of bonding to an O-ring mounted on the bottom surface of the recording head.