Xaar Technology Limited

Colin Brook

Michael Walsh

Alin Ristea

Chris Gosling

Athanasios Kanaris

Alfonso Cameno Salinas

John Philip Tatum

Nicholas Marc Jackson

Jesus Garcia Maza

Peter Boltryk

Artur Tomasz Jedynak

Sebastien Roger Gabriel Degraeve

Michael Watson

Edward Burton

James Caie

Ryan McCormick

James Arnold

Jonathan Barker

An actuator component for a droplet ejection head; wherein said actuator component comprises a substrate and one or more strips of piezoelectric material fixedly attached to said substrate; wherein said one or more strips of piezoelectric material comprise one or more layers of piezoelectric material, and an array of fluid chambers defined within said one or more strips of piezoelectric material and extending in an array direction; wherein said actuator component further comprises one or more cover parts; wherein the or each cover part extends in said array direction and is fixedly attached to at least one of a side face of one of said strips of piezoelectric material and/or at least a portion of said substrate; and wherein said one or more cover parts comprise a plurality of openings so as to enable fluid to be supplied to selected ones of said fluid chambers through said openings. Associated methods of manufacturing an actuator component for a droplet ejection head are also provided.

Actuator component for a droplet ejection head and method for manufacturing the same

A manifold component for a droplet ejection head, the manifold component comprising: a mount for receiving an actuator component that provides one or more rows of fluid chambers, each chamber being provided with a respective at least one actuating element and a respective at least one nozzle, the at least one actuating element for each chamber being actuable to eject a droplet of fluid in an ejection direction through the corresponding at least one nozzle, each row extending in a row direction; a manifold chamber, which extends from a first end to a second end, and widens from said first end to said second end, the second end providing fluidic connection, in parallel, to at least a group of chambers within said one or more rows and being located adjacent said mount; and at least one port, each port opening into the manifold chamber at the first end thereof; wherein at least one portion between the first end and second end of the manifold chamber is shaped as a hyperbolic acoustic horn.

Droplet ejection head, manifold component therefor, and design method

A droplet deposition head includes: one or more manifold components, providing one or more fluid inlets, each of which is connectable to a fluid supply system so that the head can receive a corresponding droplet fluid; and two or more arrays of fluid chambers, each chamber being provided with a respective actuating element and a respective nozzle, each actuating element being actuable to eject a droplet of fluid in an ejection direction through the corresponding one of the nozzles, each array extending in an array direction. The head extends, in the ejection direction, from a first end, at which the one or more fluid inlets are located, to a second end, at which the arrays of fluid chambers are located. One or more branched inlet paths are provided within the manifold components over a first portion of their height in the ejection direction, each of the branched paths being fluidically connected so as to receive fluid at a main branch thereof from a respective one of the fluid inlets, branching at one or more branching points into two or more sub-branches, and culminating in a plurality of end sub-branches, to which fluid is conveyed. A plurality of widening inlet chambers is provided within the manifold components over a second portion of their height in the ejection direction, the width of each widening inlet chamber in the array direction increasing with distance in the ejection direction from a first end to a second end thereof, the first end being fluidically connected so as to receive fluid from one or more of the branched paths and the second end being fluidically connected so as to supply fluid to one or more of the arrays. Each of the branched inlet paths is fluidically connected so as to supply fluid to two or more of the widening inlet chambers. Also provided are manifold components, which include a plurality of layers, for a droplet deposition head.

Droplet deposition head and manifold components therefor

A droplet deposition apparatus, such as an inkjet printhead, that includes an integrally-formed manifold component and one or more actuator components; these actuator components provide an first array of fluid chambers, each of which has a piezoelectric actuator element and a nozzle, with this piezoelectric actuator element being able to cause the release in a deposition direction of fluid droplets through the nozzle in response to electrical signals; the first array of fluid chambers extends in an array direction from a first longitudinal end to a second, opposite longitudinal end, this array direction being perpendicular to the deposition direction; in addition, the manifold component is elongate in the array direction and includes a first and second manifold chambers, with these manifold chambers extending side-by-side in the array direction and the first manifold chamber being fluidically connected to the second manifold chamber via each of the fluid chambers in the first array; the cross-sectional area of at least one of these manifold chambers is tapered with distance in the array direction, for example to improve purging of the chambers during start-up; the cross-sectional shape of the integrally-formed manifold component perpendicular to the array direction varies with distance in the array direction such that the centroid of the cross-section remains a substantially constant distance, in said deposition direction, from said array of fluid chambers over the length of the first array of fluid chambers, with the integrally-formed manifold component thus being essentially self-stiffening.

Droplet deposition apparatus and method for manufacturing the same

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Cambridge, United Kingdom

Colin Brook