Seiko Epson Corporation

Osamu Nakamura

Hisashi Miyazawa

Minoru Usui

Takahiro Naka

Yoshinori Miyazawa

Norihiko Kurashima

Satoru Hosono

Shinji Yasukawa

Tomoaki Abe

Takashi Nakamura

Tsuyoshi Kitahara

Masahiro Fujii

Masahiro Kamijo

Takahiro Katakura

Mitsukazu Kurose

Hiroshi Ishii

Takaaki Akiyama

Haruhiko Koto

Shuji Matsuo

Fujio Akahane

Masanao Matsuzawa

Tatsuya Seshimo

Hideaki Sonehara

Hidenori Omae

In an ink jet recording head, after a plate-shaped piezoelectric element is positioned and fixed onto a fixing plate, the piezoelectric element is sliced into a large number of vibrators and the leading ends of the vibrators are embracingly held in positioning holes,respectively formed in a top surface of a holding frame and are thus positioned in the surface direction thereof. Further, a cavity unit is positioned and fixed on the top surface of the holding frame.

Ink jet recording head with mechanism for positioning head components

In an ink recording head having at least four nozzle opening rows, each row having nozzle openings so as to extend straightly in a sheet forward direction, the nozzle opening rows are staggered by a single dot in the sheet forward direction in an order different from the physically arranged order. The maximum distance between nozzle opening rows to print vertically adjacent dots becomes smaller by L1 or L2 than at least the physical maximum distance L1+L3+L2, L1 or L2 being a distance between the outermost nozzle opening row and the inner nozzle opening row. As a result, the relative displacement in the vertical direction can be reduced by such distance L1 or L2 compared with a recording head in which nozzle opening rows are sequentially staggered in the auxiliary scanning direction in the physically arranged order.

Ink jet recording head

In an ink jet recording head, after a plate-shaped piezoelectric element is positioned and fixed onto a fixing plate, the piezoelectric element is sliced into a large number of vibrators and the leading ends of the vibrators are embracingly held in positioning holes 33 respectively formed in a top surface of a holding frame and are thus positioned in the surface direction thereof. Further, a cavity unit is positioned and fixed on the top surface of the holding frame.

Method of making an ink jet recording head

Inkjet head

A method of manufacturing an ink jet head including the steps of: laminating a dry film photoresist 51 on an inner surface of a nozzle plate 2, the dry film photoresist being a photohardening resin; exposing the photoresist 51 with such energy as to half-harden the photoresist while superposing thereon a photomask M1 having a predetermined masking pattern; developing the thus exposed photoresist 51; laminating a photoresist 52; secondarily exposing the photoresists 51, 52 to form a partially hardened portion 5C; bonding an elastic plate on the portion 5C; and integrating the bonded plates while hardening them by heating.

Method of manufacturing ink jet head

An ink jet recording apparatus and method having an ink jet head. The ink jet head includes a housing made of a material having a high coefficient of thermal conductivity, including at least one heat source, and arranged so as to confront a recording medium; an ink holding member arranged inside the housing, the ink holding member transmitting heat generated by the heat source to melt a solid-phase ink put into the housing for holding the molten ink by capillary action; a nozzle formed member being part of the ink holding member and having at least one nozzle orifice arranged so as to confront the recording medium; and a pressure generating member arranged within the ink holding member for generating a pressure which causes ink near the nozzle orifice to jet in the form of ink drops. The ink jet recording method is achieved by the apparatus thus constructed.

Solid ink supply for ink jet

An ink jet printing apparatus in which the ink jet print head is constructed to eliminate problems caused by air bubbles that can be present in fluid hot-melt ink. The apparatus head includes a heater to melt solid ink or lower the viscosity of high viscosity semi-solid ink and a plurality of ink jet nozzles corresponding to a series of piezoelectic vibrating elements that are positioned so that piezoelectric oscillations propel ink through the nozzles. The vibrators and nozzles are spaced so that if air bubbles are present in the melted ink the bubbles will be induced to travel away from the nozzles by piezoelectrically induced agitation so that they do not interfere with ink jet printing. The printer can include a vent hole to provide an exit for the bubbles. The vent hole can be selectively opened and closed.

Hot melt ink jet printing apparatus

An on-demand type ink jet print head including a drive assembly formed from a vibrating plate formed of a piezoelectric layer with an electrode layer on one surface and an electrically conductive, physically resilient layer on the opposite surface of the piezoelectric layer. The vibrating plate is secured to a base and has two opposing edges defining a free space therebetween. The vibrating plate is slit into a plurality of strips and these strips are cross-slit in the widthwise direction to form a row of reed pieces secured to each opposing edge of the base in a cantilever configuration and extending into the free space from each edge toward the reed pieces extending from the opposite edge with a space therebetween. The reed pieces are electrically and mechanically independent of each other and have negligible electrical and mechanical interference with each other. Selective application of an electric field to the piezoelectric layer causes the reed pieces to deflect and jet ink from the print head onto a recording medium.

On-demand type ink jet print head

A hand held printer for printing on a print paper when the printer is manually moved over the surface of the paper is provided, including a print mechanism supported within the housing to print inputted characters and drawings on the print paper upon manual manipulation of the housing. A thermal head is movably supported within the housing. A movement measurement unit indicates movement of the printer. A drive roller drives a ribbon take up roller and movement measurement unit. A clutch allows the drive roller to function only in a printing direction. A spring biases the drive roller towards an operating position, the drive roller moving to the print surface independently of the thermal head when the drive roller is biased by the spring.

Print head and roller biasing mechanism for a hand held thermal printer

A hand held printer for printing on a print paper when the printer is manually moved over the surface of the paper is provided. A single manually manipulatable housing supports an input for imputting characters and drawings to be printed and a display for displaying the inputted characters and drawings. A print mechanism supported within the housing prints the inputted characters and drawings on the print paper upon manual manipulation of the housing. A thermal head is supported within the housing. A thermal transfer ribbon traces a path through the printer. A slide guide which is slidable relative to the print surface supports a slide means. The slide means guides the thermal transfer ribbon to come in contact with the print surface.

Ribbon guiding mechanism

An ink jet printing apparatus in which the ink jet print head is constructed to eliminate problems caused by air bubbles that can be present in fluid hot-melt ink. The apparatus head includes a heater to melt solid ink or lower the viscosity of high viscosity semi-solid ink and a plurality of ink jet nozzles corresponding to a series of piezoelectric vibrating elements that are positioned so that piezoelectric oscillations propel ink through the nozzles. The vibrators and nozzles are spaced so that if air bubbles are present in the melted ink the bubbles will be induced to travel away from the nozzles by peizoelectrically induced agitation so that they do not interfere with ink jet printing.

Growing community of inventors

Nagano, Japan

Osamu Nakamura