The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 09, 2000
Filed:
Jan. 22, 1998
Hasashi Takata, Takatsuki, JP;
Naoki Matsui, Sakai, JP;
Minolta Co., Ltd., Osaka, JP;
Abstract
A recording head comprises a first head member that expels large-diameter ink drops and a second head member that expels small-diameter ink drops. Each of the first head member and the second head member is integrally assembled with a top plate, a partition, a vibration plate and a substrate, which are stacked together one on top of the other. The top plate has multiple groove-shaped concave areas in its surface which faces the partition. Covering these concave areas with the partition forms ink cavities housing ink, ink supply chambers housing resupply ink, and ink inlets connecting the ink cavities to their respective ink supply chambers in first head member and second head member. In addition, nozzles connected to the ink cavities are formed in the side opposite from the ink inlets on the top plate. The cross-sectional areas of the ink inlets of the first head member perpendicular to the direction of ink flow are made smaller or the lengths of said ink inlets are made longer than those of the second head member in the direction of ink flow. In contrast, the configurations and sizes of the nozzles of the first and the second head members are identical, and their impedances are also the same. Therefore, the impedance ratio (ink inlet impedance divided by nozzle impedance) is larger for the first head member than for the second head member, but the values of impedance for both head members are set to be within a range of approximately 0.5 to 6.