JPH062419B2 - Print record head - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a print recording head for applying an electric signal to a print recording medium.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a printing method for forming an image by converting an electric signal into heat energy, melting the ink with the heat energy, and transferring the ink to a sheet, an electric recording method, for example, a support capable of generating heat ( A print recording medium comprising a heating electrode) and a hot-melt ink layer that is melted by heat generated by the return electrode layer and the heat generating layer is used, and a support for the print recording medium is used.
A print recording head with needle electrodes arranged in parallel is pressed into contact, heat is applied to the support in the area to which an electrical signal is applied by the needle electrodes, and only the hot-melt ink layer in that area is melted to form paper. An image forming method of transferring is proposed.

As a print recording head used in such a recording system, as shown in FIG. 3, a plurality of recording electrodes 1 are formed in parallel on a plate-shaped rigid body 4, and an insulating resin 5 is provided between the recording electrodes. A print recording head having an insulating protective layer 6 made of an insulating resin formed thereon (for example, JP-A-60-
No. 124265), or a return recording electrode having a larger contact area than the recording electrode is integrally provided, and the recording electrode and the return electrode are integrated (see, for example, JP-A-59-171666). ) Has been proposed, the parallel end surfaces of the recording electrodes of these print recording heads are pressed against each other at a substantially right angle from the support side of the print recording medium to energize to obtain a recorded image.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, in these conventional print recording heads, since the recording electrodes formed in parallel are provided on a rigid support such as ceramic, and the head itself has no flexibility, the print recording If the pressure-contact surface of the medium is uneven, the recording electrodes are partially out of contact with each other, which causes a defect in printing dots. In particular, when the recording electrodes are made more complicated and full-lined (longer), there is a problem that such a partial contact failure of the recording electrodes causes a serious image defect.

The present invention has been made to solve the above drawbacks.

That is, an object of the present invention is to provide a print recording head for energization recording, which can always make stable pressure contact sliding contact with a print recording medium and which does not cause image defects.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a print recording head for energization recording which does not cause image defects for a long period of time.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a print recording head capable of reducing the pressure contact pressure to the print recording medium.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a print recording head for energization recording having a recording electrode with a high density.

Means for Solving the Problems The present inventors, as a print recording head for solving the problems in the above-mentioned prior art, a wiring film having a plurality of recording electrodes previously provided in parallel on an insulating layer, We proposed a print recording head with a structure in which an elastic layer and a rigid substrate are sequentially laminated.However, as a result of further study focusing on the thickness of the recording electrode of the print recording head, as a result, the recording electrode has a predetermined thickness. It was found that even better results can be obtained in the case of using the above-mentioned method, and the present invention has been completed.

That is, the print recording head of the present invention has a structure in which a wiring film in which a plurality of recording electrodes are provided in parallel on an insulating layer, an elastic layer, and a rigid substrate are sequentially laminated, and The recording electrode has a thickness of 30 μm or more.

The first embodiment of the configuration of the print recording head of the present invention corresponds to the embodiment.
Explaining with reference to the drawings, a plurality of recording electrodes 1 having a thickness of 30 μm or more are provided in parallel on an insulating layer 2 to form a wiring film. The wiring film, the elastic layer 3 and the board are formed. The rigid body 4 is sequentially laminated.

In the present invention, it is preferable to provide an insulating protective layer on the surface of the print recording head, but in that case, it is necessary to provide the recording electrode at the edge portion that rubs during print recording.

Action The print recording head of the present invention is used when a recorded image is obtained by the electric recording method. That is, the print recording head is brought into pressure contact with a print recording medium having an ink layer that melts due to heat generation, and a plurality of electrodes at the ends of the print recording head are brought into sliding contact with the print recording medium. In response to the electric signal from the print recording head, the heat generating layer of the print recording medium generates heat,
The ink layer in the heated portion is melted and transferred onto the transfer material, and recording is performed.

In this case, since the elastic layer 3 is provided on the plate-shaped rigid body 4, even if there are irregularities or undulations on the surface of the print recording medium, which is the pressure contact surface, the elastic layer of the print recording head does not contact the pressure contact surface. The recording electrodes of the print recording head are always kept in good contact with each other due to deformation corresponding to the unevenness or waviness of the print recording head. However, the print recording head of the present invention has a structure in which the recording electrodes have a thickness of 30 μm or more. Therefore, the efficiency of the pressure contact pressure to the electrodes is high, and each electrode has a function of independently responding to the unevenness of the surface of the print recording medium under the pressure contact state, that is, an independent suspension function. Even if one electrode is repelled due to the unevenness and the obstacle, the adjacent electrodes are unlikely to have poor contact.

EXAMPLES Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the examples shown in the drawings.

1 (a) and 1 (b) are a longitudinal sectional view and a lateral sectional view, respectively, of an embodiment of the present invention.

The print recording head includes a wiring film having a plurality of recording electrodes 1 provided in parallel on an insulating layer 2, an elastic layer 3,
It has a structure in which the rigid substrate 4 and the rigid substrate 4 are sequentially laminated by adhesion.

The insulator layer 2 is made of an insulating film (polyimide, polyester, or other heat-resistant plastic) having elastic properties, on which a plurality of recording electrodes 8 (Ni, Cr, Au,
Ag, Cu, Ta, Ti, Fe, Al, W, Zn, S
n, Pt, Pb and a conductive metal such as an alloy containing them) are provided in parallel to form a wiring film. That is, a conductive metal film having a thickness of 20 μm is formed on an insulating film, patterned, and the patterned metal film is thickened to form a wiring film in which a plurality of applied electrodes are arranged in a high-density parallel state. It

The metal film can be formed by a method such as adhesion of metal foil, vacuum deposition, sputtering deposition film, and electroless plating. The patterning can be performed by a photolithography etching method, a laser drawing method, an electron beam drawing method, a plasma dry etching method, or the like.
On the patterned metal film, a pattern electrode is thickened by an electrolytic plating method, an electroforming method, or the like to form a recording electrode made of a patterned metal having a thickness of 30 to 80 μm.

The elastic layer 3 is made of silicon rubber, urethane rubber, synthetic rubber, natural rubber, various porous materials, foaming materials, or the like. It is preferable that the elastic layer has a thickness of 8 to 30 μm and a hardness of 20 to 50 in terms of spring hardness A type defined by JIS K6301. This is because when the spring hardness is 20 or less, a sufficient pressure contact pressure is not applied to the recording electrode, and when a large pressure contact pressure is applied to the print recording head, the recording electrode and the plate-shaped rigid body are locked, This is because elastic pressure contact is not performed, and when the spring hardness is 50 or more, the responsiveness to the irregularities on the surface of the print recording medium deteriorates and the probability of contact failure of the recording electrode increases.

The plate-shaped rigid body 4 as a support is made of metal, plastic, ceramic or the like, and has a thickness of 500 μm.
The above is sufficient. The plate-shaped rigid body acts so that the pressure contact pressure from the print recording head side is effectively and uniformly applied.

When recording, the print recording head of the present invention is brought into pressure contact with a print recording medium having an ink layer that melts due to heat generation. The press contact may be performed in a direction perpendicular to the print recording medium, but it is advantageous to perform the press contact at a certain angle. The reason is that when pressure is applied at an angle, the escape direction of the print recording head can be secured against the irregularities on the surface of the print recording medium,
Also, it is possible to reduce the pressure contact pressure to the print recording medium.

When the print recording head of the present invention is brought into pressure contact with a print recording medium, it is necessary that the back pressure contact material, for example, the back pressure contact roll, located on the back surface of the transfer material is a rigid body.

In the present invention, the return path electrode may be provided integrally with the print recording head or may be provided separately. When the return path electrode is provided on the same side as the signal application needle electrode to form a closed circuit, the press contact area of the return path electrode with respect to the print recording medium must be made sufficiently larger than that of the signal application needle electrode. In addition, an electrode taken out from the conductive layer may be provided in the non-printing portion of the print recording medium, and the closed circuit may be formed by sliding this electrode with another electrode.

The print recording medium used when recording is performed by the print recording head of the present invention is a heat-melting layer that melts due to heat generation of the heat-generating layer, the conductive layer and the heat-generating layer when the electric signal corresponding to the image from the pressure-contacting electrode is input. Of those having an ink layer, a particularly preferable one is one in which a large number of electrically isolated microelectrodes are provided on the surface of the print recording medium on which the electrodes are in pressure contact. An ink release layer made of a low surface energy substance may be provided between the conductive layer and the hot melt ink layer.

In this print recording medium, the volume specific resistance value of each of the microelectrodes needs to be lower than the volume specific resistance value of the layer provided with the microelectrodes, but preferably 1 /
It has a value of 100 or less.

As a specific material for forming these microelectrodes, A
u, Cu, Cr, Al, Ni, Fe, Pt, Ta, A
g, metal such as Zn, RuO ₂ , SiC, WC, MoSi
₂ , conductive ceramics such as TiC and the like, polyacetylene, polymer substances in which conductive substances are dispersed, etc. may be used as long as they have conductivity, but the volume specific resistance value is 10 ³ Ωcm or less, preferably 10 ^−2. Ωcm or less. The thickness of the electrode is preferably 40 μm or less, preferably 10 μm or less.

The specific resistance value of the heating layer provided with the microelectrodes is 10
^-3 Ωcm to 10 ³ Ωcm, preferably 10 ^-1 to 1
It is in the range of 0 ² Ωcm.

In the following, more specific examples of the print recording head of the present invention will be shown.

Example 1 Cu was vapor-deposited on a 15 μm polyimide film to a thickness of 8 μm by a vacuum vapor deposition method, and a stripe resist having a pitch of 125 μm and a width of 45 μm was formed on the vapor-deposited film by photolithography. Next, metal etching was performed with a ferric chloride solution, and then the resist film was peeled off with an organic solvent to prepare a film having a metal pattern. Put this film in a copper plating solution, connect the applied electrode to the metal pattern part, and apply electricity at 5 A for 4.5 hours to obtain a thickness of 43
A μm pattern electrode was created. The stripe width was 80 μm.

A film having this thick pattern electrode is adhered to a rubber plate having a thickness of 3 mm and a spring hardness of 25 according to JIS K6301, and an aluminum plate having a thickness of 3 mm is adhered to the other surface with a silicone adhesive to perform stylus printing. An electrode head was created. The obtained print recording head was evaluated by the experiment shown in FIG. That is, the print recording head 9 was pressed against an aluminum drum 8 having a width of 200 mm using a weight 7 and the amount of pressurization was changed to evaluate the conduction state of the electrodes. Further, the drum was rotated for 150 hours, and the thickness of the remaining wear electrode was measured.

In the table below, the conduction failure rate means the conduction failure rate at the initial stage (before the abrasion test), and the electrode thickness means the thickness after the abrasion test (after the running).

Comparative Example 1 A print recording head was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1. However, the patterned metal electrode was not thickened. When the obtained print recording head was evaluated in the same manner as in Example 1, the following results were obtained.

Example 2 A film having a metal pattern made of Cu was produced in the same manner as in Example 1, and then a film was formed by nickel electroforming.
The current of A is passed for 6.3 hours, and nickel is put on Cu for 30 hours.
μm was piled up. A rubber plate having a thickness of 5 mm and a spring hardness of 35 was adhered to the film having the film thickness pattern electrode, and a stainless steel plate having a thickness of 2 mm was adhered to the other surface of the rubber plate to prepare a print recording head. When this print recording head was evaluated in the same manner as in Example 1, the following results were obtained.

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION As is clear from the comparison in the above examples, the print recording head of the present invention has a structure in which an elastic layer is provided on a plate-shaped rigid body, and each is provided on an insulating layer. Since the thickness of the recording electrode is 30 μm or more, when recording is performed on a transfer material by a current recording method using a print recording medium, contact failure may occur due to the unevenness of the surface of the print recording medium or the floating of the recording electrode. It can be prevented. Therefore,
Stable pressure contact and sliding contact are always possible, and a recorded image without defects can be obtained. Therefore, the density of the recording electrodes can be increased, and image defects will not occur for a long period of time. Furthermore, the press contact of the print recording head can be performed at an angle to further lower the press contact pressure against the print recording medium.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 (a) and 1 (b) are a longitudinal sectional view and a lateral sectional view, respectively, of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of an experiment for evaluating the effect of the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 11 is a front view of a conventional print recording head. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Recording electrode, 2 ... Insulator layer, 3 ... Elastic body layer, 4 ... Rigid body, 5 ... Insulating resin, 6 ... Insulating protective layer, 7 ... Weight, 8
... aluminum drum, 9 ... print recording head.

Front page continuation (72) Inventor Kiyoshi Horie 2274 Hongo, Ebina, Ebina, Kanagawa Prefecture Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.Ebina Business Office (72) Inventor, Masakazu Kobayashi 2274, Hongo, Ebina City, Kanagawa Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. Ebina Business Office (56 ) Reference JP 63-35357 (JP, A) JP 62-253466 (JP, A) JP 62-248664 (JP, A)

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A print recording head having a structure in which a wiring film having a plurality of recording electrodes provided in parallel on an insulating layer, an elastic layer, and a rigid substrate are sequentially laminated, the recording electrodes having a thickness of 30 μm. A print recording head having the above thickness. 2. The print recording head according to claim 1, wherein an insulating protective layer is provided so that the recording electrode is exposed at an edge portion which is rubbed during printing recording.