Common Cavity Plate for Inkjet Head Manufacturing Cost Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
The conventional method of manufacturing ink-jet heads requires multiple manufacturing lines and high costs due to the need for different sizes and structures of pressure chambers and piezoelectric actuators for various specifications, such as normal, black high-speed, and color-image focused specifications.
Innovation Solution
A method involving a stackable plate structure where common plates are used across multiple specifications, including nozzle plates, intermediate plates, and a cavity plate, with a common actuator and liquid channels, to reduce manufacturing complexity and costs by allowing shared components across different types of ink-jet heads.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If different sizes and structures of pressure chambers and piezoelectric actuators are used for various specifications, then the liquid droplet jetting performance is optimized for each specification, but the number of manufacturing lines increases and manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cavity plate is designed with a universal structure that can accommodate multiple specifications (normal, black high-speed, color-image focused) by selectively forming different numbers and arrangements of pressure chambers. This single cavity plate design serves multiple functions across different product specifications, eliminating the need for separate manufacturing lines for each specification type.
Solution Approach 2:
The ink-jet head is divided into modular components: a common cavity plate, interchangeable piezoelectric actuators, and selectable nozzle plates. This segmentation allows the common cavity plate to be reused across specifications while only the actuator and nozzle plate components need to be changed, reducing manufacturing complexity.
2Reliability
If different sizes and structures of pressure chambers and piezoelectric actuators are used for various specifications, then the liquid droplet jetting performance is optimized for each specification, but the manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cavity plate is designed with a universal structure that can accommodate multiple specifications (normal, black high-speed, color-image focused) by selectively forming different numbers and arrangements of pressure chambers. This single cavity plate design serves multiple functions across different product specifications, eliminating the need for separate manufacturing lines for each specification type.
Solution Approach 2:
The design allows for the recovery and reuse of the common cavity plate across different product specifications. Only the piezoelectric actuators and nozzle plates need to be discarded or changed, while the expensive cavity plate is recovered and reused, significantly reducing manufacturing costs.
3Device complexity
If common plates are used across multiple specifications, then the number of manufacturing lines decreases and manufacturing cost reduces, but variations in liquid droplet jetting characteristics may occur
Solution Approach 1:
The cavity plate is designed with local quality variations: different regions of the same cavity plate can have pressure chambers with different sizes, shapes, and arrangements optimized for specific specifications. This allows the common cavity plate to maintain high manufacturing precision for each specification by having dedicated optimized regions rather than uniform structures.
Solution Approach 2:
The system allows dynamic configuration of the jetting characteristics by selectively activating different pressure chambers or adjusting the operation parameters for each chamber based on the required specification, enabling the common cavity plate to adapt to different performance requirements without compromising precision.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach decreases the number of manufacturing lines and reduces costs by enabling the use of common plates and actuators, while minimizing variations in liquid droplet jetting characteristics and maintaining desired nozzle pitches and image quality across different specifications.
Implementation Method 1
an actuator which selectively applies a jetting pressure to the liquid in the pressure chambers
Data Source
AI summary
A piezoelectric actuator, a cavity plate, a base plate, and a supply plate are common in normal specifications, black high-speed focused specifications, and color-image focused specifications, but other plates such as a manifold plate, a damper plate, a spacer plate, and a nozzle plate are produced according to these specifications. A center of a communicating hole which connects a pressure chamber and a nozzle is gradually shifted in a paper feeding direction, and a position at which the nozzle is formed is also shifted in the paper feeding direction. Accordingly, it is possible to decrease the number of manufacturing lines and to reduce the manufacturing cost as compared to those in a conventional method of manufacturing a liquid droplet jetting head.