Insulated Ink Jet Head Unit for Thermal Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Ink jet printer heads face issues with heat propagation from the driver IC affecting ink viscosity and the complexity and cost of wire bonding for actuators, leading to inconsistent ink discharge and increased costs.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating an insulator between the ink jet head and the driver IC, with through holes for signal lines to connect output terminals to electrodes, effectively inhibiting heat transfer and simplifying the connection structure, while allowing the use of existing components.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If the driver IC is fixed directly on the head main body to reduce size, then the ink jet head can be made small, but heat generated by the driver IC propagates to the head main body causing ink viscosity changes and inconsistent discharge
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an insulator as an intermediary component between the driver IC and the head main body. This insulator serves as a thermal barrier that prevents heat propagation from the driver IC to the head main body, thereby maintaining stable ink temperature and viscosity while still allowing the driver IC to be mounted on the head main body for compact design.
2Volume of moving object
If wire bonding is used to connect driver IC to actuators, then the driver IC can be mounted without extra space, but the connection structure becomes complex and costly for actuators with many connections
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the connection function from the traditional wire bonding approach and relocates it to the insulator itself. The insulator is designed with through-holes that accommodate connection terminals, allowing electrical connections to be made through the insulator rather than using separate wire bonding processes. This simplifies the overall connection structure while maintaining compact mounting.
3Ease of operation
If the driver IC is mounted on the head main body, then compact design is achieved, but heat propagation causes ink viscosity to decrease and discharge conditions to become inconsistent
Solution Approach 1:
The insulator acts as a thermal intermediary that blocks heat transfer from the driver IC to the ink while still allowing the compact mounting arrangement. This maintains the ease of operation benefits from compact design while ensuring reliable and consistent ink discharge by preventing temperature-induced viscosity changes.
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 solution maintains consistent ink discharge, reduces heat propagation, and lowers costs by using existing components and simplifying the connection process, without the need for new driver ICs or ink jet heads.
Implementation Method 1
an insulator which is interposed between the ink jet head and the driver IC
Data Source
AI summary
A head unit has a head main body for discharging ink, a driver IC and an FPC, which is interposed between the driver IC and the head main body. The FPC has through holes each of which is embedded with a conductor. The conductor is bonded to an output terminal of the driver IC and the separate electrode formed on a piezoelectric sheet of the head main body. Thus, the driver IC is connected electrically to the separate electrodes of the head main body. With this arrangement, the heat generated by the driver IC is prevented from propagating to the head.