1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an inkjet-head such as an ink jet type recording head and an ink jet printer including the inkjet-head, and particularly makes it possible to achieve miniaturization of the inkjet-head and the ink jet printer.
2. Related Art
An ink jet printer includes a permanent head and ejects (discharges) various liquids from the permanent head. The ink jet printer is a non-impact printer in which a character is formed through ejection of particles or small droplets of ink onto a sheet (JIS X0012-1990). The printer is a type of dot printer (JIS X0012-1990) which prints a character or an image expressed with a plurality of dots and prints a character or an image expressed with a plurality of dots which are formed by ejecting particles or small droplets of ink. In addition, the permanent head is a machine unit or an electrical unit of a printer body which continually or intermittently produces ink droplets (hereinafter, referred to as “inkjet-head”) (JIS Z8123-1: 2013). The ink jet printer has been applied to various manufacturing apparatuses due to its characteristics of being capable of causing a very small amount of a liquid to land at a predetermined position with accuracy, as well as being used in an image recording apparatus. For example, the ink jet printer is applied to a display manufacturing apparatus that manufactures a color filter such as a liquid crystal display, an electrode producing apparatus that produces an electrode, such as an organic electro luminescence (EL) display or a field emission display (FED), and a chip manufacturing apparatus that manufactures a bio chip (biochemical component). A recording head for the image recording apparatus ejects liquid-phase ink, and a color-material ejecting head for the display manufacturing apparatus ejects solutions of respective color materials which are red (R), green (G), and blue (B). In addition, an electrode-material ejecting head for the electrode producing apparatus ejects a liquid-phase electrode material and a bio-organic material ejecting head for the chip manufacturing apparatus ejects a solution of a bio-organic material.
The inkjet-head described above is formed of a plurality of flow path members and the like which are stacked and a liquid is supplied to a pressure chamber via a flow path formed in each of the flow path members. Accordingly, driving of a piezoelectric element (a type of actuator) brings about pressure fluctuation in the liquid in the pressure chamber such that a liquid droplet is caused to be ejected from a nozzle. Such an inkjet-head includes one which is configured to form a space between joined surfaces by interposing an annular sealing member formed of a resin such as an elastomer between a first flow path member and a second flow path member which is joined thereto and to include a level flow path which extends in a joint-surface direction (for example, JP-A-2013-119165). Accordingly, the space communicates with the outside via an atmosphere opening path formed in the sealing member such that the sealing member is not broken due to expansion of air or the like in response to a temperature change.
However, when, as described above, the first flow path member and the second flow path member are joined to each other through the sealing member, there is a concern that the first flow path member or the second flow path member may be deformed due to a restoring force (resilience) of the sealing member. Therefore, it is not possible to form thin flow path members due to an object to secure rigidity. In addition, since the atmosphere opening path is formed in the sealing member, the sealing member itself becomes thicker. Therefore, the inkjet-head becomes thicker and it is difficult for the inkjet-head to be decreased in size.