Liquid droplet transport apparatus
AssigneeBrother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorHiroto Sugahara
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A liquid droplet transport apparatus, which is provided on a nozzle plate of an ink-jet head, including a first electrode and a second electrode which are arranged on a lower surface of the nozzle plate, a driver which applies electric potentials to the first electrode and the second electrode respectively, a resistor layer which is arranged on the lower surface of the nozzle plate and which makes electric conduction to both of the first electrode and the second electrode, and an insulating layer which covers the first electrode, the second electrode, and the resistor layer. Accordingly, the liquid droplet transport apparatus is provided, which makes it possible to transport liquid droplets over a long distance, while simplifying the arrangement for the liquid droplet transport.
Claims15
A liquid droplet transport apparatus which transports a conductive liquid droplet, the liquid droplet transport apparatus comprising:
- a substrate;
- a first electrode and a second electrode which are arranged on a surface of the substrate;
- an electric potential-applying mechanism which applies electric potentials to the first electrode and the second electrode respectively;
- a resistor layer which is arranged on the surface of the substrate so that the resistor layer makes contact with both of the first electrode and the second electrode, and the resistor layer, makes electric conduction to both of the first electrode and the second electrode, and which causes an electric potential drop between the first and second electrodes when the electric potentials applied to the first electrode and the second electrode by the electric potential-applying mechanism are different;
- and
- an insulating layer which covers the first electrode, the second electrode, and the resistor layer, wherein the liquid repellence of an surface of the insulating layer on which the liquid droplet is placed is lowered as an electric potential difference is increased between the surface of the insulating layer and corresponding one of the first and second electrodes and the resistor layer covered with the insulating layer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.