Printhead assembly with two-material supporting structure
View Patent ↗The present invention relates to a printhead assembly. The printhead assembly includes a support beam. The support beam includes two types of material having different coefficients of thermal expansion. A plurality of spaced apart printhead modules is supported by the support beam.
1. A printhead assembly comprising:
a support beam including two types of material having different coefficients of thermal expansion; and
a plurality of spaced apart printhead modules supported by the support beam, wherein
the support beam is a hot rolled, three-layer laminate, the outer layers of the three-layer laminate being formed from Invar, and
a central layer of the three-layer laminate has a coefficient of thermal expansion greater than Invar, whereby the support beam has an overall coefficient of thermal expansion substantially equal to that of silicon.
2. A printhead assembly as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the outer layers are of the same thickness.
3. A printhead assembly as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the support beam is formed from two different materials bonded together, end to end.
4. A printhead assembly as claimed in claim 3 , wherein one of the materials has a coefficient of thermal expansion less than that of silicon and the other material has a coefficient of thermal expansion greater than that of silicon.