Patent 7992974 was granted and assigned to Hitachi on August, 2011 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
An inkjet recording apparatus includes a main body and a print head. The main body includes a mechanical portion and a control portion. The mechanical portion includes a pump that pressurizes or draws a liquid(s), such as an ink and/or a solvent, and a solenoid valve that switches between flow channels guiding the liquid to flow therethrough. The control portion controls respective operations including printing and running and stopping of the inkjet recording apparatus. The print head includes a nozzle that atomizes the ink pressure fed from the main body into ink droplets, a charging electrode that electrically charges the ink droplets, a deflecting electrode that forms an electric field that deflects the charged ink droplets, and a gutter that collects the ink unused for printing. The nozzle includes a surface-treated layer that repels the ink to a portion where the ink is supplied.