Abstract: A plastic orifice plate for an ink jet printhead and manufacturing process therefor which includes electroforming a metal die having raised sections thereon of predefined center-to-center spacings, and using the die to punch out openings in a plastic substrate of a chosen thickness to form a plurality of closely spaced orifice openings in the substrate. The orifice plate can be of a chosen transparent material and secured to a printhead substrate where the dynamics of ink flow can be viewed through the orifice plate during printhead testing and evaluation.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to a compound bore nozzle plate for a thermal ink jet printhead and is manufactured by electroforming nickel onto a nickel substrate which has been masked by a plurality of mask segments of predefined geometry. This geometry consists of a plurality of base segments upon which have been formed a corresponding plurality of post segments of greater vertical dimension and smaller lateral dimension than the base segments. This mask geometry enables greater center-to-center orifice spacing to be achieved without unacceptably reducing the thickness and structural integrity of the nozzle plate.