A component for a printhead is created by forming a PZT wafer forming a region of SU8 photoresist material on one side of the PZT wafer; sawing in a second side of said planar body, opposite said first side, actuator channels to a depth sufficient to expose an area of the photoresist material; forming a nozzle through the layer of photo-resist material in the exposed area such that then nozzle is in communication with the actuator channels. The region of photoresist material may be used to form a nozzle plate using photolithography.

A mounting arrangement for mounting a printer component to a support, using a foil including a number of mounting apertures, into which pins are inserted to provide alignment. The engagement of the pins in the aperture causes local deformation of the foil, the resulting forces acting to align the pins to an accuracy which can be greater than that to which the foil is manufactured.

A method of manufacture of printers and printheads formed of a number of modules mounted on a chassis. The modules and chassis are formed with a number of alignment features which engage with one another to form elastic interference couplings. By arranging a number n of such couplings for each module, the variance in positional error of each module with respect to the chassis can be made significantly less than the alignment error of the alignment features themselves, by the process of Average Elastic Alignment. The elastic interference couplings can advantageously be made to form a sealed coupling for the supply of ink from the chassis to each module.

Printed circuit board or other tracks are formed by the deposition of liquid to form dots on a substrate from nozzles mutually spaced by a distance s. A set of n dot diameters D.sub.i=2 s(1/2+i/n), is used to produce linear tracks at one or more directions with respect to an axis X; each track having a minimum track width T.sub.w=s(n-2)/n; and the minimum spacing of tracks along the axis X being T.sub.s=s/n.

Ink jet apparatus with two piezoelectric actuators arranged back-to-back on parallel thermal management surfaces of a water-cooled chassis. The chassis is formed by the bringing together of two concave plastic molded parts, having high thermal conductivity. A common nozzle plate attached to the two actuators helps to ensure accurate nozzle alignment.