InkJet and Thermal
Printers
Inkjet Introduction





InkJet Printing came about in the late 1980’s
Have become the replacement printer for the
Serial Dot Matrix in the home
Two Main Reasons:
Price
Color capabilities
How it Works




Produce characters by squirting a precisely
controlled amount of ink onto the paper
Dots are extremely small usually 50-60 microns
in diameter (Human Hair approx 70 microns)
Dots are placed very precisely on the paper in a
pattern up to 1440 x 720 dots per inch
Dots can be different colors and can be of
photographic quality
The Printhead

Printhead contains a series of Nozzles that put the ink
on the paper
Ink Cartridge





Variety of cartridges depending on the
Manufacturer of the printer
Multi color in one cartridge
Single color in one cartridge
Cyan, Magenta and Yellow
Some cartridges include the printhead
Heat vs Vibration
 Two
basic methods of printing using
an inkjet printer
 Thermal
 Piezoelectric
Thermal





Used mostly by Canon and Hewlett Packard
Also called Bubble Jet
Tiny resistors create heat
The vaporized ink creates a bubble which
pushes the ink onto the paper
Typical Bubble Jet has 300-600 nozzles that can
fire simultaneously
Piezoelectric





Patented by Epson
Uses Piezo Crystals at the back of the ink
chamber
An electrical charge causes the crystal to vibrate
Crystal vibrates inward forcing ink out of the
nozzle
Typically 128 nozzles
Speed



InkJet printer are NOT known for their speed
May be able to printer up to 16 PPM in black
Usually takes a couple of minutes to print a
color page
Thermal Printing



Two Types
Direct Thermal Printer
Thermal Wax Transfer
Direct Thermal Transfer





Printhead is a heating element
Special Paper that reacts to heat
Head is passed over paper and heated at the
exact moments required to form letters
First Faxes used Direct Thermal Printing
Now used in POS devices
Thermal Wax Transfer




Utilizes a wax based ink that adheres to the
paper during the heating process
Wax Sheet is same size of paper being printed
on
A wax sheet for each color
High quality but usually very expensive
Printing Review







4 Methods of Printing
6 Common parts of Printers
Know which are impact printers
Know the parts of a laser printer
Know specifics of each style of printer
Know history of printing
Know speed of different printers
Printing Review Cont’d



Know how characters are formed in each
method of printing
Know which printers can print graphics
Know quality of print from each printer type