Jet printer

Print heads: disposable, with ink cartridge , integrated

The principle of inkjet printers is similar to dot matrix printers in that the image on the medium is formed from dots. But instead of heads with needles, inkjet printers use a matrix that prints with liquid dyes . Ink cartridges come with an integrated print head - this approach is mainly used by Hewlett-Packard , Lexmark . There are cartridges in which the print matrix is ​​a part of the printer, and replaceable cartridges contain only dye. With prolonged downtime of the printer (a week or more), dye residue dries on the nozzles of the print head. The printer can automatically clean the print head. But it is also possible to force the nozzles to be cleaned from the appropriate section in the printer driver settings. When cleaning the nozzles of the print head, an intensive consumption of dye occurs. Particularly critical clogging of the nozzles of the print matrix of printers Epson, Canon. If the regular means of the printer could not clean the nozzles of the print head, then further cleaning and / or replacement of the print head is carried out in repair shops. Replacing the cartridge containing the print matrix does not cause new problems.

To reduce printing costs and improve other printer features, the Continuous Ink Supply System (CISS) is used. Most CISSs are third-party add-ons to branded devices; devices that are equipped with CISS are sometimes available.

Printheads

The printheads of inkjet printers are created using the following types of ink supply:

• Continuous Ink Jet — The dye is fed continuously during printing; the fact that the dye gets on the printed surface is determined by the dye flow modulator . It is alleged that a patent for this printing method was granted to William Thomson in 1867.

In the technical implementation of such a print head, a dye is injected into the nozzle under pressure, which at the exit from the nozzle is divided into a sequence of microdrops (several tens of picoliters in volume), which are additionally informed of an electric charge . The dye flow is divided into droplets by a piezocrystal located on the nozzle, on which an acoustic wave is formed (with a frequency of tens of kilohertz). The deviation of the flow of droplets is carried out by an electrostatic deflecting system ( deflector ). Those dye droplets that should not fall onto the surface to be sealed are collected in the dye collector and, as a rule, are returned back to the main dye reservoir. The first inkjet printer manufactured using this dye supply method was launched by Siemens in 1951. ^[one]

• Supply on demand (Drop-on-demand) ^[2] - the supply of dye from the nozzle of the print head occurs only when the dye really needs to be applied to the corresponding nozzle area of ​​the printed surface. It is this method of supplying dye that is most widely used in modern inkjet printers.

At the moment, there are two technical implementations of this dye supply method:

• Piezoelectric (Piezoelectric Ink Jet) ^[3] - a piezocrystal with a diaphragm is located above the nozzle. When an electric current is supplied to the piezoelectric element, it bends and pulls the diaphragm along with it - a drop forms, which is subsequently pushed onto the paper. The first printer was released by Siemens in 1977 ^[4] . And technology has become widespread in Epson inkjet printers. The technology allows you to change the droplet size due to larger nozzles, which, on the other hand, leads to lower print resolution than that of thermal inkjet printing.
• Thermal (Thermal Ink Jet), also called BubbleJet - Developer - Canon . The principle was developed in the late 1970s . At first, the developers of the team of Ichiro Endo, a Canon engineer, wanted to use the older technology of inkjet printing (piezo-inkjet), but accidentally noticing how a soldering iron makes ink shoot from a heated syringe, they came up with their own technology of thermal inkjet printing ^[5] . A microscopic heating element is located in the nozzle, which instantly heats up to a temperature of about 500 ° C when electric current passes, when heated, gas bubbles form in the ink (English - hence the name of the technology), which push liquid droplets out of the nozzle onto the carrier. In 1981, the technology was presented at the Canon Grand Fair. In 1985, the first commercial monochrome printer model appeared - the Canon BJ-80. In 1988, the first color printer appeared - BJC-440 format A2, a resolution of 400 dpi .

Design

The design of inkjet printers usually includes the following subsystems:

• Bearing system
• Power Supply
• Paper feed system
• Print head with positioning mechanics
• Ink cartridge or Continuous ink system
• Print head nozzle ink cleaning system
• Control system

• The direction of artistic digital printing , which arose in the USA in the 1980s, was born thanks to the appearance of the first high-quality inkjet printers on the market.
• The reason for the different popularity of the two main inkjet printing technologies, thermal and piezoelectric, in the consumer sector is that the first is cheaper in production and less universal in the choice of ink (you cannot use solvent, for example), and the second is more universal and more expensive due to the use of very expensive materials for piezoelectric elements - lead zirconate-titanate , which are not recoverable outside the commercial segment (where the added value in the form of sales margins is much higher). In the commercial segment, piezo-jet technology, on the contrary, is more common and it is used by a huge number of different manufacturers. Hence, in the minds of uncritically minded citizens in the consumer sector, a false myth arises, created by Epson marketers , that it was supposedly their company that invented the piezo-jet printing itself (which is not so) and its lower prevalence is not the result of the generally poorer consumer qualities of piezo-jet printers for simple (non-commercial) user (high price, lower resolution, etc.), and the consequence of allegedly valid patents superimposed on the original piezo-ink printing technology invented by them supposedly, allegedly prohibiting its production by other manufacturers.
• The average print speed of inkjet printers is 10 A4 sheets per minute. This number is inferior to laser printers, which print 30 A4 sheets per minute.

Compared to previous consumer-oriented color printers, inkjet printers offer several advantages. They are quieter in operation than the impact dot matrix or daisywheel printers. They can print finer, smoother details through higher resolution. Consumer inkjet printers with photographic print quality are widely available.

Compared to technologies such as thermal wax, dye sublimation and laser printing, ink has the advantage of almost no warm-up time and often lower cost per page. However, low-cost laser printers can have lower page costs, at least for black and white printing, and possibly for color printing.

For some Inkjet printers, monochrome inks are available either from the printer manufacturer or from third-party suppliers. They allow the inkjet printer to compete with silver photo paper, traditionally used in black and white photography, and provide the same range of tones: neutral, “warm” or “cold”. When switching between full-color and monochrome ink sets, you must rinse the old ink off the print head with a cleaning cartridge. Typically, special software or at least a modified device driver is required to deal with different color displays.

Some types of industrial inkjet printers are currently capable of printing at very high speeds, in a wide format, or for a variety of industrial applications, ranging from signage, textiles, ceramics and 3-D printing to biomedical applications and conductive circuits. Leading companies and innovators in equipment are HP, Epson, Canon, Konik Minolta, Fujifilm, Brother, Ronald, Mimaki, Mutoh and many others around the world.

The long-term longevity of early inkjet printers was fairly low, although improved ink formulations significantly improved this attribute. See the Durability section for more information.

Very narrow jet nozzles are prone to clogging. Inks that consume them — either during user-induced cleaning or in many cases automatically performed by the printer according to a normal schedule — can make up a significant proportion of the ink used in the machine. The printer must be connected to the network all the time for scheduled cleaning, otherwise the ink in the nozzles may dry out. The print head inkjet nozzles can be cleaned using specialized solvents; or by soaking in warm distilled water for short periods of time for water-soluble ink.

Three-dimensional printing builds a prototype by “printing” noticeably thick material cross-sections on top of each other.

US patent 6,319,530 describes the "Method of photocopying an image onto an edible web for decorating frozen bakery products." In other words, this invention allows inkjet printing of an edible color photograph onto a cake surface. Many bakeries use this decoration, which is printed with edible ink on special inkjet printers. Edible ink can be made using conventional home inkjet printers, for example, Canon inkjet bubble printers, food ink cartridges on rice paper or glaze sheets.

Inkjet printers and similar technologies are used in the manufacture of many microscopic products.

Inkjet printers are used to form conductive paths on circuits and color filters in LCD and plasma displays.

Inkjet printers, especially the Dimatix models (now part of Fujifilm), Xennia Technology and Pixdro, are often used in many laboratories around the world to develop alternative deposition methods that reduce the consumption of expensive, rare or problematic materials. These printers are used for printing from polymers, high molecular weight compounds, quantum dots, metal nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, etc. Applications of such printing methods include organic thin-film transistors, organic light-emitting diodes, organic solar cells, sensors, etc.

Inkjet technology is used in developing areas of bioprinting.

• Disassembling an inkjet printer cartridge (thermal inkjet printing) (unspecified) . Date of treatment November 12, 2012. Archived December 3, 2012.
• Description of the principle of inkjet printing (neopr.) . Date of treatment November 12, 2012. Archived December 3, 2012.
• Boomburum. Learn more about inkjet printers (neopr.) . geektimes (December 1, 2009). Date of treatment October 8, 2016. Archived December 3, 2012.
• http://club.cnews.ru/blogs/entry/import_sravnivaem_tehnologii_pechati_strujnaya_lazernaya_svetodiodnaya_led__sublimatsionnaya_tverdochernilnaya_74dd The speed of printing inkjet printers.