Hard ink printing
Talking about printing technologies, we described the process of LED printing , laser and matrix printing . It is time to write about hard ink printing.
Solid ink printers are quite an interesting technological solution proposed at the time by Tektronix and now transferred to Xerox. Here is a schematic representation of the main elements of a hard-ink printer:
The printing element of such a printer is a piezo jet head. It moves along the transfer shaft, which in turn rotates. As the shaft rotates and the head moves, the entire surface of the shaft is successively covered with a mirror image of the future print. When the image is formed on the shaft, paper is fed into the printer and the image from the shaft is transferred to the paper, where it remains, creating an imprint.
The most interesting in this technology is the dye. It is a waxy colored bars. They are laid in 4 guides in CMYK colors and spring loaded. At the beginning of work, the heaters located at the end of each of the guides melt the bars and the liquid melt falls into the containers placed on the print head. These containers are constantly heated and the dye is contained in them in liquid form. Further, the printing process does not practically differ from the jet one: the dye is fed through the channels to the nozzles, from where it is fired due to the piezoelectric effect. The transfer shaft on which the image is created is also heated so that the dye applied to it is in a liquid form and in this form would get on the paper. The length of the transfer shaft circumference corresponds to the maximum length of the sheet for the printer: it is clear that the image is transferred to paper during one revolution of the transfer shaft. The image passes to the paper by pressing the dye into its surface, which is achieved by means of a pinch roller. On paper, the dye instantly solidifies, creating the final imprint.
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The advantages of the technology are obvious: being built on the basis of inkjet printing, printers can produce very high-quality images. Due to the high viscosity of the dye, it is impossible to achieve a very small drop volume, which modern inkjet printers brag about, but what is achieved allows for excellent results. Printers working on this technology can produce very rich colors and very dense fills (dies). The image is glossy, elegant. Due to the fact that when printing media is not exposed to high temperatures, it is possible to print on fairly dense and thick media, including plastic.
Unfortunately, lacks and disadvantages. The first is the instability of prints to physical impact. I recall that the dye is a wax-like substance that can be easily separated from the paper, you just scratch the image. The print is also afraid of strong heating - the image “floats” in the laminator, it will not hold, also in the case of direct sunlight in summer (for example, if the print is left in a locked car left in the sun). The image can partially flake off and after long contact with another sheet of paper under the press (the print is left in the folder that lies in the stack of documents). Another rather big drawback comes from a particular technology: this printer cannot be turned off. If it is turned off, before the next work begins, the printer merges everything that remains in the container with the molten dye into the collection container due to the fact that the frozen and newly melted dye ceases to have the properties necessary for normal printing. Losses of dye occurring every time the printer is turned on make it economically feasible to purchase a powerful uninterruptible power supply (UPS) in order to prevent the printer from stopping in the event of a power outage: 3-4 shutdowns can be compared in cost to an inexpensive UPS! And, finally, there are no alternative refills for such a printer, which makes it impossible to reduce the cost of printing.
Apparently, the shortcomings of the technology overcame its unquestionable merits and no other manufacturer, except Xerox, produces printers built on its basis. And it’s a pity - if competition appeared, an alternative refueling would surely appear, and perhaps some other shortcomings could have been eliminated by joint efforts ...
Considering that the technology does not stand still, and the above statements are mainly based on acquaintance with early models of printers using this technology, I consider it my duty to quote one of the most active users of today's model (Phaser 8550):
1. Alternative refueling appeared and works normally.
2. Lamination is already possible at a temperature of 100-115 degrees.
3. To date, you need at least 10-12 inclusions to match the cost of an inexpensive UPS, and alternatively, all 25-27 inclusions.
4. The head no longer moves, but is located across the entire width of the transfer shaft.
5. The imprint is afraid today of a STRONG heating (125 degrees and more), so nothing will happen to it in the sun.
6. It is certainly possible to scratch an image, but you need to make quite a lot of effort and it also depends on the paper (it is easy on gloss, but on matte and textured it is difficult).
Solid ink printers are quite an interesting technological solution proposed at the time by Tektronix and now transferred to Xerox. Here is a schematic representation of the main elements of a hard-ink printer:
The printing element of such a printer is a piezo jet head. It moves along the transfer shaft, which in turn rotates. As the shaft rotates and the head moves, the entire surface of the shaft is successively covered with a mirror image of the future print. When the image is formed on the shaft, paper is fed into the printer and the image from the shaft is transferred to the paper, where it remains, creating an imprint.
The most interesting in this technology is the dye. It is a waxy colored bars. They are laid in 4 guides in CMYK colors and spring loaded. At the beginning of work, the heaters located at the end of each of the guides melt the bars and the liquid melt falls into the containers placed on the print head. These containers are constantly heated and the dye is contained in them in liquid form. Further, the printing process does not practically differ from the jet one: the dye is fed through the channels to the nozzles, from where it is fired due to the piezoelectric effect. The transfer shaft on which the image is created is also heated so that the dye applied to it is in a liquid form and in this form would get on the paper. The length of the transfer shaft circumference corresponds to the maximum length of the sheet for the printer: it is clear that the image is transferred to paper during one revolution of the transfer shaft. The image passes to the paper by pressing the dye into its surface, which is achieved by means of a pinch roller. On paper, the dye instantly solidifies, creating the final imprint.
')
The advantages of the technology are obvious: being built on the basis of inkjet printing, printers can produce very high-quality images. Due to the high viscosity of the dye, it is impossible to achieve a very small drop volume, which modern inkjet printers brag about, but what is achieved allows for excellent results. Printers working on this technology can produce very rich colors and very dense fills (dies). The image is glossy, elegant. Due to the fact that when printing media is not exposed to high temperatures, it is possible to print on fairly dense and thick media, including plastic.
Unfortunately, lacks and disadvantages. The first is the instability of prints to physical impact. I recall that the dye is a wax-like substance that can be easily separated from the paper, you just scratch the image. The print is also afraid of strong heating - the image “floats” in the laminator, it will not hold, also in the case of direct sunlight in summer (for example, if the print is left in a locked car left in the sun). The image can partially flake off and after long contact with another sheet of paper under the press (the print is left in the folder that lies in the stack of documents). Another rather big drawback comes from a particular technology: this printer cannot be turned off. If it is turned off, before the next work begins, the printer merges everything that remains in the container with the molten dye into the collection container due to the fact that the frozen and newly melted dye ceases to have the properties necessary for normal printing. Losses of dye occurring every time the printer is turned on make it economically feasible to purchase a powerful uninterruptible power supply (UPS) in order to prevent the printer from stopping in the event of a power outage: 3-4 shutdowns can be compared in cost to an inexpensive UPS! And, finally, there are no alternative refills for such a printer, which makes it impossible to reduce the cost of printing.
Apparently, the shortcomings of the technology overcame its unquestionable merits and no other manufacturer, except Xerox, produces printers built on its basis. And it’s a pity - if competition appeared, an alternative refueling would surely appear, and perhaps some other shortcomings could have been eliminated by joint efforts ...
Considering that the technology does not stand still, and the above statements are mainly based on acquaintance with early models of printers using this technology, I consider it my duty to quote one of the most active users of today's model (Phaser 8550):
1. Alternative refueling appeared and works normally.
2. Lamination is already possible at a temperature of 100-115 degrees.
3. To date, you need at least 10-12 inclusions to match the cost of an inexpensive UPS, and alternatively, all 25-27 inclusions.
4. The head no longer moves, but is located across the entire width of the transfer shaft.
5. The imprint is afraid today of a STRONG heating (125 degrees and more), so nothing will happen to it in the sun.
6. It is certainly possible to scratch an image, but you need to make quite a lot of effort and it also depends on the paper (it is easy on gloss, but on matte and textured it is difficult).
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/177023/
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