Solid ink
Talking about printing technologies, we described the process of LED printing , laser and matrix printing . It is time to write about solid ink.
Solid-ink printers are quite an interesting technological solution, proposed at one time by Tektronix and now transferred to Xerox. Here is a schematic illustration of the basic elements of a solid 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 sequentially 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 a print.
The most interesting in this technology is dye. It is a colored waxy bars. They are stacked in 4 CMYK color guides 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 enters the tanks located on the print head. These containers are constantly heated and the dye is contained in them in liquid form. Further, the printing process is practically no different from inkjet: through the channels, the dye is fed 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 liquid form and it is in this form that it gets on paper. The circumference of the transfer shaft corresponds to the maximum sheet length allowed for the printer: that the image is transferred to paper in one revolution of the transfer shaft. The image is transferred to the paper by squeezing the dye into its surface, which is achieved by means of a pressure roller. On paper, the dye instantly hardens, creating the final print.
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 boast of, but what is achieved allows us to obtain excellent results. Printers working on this technology allow you to get very rich colors and very dense fills (dies). The image is glossy, elegant. Due to the fact that the media is not exposed to high temperatures during printing, it is possible to print on fairly dense and thick media, including plastic.
Unfortunately, there are enough shortcomings.The first is the instability of prints to physical impact. Let me remind you that the dye is a wax-like substance that can be easily separated from paper, you just have to scratch the image. The imprint is also afraid of strong heating - the image “floats” in the laminator, it will not hold, also, if it is exposed to direct sunlight in the summer (for example, if the imprint is left in a locked car left in the sun). The image may partially peel off 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 technology feature: this printer cannot be turned off. If it is turned off, then before starting the next work, the printer merges everything that remains in the container with molten dye, in the collection container for mining due to the fact that the frozen and newly molten dye ceases to possess the properties necessary for normal printing. Loss of dye occurring each time the printer is turned on makes it economically viable to purchase a powerful uninterruptible power supply (UPS) in order to prevent the printer from stopping during an emergency power outage: 3-4 power offs can be compared to inexpensive UPS! And finally, for such a printer there are no alternative refills, which makes it impossible to reduce the cost of printing. they make it economically feasible to purchase a powerful uninterruptible power supply (UPS) in order to prevent the printer from stopping when the power is cut off: 3-4 power cuts can be compared to inexpensive UPS! And finally, for such a printer there are no alternative refills, which makes it impossible to reduce the cost of printing. they make it economically feasible to purchase a powerful uninterruptible power supply (UPS) in order to prevent the printer from stopping when the power is cut off: 3-4 power cuts can be compared to inexpensive UPS! And finally, for such a printer there are no alternative refills, which makes it impossible to reduce the cost of printing.
Apparently, the lack of technology overpowered its indisputable advantages and no other manufacturer, except Xerox, does not produce printers built on its basis. But it’s a pity - if there was competition, an alternative refueling would certainly have appeared, and some other shortcomings might have been eliminated by joint efforts ...
Given 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 active users of today's model (Phaser 8550):
1. An alternative refueling has appeared and works normally.
2. Lamination is already possible at a temperature of 100-115 degrees.
3. Today, you need at least 10-12 inclusions to equal the cost of an inexpensive UPS, and on the alternative, 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 HEAVY heating (125 and above degrees), so that nothing will happen to it in the sun.
6. Scratching the image is certainly possible, but quite a lot of effort must be made and it also depends on the paper (it’s easy on gloss, but hard on matte and textured ones).
Solid-ink printers are quite an interesting technological solution, proposed at one time by Tektronix and now transferred to Xerox. Here is a schematic illustration of the basic elements of a solid 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 sequentially 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 a print.
The most interesting in this technology is dye. It is a colored waxy bars. They are stacked in 4 CMYK color guides 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 enters the tanks located on the print head. These containers are constantly heated and the dye is contained in them in liquid form. Further, the printing process is practically no different from inkjet: through the channels, the dye is fed 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 liquid form and it is in this form that it gets on paper. The circumference of the transfer shaft corresponds to the maximum sheet length allowed for the printer: that the image is transferred to paper in one revolution of the transfer shaft. The image is transferred to the paper by squeezing the dye into its surface, which is achieved by means of a pressure roller. On paper, the dye instantly hardens, creating the final print.
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 boast of, but what is achieved allows us to obtain excellent results. Printers working on this technology allow you to get very rich colors and very dense fills (dies). The image is glossy, elegant. Due to the fact that the media is not exposed to high temperatures during printing, it is possible to print on fairly dense and thick media, including plastic.
Unfortunately, there are enough shortcomings.The first is the instability of prints to physical impact. Let me remind you that the dye is a wax-like substance that can be easily separated from paper, you just have to scratch the image. The imprint is also afraid of strong heating - the image “floats” in the laminator, it will not hold, also, if it is exposed to direct sunlight in the summer (for example, if the imprint is left in a locked car left in the sun). The image may partially peel off 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 technology feature: this printer cannot be turned off. If it is turned off, then before starting the next work, the printer merges everything that remains in the container with molten dye, in the collection container for mining due to the fact that the frozen and newly molten dye ceases to possess the properties necessary for normal printing. Loss of dye occurring each time the printer is turned on makes it economically viable to purchase a powerful uninterruptible power supply (UPS) in order to prevent the printer from stopping during an emergency power outage: 3-4 power offs can be compared to inexpensive UPS! And finally, for such a printer there are no alternative refills, which makes it impossible to reduce the cost of printing. they make it economically feasible to purchase a powerful uninterruptible power supply (UPS) in order to prevent the printer from stopping when the power is cut off: 3-4 power cuts can be compared to inexpensive UPS! And finally, for such a printer there are no alternative refills, which makes it impossible to reduce the cost of printing. they make it economically feasible to purchase a powerful uninterruptible power supply (UPS) in order to prevent the printer from stopping when the power is cut off: 3-4 power cuts can be compared to inexpensive UPS! And finally, for such a printer there are no alternative refills, which makes it impossible to reduce the cost of printing.
Apparently, the lack of technology overpowered its indisputable advantages and no other manufacturer, except Xerox, does not produce printers built on its basis. But it’s a pity - if there was competition, an alternative refueling would certainly have appeared, and some other shortcomings might have been eliminated by joint efforts ...
Given 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 active users of today's model (Phaser 8550):
1. An alternative refueling has appeared and works normally.
2. Lamination is already possible at a temperature of 100-115 degrees.
3. Today, you need at least 10-12 inclusions to equal the cost of an inexpensive UPS, and on the alternative, 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 HEAVY heating (125 and above degrees), so that nothing will happen to it in the sun.
6. Scratching the image is certainly possible, but quite a lot of effort must be made and it also depends on the paper (it’s easy on gloss, but hard on matte and textured ones).