3.11 Laser, Inkjet, Thermal, and Impact Printers
Moving parts in inkjet printers
1. Color cartridge Carriage 2. Belt
Disadvantages of inkjet printers
1. Expensive Ink 2. Pages eventually fade 3. Clogs easily, many printers need to run an auto cleaning process every day
Advantages of Impact Printers
1. Good for multiple copies 2. Low cost per page 3. Can make multiple copies in a single pass
Disadvantages of impact printers
1. Noisy 2. Poor graphics
Advantages of Inkjet Printers
1. Output is high quality. 2. Inexpensive 3. Smaller than laser printers. 4. Can print in color 5. Quiet when printing.
How to clear jams in an Inkjet Printer
1. Remove Paper tray and any loose paper 2. Remove paper from the path with firm pressure to avoid rips of paper to be stuck in printer 3. Check for any loose paper in the printer
Additive Manufacturing
3D printing Melt plastic filaments in layers to create the object No machining process required Can send files to any 3D printer in the world to create a 3D product
fuser assembly
A component in laser printing that uses heat and pressure to fuse the toner to paper.
tractor feed
A paper feed mechanism used in impact printers; fed through the printer using small holes on the side of the paper that pulls them through the printer using friction.
pickup roller
A part in a printer that pushes forward a single sheet of paper from the paper tray.
PDF reader
A program that reads (displays) the content from PDF files exist for any type of operating system on any platform Browsers have PDF readers built into them
dot-matrix printer
A type of impact printer that uses a matrix of small pins to strike an inked ribbon to produce tiny dots on the paper. Used in Car rentals and airports
inkjet printer
A type of printer that uses a nonimpact process. Ink is squirted from nozzles as they pass over the media.
Imaging drum
An electrically charged rotating drum found in laser printers. The laser draws out what it would like to print on that imaging drum, the imaging drum is then put through toner and the toners sticks to the area where that particular laser was hit. The toner is then transferred to the paper where it is heated and permanently affixed to the output that you're receiving on the outside of the printer.
Inkjet cartridge colors
Cyan Magenta Yellow Key (Black)
Print to image
Export to a graphics image Not integrated into the OS (application feature) Some third-party image print drivers are available
printer ribbon
Fabric ribbon in a dot-matrix printer -One long ribbon, never ending cycle Easy to replace, single unit Proprietary size
Clean a thermal printer's heating element using ___. Clean the ____ with cloth or compressed air.
Isopropyl Alcohol Inside of the thermal printer
Disadvantages of Laser Printing
Many moving parts that can break Expensive due to memory in the printer that stores the print page before it prints Printer has to process the page in it's entirety before sending it through the printer Toner cartridge leaks can ruin the printer
Color cartridges for laser printers
Needs 4 separate cartidges Cyan, Yellow, Magenta, black
OPC Drum
Organic Photoconductor Drum -Sensitive to light, keep it in the bag For laser Printers
Print to File
Output from a computer system that generates a file containing an image of information that can be printed. Use print to file option to save the output locally as a file (Once it's printed to a file though, you're not able to edit that file like you would a normal word processing document or spreadsheet) output file that can only be used and understood by the printer that was specified during the printing process copy that file to the printer, using the command line, copy the file name then specify the print interface on the computer (LPT1:)
Portable-Document-Format Adobe proprietary format Put a document into a format that can be read or used to print if read by a PDF reader Some applications and software allow you to print to PDF inside of them without any extra software.
Advantages of laser printing
Print very fast High quality output
Feed Assembly
Pulls the paper through a Thermal Printer
thermal paper
Special coated paper used by thermal printers. Heat and light will turn the paper black Clear tape will cause the paper to fade Inexpensive Make sure to get right size
print head
The part in an inkjet or impact printer that moves across the paper, creating one line of the image with each pass.
Feed Roller
The rubber roller in a inkjet printer that feeds the paper into the printer.
Transfer Belt and Roller
Transfer belt transfers all four of those colors to a single transfer roller to put the image on the page.
Laser Printer Characteristics
Uses Lasers High voltage Charged ions Powdered Ink Heat Paper
Microsoft XPS
Virtual print output type XPS - XML Paper Specification Available in all windows versions all the way back to Microsoft XP You can print to XPS that can be read in any OS that has a XPS reader.
thermal printer
generates images by pushing electrically heated pins against the heat-sensitive paper that has been treated with a chemical. Very quiet
Dot-Matrix Printer Head
moves back and forth across the page and as it is moving the pins will push the inked ribbon into the paper to make a character/letter Can be 24-pin or 9-pin
One-Matrix Printer Head
print head has to move all the way across the page and back again to produce the output
Separating pad
works in conjunction with the pickup roller to pick up a single sheet of paper. On paper tray Relatively inexpensive and easy to clean