Various Types of Printers

This article is to explain and detail the information about type s of printers. It is nothing but the output peripheral device which is used to produce ha rd copy of text or images stored in the computer. They are broadly categorised in to two types, they are 1. Impa ct Type 2. Non-Impa ct Type

Impact Type
To create text or image by ph ysically make the print head to press the in k ribbon and cause the in k deposition on the paper in desired form is called impact type. Normally it is quite louder in nature when compared to other type s of printers. The well known example for impa ct type is Dot Matrix and Daisy wheel . Some of the latest impact based in the market are Line printer (high speed impact printer), IBM electromag netic table printing machine, and Apple Image writer.

Non-Impact Type
This produce text or images on paper without striking the paper physically are called as non-impact type. These are not louder when co mpared to other types of printers. The well known example of this type is Thermal printer, la sers and inkjets . Some of the latest non -impact printers in market are HP Laser Jet and Apple Laser Writer (The laser printer with built -in postscript interpreter).

Printing Technology
In overall, different printing technology is used for different level of printing. It is also classified on the basic of printing technology. The quality of printing, printing speed, cost of them a re mainly based on the technology used .

Non-Impact Printing Technology

The technologies co mmonly used in modern and personal home based are non -impact type. These technologies can print in both mono chrome and colour. The follo wing category can be classified under non-impact printing. 1. Tonner based (Laser) 2. Liquid ink(Inkjet) 3. Solid ink 4. Dye-sublimation 5. Thermal 6. Inkless 7. UV

Impact printing technology

Some of these devices are rarely used. They are famou s for its unique feature, common use in businesses where multi-part forms are printed. These are mostly comes under the impa ct printers and they gets printed mostly in mono chrome only. following are different type s of printers in impact printing 1. Daisy wheel 2. Dot matrix

3. Pen based plotter 4. Line printer 5. Typewriter-derived 6. Teletypewriter-derived These are mostly comes under impact printers. These are commonly used for commercial purpose for its special feature to print multi-part forms.

1.Non-Impact Printing Technology

Laser printer
A laser printer is a common type of computer printer that rapidly produces high quality text and graphics on plain paper. A laser beam projects an image of the page to be printed onto an electrically charged rotating drum coated with selenium or, more common in modern printers, organic photoconductors. Photoconductivity allows charge to leak away from the areas exposed to light. Dry ink (toner) particles are then electrostatically picked up by the drum's charged areas, which have not been exposed to light. The drum then prints the image onto paper by direct contact and heat, which fuses the ink to the paper. Unlike impact printers, laser printer speed can vary widely, and depends on many factors, including the graphic intensity of the job being processed. The fastest models can print over 200 monochrome pages per minute (12,000 pages per hour). The fastest color laser printers can print over 100 pages per minute (6000 pages per hour). Very high-speed laser printers are used for mass mailings of personalized documents, such as credit card or utility bills, and are competing with lithography in some commercial applications.[1]

Inkjet printer
An inkjet printer is a type of computer printer that creates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper. Inkjet (or ink jet) printers operate by propelling tiny droplets of liquid ink onto paper to form characters. Inkjets are the most common type of computer printer for businesses due to their low cost, high quality of output, capability of printing in vivid color, and ease of use. In the computer market, inkjet printers predominate. They are usually inexpensive, quiet, reasonably fast, and many models -- such as those offered by Dartronics -- can produce high quality output. Like most modern technologies, the present-day inkjet has built on the progress made by many earlier versions, and today use one of three main technologies: thermal, piezoelectric, and continuous.

To print a character on the product, individual drops of ink are electronically controlled to the correct positions.-

y Ink is pressured by a ink supply pump and flows from the ink bottle to the nozzle. y The nozzle uses ultrasonic vibration to break a pressurized ink stream into small droplets as it leaves the nozzle. y The drops are ejected from the nozzle at high speed. They pass through the charge electrode tunnel / and then on between the deflection electrode. y Here the drops are deflected, by an amount which depends on the charge they were given by the charge electrode. y After the drops leave the region of the deflection electrode they continue to travel in their new direction until they pass out of the printhead and to the substrate. y Drops that aren't required for printing are caught by the gutter and subsequently recycled back to the ink bottle.

Solid ink
Solid ink technology utilizes solid ink sticks in lieu of the fluid inkor toner powder usually used in printers. After the ink stick is loaded into the printing device, it is melted and used to produce images on paper in a process similar to offset printing. Xerox claims that solid ink printing produces more vibrant colors than other methods, is easier to use, can print on a wide range of media, and is more environmentally friendly due to reduced waste output. The sticks are non-toxic and safe to handle. In the mid 1990s, the president of Tektronix actually ate part of a stick of solid ink, demonstrating that they are safe to handle and presumably, eat. The medium of the ink was (at least at the time) made from food-grade processed vegetable oils.

Dye-sublimation printer
A dye-sublimation printer (or dye-sub printer) is a computer printer which employs a printing process that uses heat to transfer dye onto medium materials such as a plastic card, paper, or fabric. The sublimation name is applied because the dye transitions between the solid and gas states without going through a liquid stage. Many consumer and professional dye-sublimation printers are designed and used for producing photographic prints. A dye-sublimation printer (or dye-sub printer) is a computer printer which employs a printing process that uses heat to transfer dye onto medium materials such as a plastic card, paper, or fabric. The sublimation name is applied because the dye transitions between the solid and gas states without going through a liquid stage. Many consumer and professional dye-sublimation printers are designed and used for producingphotographic prints.

Thermal printer
A thermal printer (or direct thermal printer) produces a printed image by selectively heating coated thermochromic paper, or thermal paper as it is commonly known, when the paper passes over the thermal print head. The coating turns black in the areas where it is heated, producing an image. Two-color direct thermal printers can print both black and an additional color (often red) by applying heat at two different temperatures..Thermal transfer printing is a related method that uses a heat-sensitive ribbon instead of heat-sensitive paper.A thermal printer comprises these key components: Thermal head generates heat; prints on paper Platen a rubber roller that feeds paper

Spring applies pressure to the thermal head, causing it to contact the thermo-sensitive paper Controller boards for controlling the mechanism

UV PRINTERUV Print is high quality & durable with a very high UV resistance, great for either indoor our outdoor use. UV printers can print onto any coated or un-coated substrate providing very vivid dense colours. UV Printing does not use any solvents so is very eco friendly, Ultra violet (UV) reactive inks and coatings require a high intensity source of UV light to initiate a chemical reaction. This reaction dries the UK ink or coating in fractions of a second, this enables us to take the job straight to the finishing table for finishing for a speedy turnaround.

2.Impact printing technology

Daisy wheel printer

Daisy wheel printers use an impact printing technology invented in 1969 by David S. Lee at Diablo Data Systems. The heart of the system is an interchangeable metal or plastic "daisy wheel" holding an entire character set as raised characters moulded on each "petal". In use a servo motor rotates the daisy wheel to position the required character between the hammer and the ribbon. The solenoid-operated hammer then fires, driving the character type on to the ribbon and paper to print the character on the paper. The daisy wheel and hammer are mounted on a sliding carriage similar to that used by dot matrix printers.

Dot matrix printer

A dot matrix printer or impact matrix printer is a type of computer printer with a print head that runs back and forth, or in an up and down motion, on the page and prints by impact, striking an ink-soaked cloth ribbon against the paper, much like the print mechanism on atypewriter. However, unlike a typewriter or daisy wheel printer, letters are drawn out of a dot matrix, and thus, varied fonts and arbitrary graphics can be produced. Because the printing involves mechanical pressure, these printers can create carbon copies and carbonless copies. Each dot is produced by a tiny metal rod, also called a "wire" or "pin", which is driven forward by the power of a tiny electromagnet or solenoid, either directly or through small levers (pawls). Facing the ribbon and the paper is a small guide plate (often made of an artificial jewel such as sapphire or ruby[1]) pierced with holes to serve as guides for the pins. The moving portion of the printer is called the print head, and when running the printer as a generic text device generally prints one line of text at a time. Most dot matrix printers have a single vertical line of dot-making equipment on their print heads; others have a few interleaved rows in order to improve dot density.

Line printer
The line printer is a form of high speed impact printer in which one line of type is printed at a time. They are mostly associated with the early days of computing, but the technology is still in use. Print speeds of 600 to 1200 lines-per-minute (approximately 10 to 20 pages per minute) were common.

Five principal designs existed:

    

Drum printers Chain (train) printers Bar printers Comb printers Wheel printers

Typewriter-Derived Printers
Several dissimilar computer printers were simply computer-controllable versions of existing electric typewriters. The Friden Flexowriter and IBM Selectric typewriter were the mostgeneral examples. The Flexowriter printed with a conservative typebar mechanism while the Selectric used IBM's well-known "golf ball" printing mechanism. In either case, the letter form then struck a ribbon which was pressed beside the paper, printing one character at a time. The utmost speed of the Selectric printer (the faster of the two) was 15.5 characters per second.

Pen-based plotters
Main article: Plotter A plotter is a vector graphics printing device which operates by moving a pen over the surface of paper. Plotters have been (and still are) used in applications such as computer-aided design, though they are being replaced with wide-format conventional printers (which nowadays have sufficient resolution to render high-quality vector graphics using a rasterized print engine). It is commonplace to refer to such wide-format printers as "plotters", even though such usage is technically incorrect.

Plotter
Plotter is a computer printer to print vector graphics. In the past, plotters were quite used in applications such as computer-aided design, though they have generally been replaced with wideformat conventional printers. It is now commonplace to refer to such wide-format printers as "plotters," even though they technically aren't. Pen plotters print by moving a pen or other instrument across the surface of a piece of paper. This means that plotters are restricted to line art, rather than raster graphics as with other printers. Pen plotters can draw complex line art, including text, but do so slowly because of the mechanical movement of the pens. They are often incapable of efficiently creating a solid region of color, but canhatch an area by drawing a number of close, regular lines. TYPES OF PLOTTERS-

Drum Plotter
y

A drum plotter is pen plotter that wraps the paper around a drum with a pin feed attachment. The drum then rotates the paper as pens move across it and draw the image. It was the first output device used to print graphics and large engineering drawings. There are two types of drum plotters, external and internal. With an external drum plotter, the paper is wrapped around its external surface, while the internal drum plotter uses a sheet of paper wrapped around its internal surface.

Flat-Bed Plotter
y

A flat-bed plotter is a mechanical drafting device used with many CAD programs for designers. The paper remains stationary on a flat surface while a pen moves across it horizontally and vertically. This plotter may use several different colors of pens to create the graphics. The size of the graphic is limited to the size of the flat-bed plotter's surface.

Inkjet Plotter
y

The inkjet plotter creates an image by spraying small droplets of ink onto a piece of paper. A popular choice for advertising agencies and graphic designers, inkjet plotters are used generally for large outputs, such as banners and billboards and large signs often seen on roadsides. They are available in thermal or piezoelectric models. Thermal inkjet plotters use heat to apply droplets of ink, while piezoelectric plotters use charged crystals to apply the ink. Inkjet plotters tend to produce better quality graphics than other types of plotters.

Functions
y

Plotters are ideal for computer aided design (CAD) technical drawings, architectural designs, project blueprints and banners. They are widely used in Architect, Engineering and Construction (AEC) and Geographical Information System (GIS) sectors. Additionally, they are used by advertising agencies and print and design shops.

Advantages
y

Plotters are able to work on large sheets -- 2 or more feet -- of paper and still maintain high quality resolution. In addition, a plotter may print on a wide variety of materials and thus offer its user many options. Materials that a plotter can draw on include sheet steel, plywood, aluminum, plastic, cardboard and almost any flat sheet material. Efficiency, reproducibility, accuracy and speed are all attributes of a plotter. Plotters can save all patterns and templates on disk and eliminate the hassle of having to load the same patterns or templates over and over again. Additionally, the same pattern can be drawn thousands of time without any degradation.

Disadvantages
y

Although plotters offer many advantages, if you are working with limited space, you may have a difficult time finding the right location for your plotter. They take up more space than regular printers. Furthermore, the price of a plotter is much higher than the price of printer.