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Inkjet Printers

Inkjet printers use a highly developed technology to accurately print large volumes of material. They are especially common in the area of industrial and photography printing. There are a few underlying methods that make inkjet technology work. The ink could be put through a thermal inkjet, a piezoelectric inkjet, or a continuous inkjet.

The simplest, least expensive, and most common type of inkjet printer uses thermal technology. In a thermal inkjet, a burst of electricity superheats moisture within the print head. This causes it to flash to steam, which forces a bead of ink out of the end of the print chamber. This can be done rapidly and repeatedly due to the low volume of liquid involved. The droplets of ink being forced out can be as small as one picometer, which is 10-12 meters. The flow of ink to replace the droplets expelled cools the chamber so that it can be reheated with another electric jolt.

A more expensive and complex variant is the piezoelectric driven inkjet printer. Piezoelectric materials change shape or size when an electric current is applied to them. In printing applications, the piezoelectric material can take the place of the steam action that forces droplets from the print head. The lack of explosive force in piezoelectric expansion makes this type of printer ideally suited for industrial or commercial applications. In that type of volume, the durability of the print head can make up for its increased cost, something that just doesn’t happen in residential applications.

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