What is the principle of printing an inkjet and laser printer? How an inkjet printer prints

It is difficult to imagine modern life without a printer. Schools print scripts, at university - abstracts, at work - contracts, and even at home it is extremely necessary for us to transfer this or that information to paper. There are several types of printers, they are classified by type of printing, by format, by size and even by type of printed materials. Consider the principle of printing inkjet and laser printer.

How an inkjet printer works

We will try to highlight the principle of printing an inkjet printer briefly. The print quality is slightly worse than that of the laser. However, their cost is much lower than that of laser ones. Inkjet printer is ideal for home use. It is easy to operate and easy to maintain. The principle of printing inkjet and laser printer are significantly different. This is evident in the technology of ink supply, and in the device of equipment. So let's talk first about how an inkjet printer prints.

Its principle of operation is as follows: in the special matrix an image is formed, and then this matrix imprinted the image on the canvas using liquid dyes. Another type of inkjet printer is equipped with cartridges that are installed in a special unit. In this case, with the help of the print head, the ink is fed into the print matrix, and it transfers the image to the paper.

Ways of storing ink and applying them to paper

There are three ways to apply ink to the canvas:

• piezoelectric method;
• method of gas bubbles;
• drop-on-demand method.

The first method, when printing, leaves an ink dot on the canvas, due to the piezoelectric element. With its help, the tube is compressed and unclenched, not allowing excess ink to get onto the paper.

Gas bubbles, also known as injected bubbles, leave an imprint on the canvas due to high temperatures. Each nozzle of the printing matrix is equipped with a heating element, which heats up in a fraction of a second. The formed gas bubbles are pushed through the nozzle and transferred to the consumable material.

The drop-on-demand method also uses gas bubbles during operation. But this is a more optimized technology, which significantly increases the speed and quality of modern printing.

In an inkjet printer, ink is stored in two ways. There is a separate removable reservoir, from which the ink is fed into the printhead. The second method for storing ink uses a special cartridge, which is also located in the printhead. To replace the cartridge, it is necessary to replace the head itself.

Let's talk about inkjet printers

Inkjet printers have gained special popularity due to the possibility of color printing. When printing, the image is formed by superimposing the main tones to each other with different saturation. A set of primary colors is abbreviated CMYK. It includes: yellow, purple, blue and black.

Initially, offered a tricolor set, which included all of the above tones, except for the black shade. But with a yellow, cyan and magenta color, with 100% saturation, it was not possible to achieve black. The result was a brown or gray color. Therefore, it was decided to add black ink.

Features of the inkjet printer

The main indicators of the printer's quality work include noise, print speed, print quality and its durability.

Operational properties of the printer:

• Principle of printing - inkjet. The ink is fed through special nozzles and printed on the canvas. Unlike needle printers, where the application of ink is a shock-mechanical process, the ink jet works very quietly. As the printer prints, can not be heard, you can only distinguish the noise of the engine, which moves the printheads. The noise level does not exceed 40 dB.
• The speed of printing an inkjet printer is much higher than that of a needle printer. The print quality also depends on this indicator. The principle of printing a printer: the higher the speed, the worse the print. If you choose high-quality printing, the process slows down and the paint is applied more carefully. The average print speed of this printer is about 3-5 pages per minute. More modern models have increased this figure to 9 pages per minute. Color printing takes a little longer.
• Font is one of the main advantages of an inkjet printer. The quality of the font display can be compared only with a laser printer. Increase the quality of printing can be through the use of good paper. It must have fast absorbent properties. A good image is obtained on paper with a density of 60-135g / m². Also, a paper for photocopiers with a density of 80 g / m² was also good. To quickly dry the ink, use the paper warm-up function. Despite the fact that the principle of printing inkjet and laser printer is completely different, quality equipment allows to achieve a similar effect.
• Paper. Unfortunately, the inkjet printer is not suitable for printing on roll media. And to get multiple copies have to use multiple print.

Disadvantages of printing an inkjet printer

As it turned out, inkjet printers are printed with liquid dyes using a matrix. The image is formed from dots. The most expensive part in the printer is the print head, some firms have built the printer's print head into the cartridge, to reduce the overall size of the device. The principle of printing inkjet and laser printer are significantly different from each other

The disadvantages of such a printer include:

• Low speed printing.
• If the printer has not been operated for a long time, the ink may dry out.
• Consumables have a high cost and a small resource.

Advantages of printing an inkjet printer

• Attractive price, perfect price-performance ratio.
• The printer has very modest dimensions, which allows it to be placed in a small cabinet, without creating inconvenience to the user.
• Cartridges are easy to fill yourself, you just need to buy ink and read the instructions.
• The ability to connect a continuous ink supply system. With large volumes of printing, this will significantly reduce costs.
• High-quality photo printing.
• Wide choice of print media.

A little bit about the laser printer

A laser printer is a kind of equipment designed to print a text or image on a paper medium. The history of creating this type of equipment is very unusual. And has a marketing approach, as opposed to an inkjet printer, with the creation of which hundreds of scientific concepts were developed.

Only in 1969, Xerox began to develop the principle of printing a laser printer. For several years scientific work was conducted, many methods were used to improve the existing apparatus. In 1978, the world saw the first copier, which used a laser beam to create a print. The printer turned out to be huge, and the price did not allow to purchase this unit for everyone. After some time, the development of the company interested in Canon, and in 1979 was released the first desktop laser printer. After a lot of companies started to optimize copiers and release new models, but the principle of printing a laser printer has not changed.

How to print a laser printer

Prints obtained in this way have high performance characteristics. For them, moisture is not terrible, they are not afraid of erasure and fading. The images obtained in this way are very qualitative and stable.

The principle of printing a laser printer is brief:

• The laser printer puts the image on the canvas in several stages. Toner (special powder) melts and adheres to the paper under the influence of temperature.
• The squeegee (special scraper) removes the unused toner from the drum into the storage tank.
• The carronator polarizes the surface of the drum, and by means of electrostatic forces assigns a positive or negative charge to it.
• The image is formed on the surface of the drum with a rotating mirror, which directs it to the desired location.
• The drum moves over the surface of the magnetic shaft. On the shaft there is a toner that sticks to those places of the drum where there is no charge.
• After the drum rolls over the paper, leaving the toner on the canvas.
• At the final stage, the paper with the toner scattered on it is rolled through the stove, where the substance melts under high temperatures and firmly adheres to the paper.

The principle of printing a laser printer has much in common with the technology used in copiers.

Color laser printers and their main differences

The process of printing on a color printer differs from black and white by the presence of several shades, which when mixed in a certain proportion are able to recreate all the colors known to us. Color laser printers use four separate compartments for each paint color. This is their main difference.

Printing on a color printer consists of the following steps: image analysis, its raster image, the location of colors and corresponding toners. Then the charge distribution is formed. After the procedure is the same as with black and white printing. A sheet of paint passes through the stove, where the toners are melted and reliably seize the paper.

Their advantage lies in the fact that the principle of printing a laser printer allows you to achieve very fine rays, which discharge the desired areas. As a result, we get a very high-quality image of high resolution.

Advantages of modern laser printers

The advantages of printing laser printers include:

• High speed printing.
• Persistence, clarity and endurance of prints (they are not afraid of wet microclimate).
• High resolution image.
• Low cost of printing.

Disadvantages of printing a laser printer

The main disadvantages of laser printers:

• During the operation of the equipment, ozone is released. So, with it you need to work in a well-ventilated room.
• High power consumption.
• Bulky.
• High cost of equipment

Drawing on all the pros and cons, we can conclude that inkjet printers are great for home use. They have an affordable price and small dimensions, which is important for many users.

The laser printer is suitable for offices and other institutions where there are a lot of black and white printouts and the speed of document processing is important.