When referring to inkjet printers, I believe that most people will associate them with relatively low prices, high output quality, small size, and environmental protection.
Indeed, this is the reason why more and more home users and SMEs choose inkjet printers. At present, it is still Canon, Hewlett-Packard, and Epson who occupy most of the inkjet printing market.
However, do you know that? Although they are all called inkjet printers, the choice of inkjet technology is different. So, what's the difference between them? This is also the original intention of this time of our writing. Therefore, formally Before you start, please read the article carefully.
We say that ink jet printing technology can be divided into solid ink jet and liquid ink ink according to the working principle.
Among them, the solid ink jet works mainly by dye sublimation, but the cost is higher; the main working methods of liquid ink jet printers are divided into thermal foaming and micro piezoelectric, and these two technologies are still the current office printing. The mainstream of the market.
Including the three mainstream brands we mentioned in the opening chapter, despite the different jetting technologies used, they rely on the two major technologies of thermal foaming and micro-piezoelectricity. The two inkjet technologies will be discussed separately below. .
Hot foam inkjet technology
Let's talk about the thermal foaming inkjet technology. At present, the three brands of Canon and Hewlett-Packard are all adopting the thermal foam technology. The basic principle of this technology is to use heated nozzles to cause the ink to produce air bubbles and spray on the print media. Is a high temperature and high pressure printing technology.
Because the print head is under pressure due to the thermal bubble between the ink cartridge and the ink, the ink cartridge must be integrated with the nozzle. When replacing the ink cartridge, the print head is also updated. This has the advantage that you do not have to worry about the clogging of the nozzle, but Consumable costs are relatively expensive.
Thermal foam inkjet technology advantages
The advantage of the thermal foaming inkjet technology is that the thermal foaming inkjet technology uses a system in which aqueous and oil-based dyes are mixed, so that it can be used in both domestic and commercial machines and can be printed with good quality.
The ability to shrink the ink drop area and the integrated circuit circulation technology are expected to make ink jet printers using this technology smaller in size and emit more ink droplets at a higher frequency, resulting in richer harmonic colors and Smoother mesh tone. Low operating frequency, high number of nozzles, and resolution of single print are the basic elements of high speed printing.
Therefore, the thermal foaming inkjet technology can increase the printing speed and thus make the printer more efficient. The continuously integrated circuit technology also allows the thermal foaming inkjet technology to continue to reduce costs while optimizing the entire printing process.
Thermal foam inkjet technology disadvantage
Due to the long-term operation of the ink head under high temperature and high pressure, the nozzles are corroded seriously, and at the same time, problems such as ink splatter and nozzle clogging are easily caused. In terms of print quality, the ink is heated during use, and the ink is easily heated at high temperatures. Chemical changes occur, the properties are unstable, and the color authenticity is affected to a certain extent.
On the other hand, since the ink is ejected through the bubbles, the directionality and volume of the ink particles are not well understood, and the edges of the printed lines are jagged, which affects the print quality to some extent.
In application, due to the limitation of thermal foaming technology, only high-strength and low-viscosity water-based inkjets with water as the main medium can be used. Organic solvents cannot be used, so solvent-based inkjets cannot be used outdoors. Large format advertising printing.
Micro Piezo Inkjet Technology
Then talk about the micro-piezo inkjet technology. Only three of Epson used micro-piezo inkjet technology, which belongs to the normal temperature and pressure printing technology, it is a lot of tiny piezoelectric ceramic placed near the print head nozzle, piezoelectric Ceramics have the characteristics of bending deformation under the effect of voltage changes at both ends.
When the image information voltage is applied to the piezoelectric ceramic, the stretching vibration deformation of the piezoelectric ceramic will change along with the change of the image information voltage, and the ink in the ink head will be uniformly and accurately sprayed under the stable condition of the normal temperature and pressure. Ink.
In addition, due to the high cost of inkjet print heads made using piezoelectric technology, and the lower pressure in the micro piezoelectric heads, the nozzles are actually replaced by piezoelectric ceramic wafers.
In the micro-piezoelectric head, the nozzle and the ink cartridge are of a separate structure. One nozzle can support multiple ink cartridges. When replacing the ink, it is only necessary to replace the ink cartridge without having to replace the print head. This saves the cost of some printing consumables, but the print head Once it is damaged and repaired it can be said to be a small project.
Micro Piezo Inkjet Technology Advantage
The advantage of piezoelectric ink jet technology is that its ability to control ink droplets is stronger, and the shape of ink droplets is more regular, positioning is more accurate, print resolution is improved, and high-precision printing is easily achieved; No need for heating, so the ink will not produce chemical changes due to heat, which reduces the ink requirements and extends the life of the printhead.
Due to the constant temperature stability, the viscosity and surface tension of the ink remain relatively stable during continuous printing for a long time, ensuring the consistent print quality, and the reproducibility of the reprinted colors.
Ceramic piezoelectric printing systems can print almost any type of ink, including water-soluble, solvent-based, and heated solid-state inkjets as described above.
The ink used for ceramic piezoelectric printing has wider viscosity and tension adaptability range (viscosity can be between 1-20 mPa.s, tension is between 30-50mN/m), and has dissolution properties and speed Dry characteristics.
Therefore, micro-piezoelectric technology compensates for the lack of thermal foaming technology and has a wider application space.
Micro Piezo Inkjet Technology Disadvantages
To say what are the disadvantages of the micro-piezo inkjet technology, that is, it is difficult to focus most nozzles on one print head, so the printing speed will be slowed down.
And when the printer's ink head is clogged, it needs to waste a lot of ink to clean the ink head, and every time you replace the ink head, you must first waste 30% ink to do ink head cleaning. Every time you turn on the printer, it takes 2 to 3 minutes to clean it. Some ink is wasted. When the air volume device asks the user to replace the ink cartridge, there is still 17% to 25% of the remaining ink.
to sum up:
How do you say when you compare them? Thermal foaming technology and micro-piezoelectric technology have their own advantages and disadvantages. At present, most of the mainstream inkjet printers in the market rely on these two inkjet technologies.
Therefore, we choose to purchase from the actual use of their own needs, weigh the pros and cons, choose the best one for their own print products.
Of course, if these two technologies can be perfectly combined together, it will be an icing on the cake for the user to provide a new type of ink jet technology that is both stable and of high quality, high output speed, and low cost. This is undoubtedly the future of equipment manufacturers. Keep on working hard.
