3.6, 3.7 Hardware - sections 18, 19 Flashcards
Unboxing printers
Check the manufacturer’s instructions before starting the process. During the unboxing, look for extra pieces, cables, documentation, or driver disks
Placing Printer
Hot temperatures can cause condensation and moisture inside the printer. Location of printer should be well-ventilated and can/and or should be convenient. And shouldn’t be near entrances or exits. If placing printer in office space good to have print queuing system and print authentication system.
Three types of Printer Connectors
USB, Ethernet, Wireless
USB Printer Connector
USB Connection: Usually and often found in home environment usually using a small printer. Windows has the ability to detect a printer using a plug and play.
Ethernet Printer Connector
Ethernet Connection: Network cable that uses an RJ45 port. If printer supports a network-based connection usually already has a printer server built into it. A printer with ethernet capability supports DHCP.
Wireless Printer Connection
Wireless Connection: Comes with either Wi-Fi or Bluetooth
Has two modes
Infrastructure Mode: Printer is connected to the access point.
Wi-Fi Direct Mode: Allows the printer to act as an access point.
Bluetooth: Uses a wireless point-to-point connection from the printer to the computer.
What is a printer when its not a physical Device
Printer (when not a physical device): Program that controls the physical printer.
What is a printer driver
Printer Driver: Integrated into a printer. Have to have admins rights/permissions to install print driver.
What is Page Description Language(PDL)
Page Description Language(PDL): Used to create a raster file from the printer commands that are sent by a software application. How a printer driver technically works.
What is scalable font
Scalable Font: Capable of being resized to any size.
What is Vector Graphic
Vector Graphic: Size can be changed before printing Bitmap is distorted; Vector is clear.
What is CMYK and GRB
CMYK: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black
GRB: Green, Red, Black
The five main configurations for printer preferences
Duplex, Orientation, Tray Setting, Quality, Finishing.
Duplex printer configuration
Duplex: Two sided, prints on both sides of the paper
Orientation printer configuration
Orientation: Two types of orientation portrait, and landscape.
Tray Setting printer configuration
Tray Settings: Multiple trays allow you print on different types of paper ranging in different sizes and weight.
Quality printer configuration
Quality: How much ink and toner to use
Finishing printer configuration
Finishing: Print provides the option to apply staples or three-hole punches to print outs.
Two main ways to share a printer over a network
Print Server, Printer Share
Print Server
Print Server: Software application or hardware devices that manages print requests and printer queue status information
Printer Share
Printer Share: Allows to connect a printer using Bluetooth or USB. Good practice to use a printer share on a device that will be on all the time.
What is Centralized Print Server
Centralized Print Server: Allows to control, configure, and troubleshoot the devices remotely from a network. Most printers come with their own built-in print server.
What is a Microsoft Management Console(MMC)
Microsoft Management Console(MMC): Allows to share network printers and centralizes the print server from the centralized Windows server.
What is the Print Spooler
Print Spooler: Service built into the Windows OS and exists to help print jobs.
Four ways to secure print devices
User Authentication, Audit Logs, Secured prints, Badging.
User Authentication printer security
User Authentication: Sets permissions to the printer and requires logging in with a username and password.
Audit Logs printer security
Audit Logs: Record of jobs that have been sent and printed on a particular device.
Secured Prints printer security
Secured Prints: Device held on the printer until the user’s authentication.
Badging printer security
Badging: Uses a RFID with ID badge.
What is Printer Scanning
Scanning: Allows the printer to be used as a copy machine or scanner
What is a scanner on a printer
Scanner: Digital imaging device designed to create computer file from a real-life object. Optical Character Recognition(OCR): Converts scanned text into digital documents that can be manipulated using a word processing program.
What is the Automatic Document Feeder(ADF)
Automatic Document Feeder(ADF): Provides the ability to be able to scan multiple pieces of paper. Through the top of the device which then will feed each one in individually, scan it and put into a file.
Two-side ADF: Can scan both sides of piece of paper, if there is text on both sides
Three locations printers or MFDS send files to
Hard drive, Folder, Cloud
Hard Drive location for a printer to send files to
Hard Drive: External storage connected/or through USB to home computer. If on corporate network sends through email to network folder or cloud. Requires that scanner/MFD have an SMTP server built in.
Folder location for a printer to send files to
Folder: Sends a folder on user’s network assigned drive or shared drive through a folder file pathway. Relies on SMB
Cloud location for a printer to send file to
Cloud: Sends to a cloud service, e.g., Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, Apple iCloud
Five types of Printers
Laser, Inkjet, Thermal, Impact, 3D
How many pages does a Laser Printer create at one time.
Laser Printer: Creates an entire page at one time during the printing process.
Laser Printer Components
Image Drum, Fuser Assembly, Transfer belt/roller, Pickup Rollers, Paper Separation Pad, and Duplex Assembly.
Image Drum for a laser printer
Image Drum: Main components that creates the image to be applied to the paper.
Fuser assembly for a laser printer
Fuser Assembly: Heats up and melts the toner onto the page to adhere properly to the page.
Transfer belt/roller for a laser printer.
Transfer belt/roller: Used as a way to transfer the image from the image drum and become fused.
Pickup Rollers for a laser printer
Pickup Rollers: Used to pick up the paper from the feed tray and feed it through the system.
Paper separation Pad for a laser printer
Paper Separation Pad: Helps the pickup rollers to ensure they only pick up a single piece of paper at a time.
Duplex assembly for a laser printer
Duplex assembly: Moves the paper from the front to the back.
What is a Toner Cartridge
A Toner Cartridge: Is a plastic housing that contains toner powder.
The seven steps of Electrophotographic Printing(EP).
Processing, Charging, Exposing, Developing, Transferring, Fusing, Cleaning.
Processing step of Electrophotographic Printing(EP)
Processing: The OS uses a print driver to translate what’s on the screen to print.
Charging step of Electrophotographic Printing(EP)
Charging: The imaging drum is conditioned with the primary charge roller.
Exposing step of Electrophotographic Printing(EP)
Exposing: The surface coating of the photosensitive imaging drum loses its charge when exposed to light.
Developing step of Electrophotographic Printing(EP)
Developing: The laser printer takes the toner and applies it to a developer roller.
Transferring step of Electrophotographic Printing(EP)
Transferring: Moving the toner from the imaging drum into the print media.
Fusing step of Electrophotographic Printing(EP)
Fusing: The fuser squeezes the paper between a hot roller and a pressure roller.
Cleaning step of Electrophotographic Printing(EP)
Cleaning: The photosensitive drum needed to be cleaned and get all the remaining toner particles cleaned off.
Laser printer maintenance
Loading paper, Toner Cartridges Replacement, Use Maintenance Kit, Page Count and Calibration, Cleaning the printer,
Loading paper Laser printer maintenance
Loading Paper: Buy paper rated for that type of printer. Using the wrong paper can cause paper jams. Store the paper in a nice dry area that does not have high humidity or excessive dust.
Toner cartridges replacement
Toner Cartridges Replacement: Standard Toner Cartridge has 2500 pages. High-yield Cartridges have 6000 pages
Laser printer Maintenance Kit
Use of Maintenance Kit: A replacement kit bought from your printer’s manufacturer for your specific printer containing a replacement Feed roller, Transfer roller, and a Fuser unit
Page count and calibration laser printer maintenance
Page Count and Calibration: Page Counter: Indicates when to change either a feed, transfer roller or the fuser unit. Always reset page counter after replacing any component. Calibration: Process by which the printer determines the print density or color balance to use.
Cleaning laser printer maintenance
Cleaning the printer: Cleaning the components of loose toner, using a damp soft cloth or a toner safe vacuum. Wash with COLD WATER if toner gets on your skin. Some printers have filters for catching dust and dirt needs to be cleaned out as well.
Inkjet Printers
Inkjet printer: Creates an image on the paper through a nozzle or jet on a printhead onto the paper. Are the most common in-home office environments. A Laser printer prints the whole page called page based. An Inkjet is printer Line by line.
Two main types of inkjet printers
Piezoelectric, Thermal
Six components of an inkjet printer
Ink Cartridges, Print Head, Roller, Feeder, Duplex Assembly, Carriage Belt/Carriage System.
Inkjet ink cartridges
Ink Cartridges: High-end inkjet printers have seven different cartridges
Print Head of an Inkjet printer
Print head: Device that takes the droplets of ink and directs into the paper. Two main technologies for inkjet printers:
Piezoelectric method(Charge method): Uses a nozzle that reacts to changes in voltage works like a pump, as more or less voltage is applied the nozzle will change in size to allow more or less out. Does not require to replace the printhead when replacing the ink cartridge.
Thermal method(Bubble Jet): Heats up the nozzle in the print head to create an air bubble that sprays ink through the nozzle when it burst, it draws more ink out from the cartridge. Is hard on the printheads, have to replaces printheads when replacing the cartridges.
Inkjet printer roller
Roller: Responsible for advancing the paper through the inkjet printer.
Inkjet printer feeder
Feeder: Allows multiple pieces of paper in a tray to be selected one pieces of paper at a time and passes it to the roller.
Inkjet printer duplex assembly
Duplexing assembly: Allows an inkjet printer to print on both sides of a piece of paper.
Inkjet printer carriage belt/carriage system
Carriage belt/Carriage System: Allows the printhead to move back and forth across the page.
Two types of Inkjet printing models are
Unidirectional Printing: Printhead will only apply ink from left to right.
Bi-directional Printing/Two-Directional Printing: Printhead will apply ink from left to right and from right to left.
Inkjet printer maintenance
Loading the paper, Cleaning the heads, Replacing the cartridges, Calibrating the system, clearing paper jams
loading paper inkjet printer maintenance
Loading the paper: Inkjet printers have a small single feed tray. Only holding 100-200 pages or 250-500 pages for larger inkjet printers:
Open the feed tray
Check that the guides are set to the proper paper size
Insert paper(align by tapping paper on the desk before restocking)
Shut feed tray, system will recognize paper is restocked
Cleaning the heads of inkjet printer maintenance
Cleaning the heads: Printheads can get blocked/backed up and dirty. Which causes printer to miss lines or missing colors
Run printer through its cleaning cycle if it has one. Can active through the front panel. Or through manufacturer’s software installed on the printer driver. Will print out a few pages trying to overheat the nozzle to unblock it.
Can buy inkjet cleaning products to clean printheads manually.
Printheads are attached to the cartridges in a thermal inkjet print, replacing the cartridges mean also replacing the printhead.
Replacing inkjet printer cartridges maintenance
Replacing the cartridges: Most printer manufacturers include a sensor built into inkjet cartridges. Letting you know when to change the inkjet cartridges and when the cartridge is empty.
Open the service panel on your printer
Usually a retainer clip, push down on retainer clip to pull out empty cartridge and replace with new one.
Close try and printer will perform a system check to verify cartridges are proper installed.
Printheads are attached to the cartridges in a thermal inkjet print, replacing the cartridges mean also replacing the printhead.
Calibrating inkjet printer system for maintenance
Calibrating the system: When the printer output has skewed or missing parts. Again, can either run through front panel or manufacturer’s software on the printer driver.
Cleaning inkjet printer paper jams
Clearing paper jams: Usually caused by not using the correct paper. Either paper is too light or too thick.
If paper is too thick, turn off printer, open service panel. Slowly pull jammed paper through.
If paper too light, there will be multiple pieces of paper jammed up. Turn of printer, open service panel. Remove the feeder tray and open the output tray. And try to pull the paper out in whole pages as to not rip paper into smaller pieces. If small pieces get into the tray, might have to use tweezers to remove all the small pieces of paper.
Thermal Printer
Thermal Printer: Type of printer that uses a heating element to create an image. Usually smaller in size used to print receipts or photographs. Most thermal printers use thermal paper
Gets measured in inches per second/centimeters per second compared to laser and inkjet which are pages per second. Requires: Thermal Paper or Thermal Ribbon
Paper-based thermal printers work well in high-speed environments. Example: receipt printer at a restaurant.
Thermal Ribbons: Has a mixture of colors (CMYK) and is used to create the heat transfer.
Three components of a Thermal Printer
Feed Assembly, Heating Element, Thermal Paper
Color Thermal Printers
Color Thermal Printers: Uses thermal paper to create images.
Thermal Printer maintenance
Replacing the paper, Cleaning the heating element, Removing Debris
Replacing the paper thermal printer maintenance
Replacing the paper: Make sure the paper specific paper for the printer. Open the printer case, insert roll shiny part facing outward, make sure the end of the paper is held in place by the printhead and close the printer case.
Cleaning the heating element thermal printer maintenance
Cleaning the heating element: Turn off and remove from power and cool off. Use isopropyl alcohol with cotton swab to clean the printhead.
Removing debris thermal printer
Removing debris: Turn off and remove from power and cool off. Take out printer roll. And clean feed mechanism. Small bits of paper and debris can fall back into the feed mechanism.
Impact Printers
Impact Printers: are measured based on the quality of the dots. More dots mean higher resolution, most are 100 to 150 dots per inch. Highest resolution is 240 dpi. Tracks: Series of holes going down the side of the paper with a perforation between the regular paper and tracks.
Three main components of an Impact Printer
Printhead, Ribbon, Tractor Feed
Printhead component of an Impact Printer
Printhead: Device that has a series of pin that make up the dot matrix that forms the image
Ribbon component of an Impact Printer
Ribbon: Fabric or material held within a plastic housing in front of the printhead.
Tractor Feed component of an Impact Printer
Tractor feed: Exists on both sides of the printer and pulls the paper through the printer using tractor fed paper.
Three parts of Impact Printer Maintenance
Replacing the ribbon, Replacing the printhead, Replacing the paper.
Replacing the Ribbon Impact Printer maintenance
Replacing the ribbon: Get the specific ribbon for that printer. Once ribbon is out cannot re-use have to throw out fully replace.
Replacing the printhead Impact printer maintenance
Replacing the printhead: Printhead dots get worn down. Have to replace when the text will not fully print looking like holes in the text. Buy use the correct specific type of printhead for the printer.
Turn off, remove from power, and cool off for an 30 to 60 minutes first.
Replacing the paper Impact printer maintenance
Replacing the paper: Lift up the guides
