Lesson 11 - Chapter 1: Printer Components and Technologies Flashcards
How do impact printers work?
they create an image by physically striking an inked ribbon against the paper’s surface
(I’m imagining typewriters)
What are the 5 types of modern printers?
- Impact printers
- Inkjet printers
- Thermal printers
- Laser printers
- 3D printers
What is a daisy-wheel printer? Are they still in use today?
an outdated, essentially electric typewriter attached to a computer
What’s the cousin of daisy-wheel printers? Are they still in use today?
dot-matrix printers, and yes they’re still found in many offices
Due to what reasons would you not find a dot-matrix printer for home use?
Not high-quality and flexible for a low cost
What are 3 reasons dot-matrix computers are still used in businesses?
- Were already in offices
- Can be used for multipart forms as they physically strike the paper
- Inked ribbons are cheaper than ink/toner
Impact printers are ideal for settings where what is not critical?
Impact printers are ideal for when speed, flexibility and print quality are not critical
How do impact printers perform? Fast or slow?
slow and noisy
Example of a multipart printing computer?
PoS machines (Point-of-Sale)
PoS machines use special impact paper that allows them to print….
receipts in duplicate, triplicate, or more
What are printwires?
the grid of tiny pins a dot-matrix printer uses to strike an inked printer ribbon and produce images
For dot-matrix printers, what are printwires held in?
the printhead
How does the BIOS for a dot-matrix printer interpret an image?
it paints the image as individual dots (like pixels on a monitor)
Modern dot-matrix printers use how many pins in the print head?
24 pins, the more pins the higher the resolution
What does NLQ stand for? What is it referring to? (2)
- Near Letter Quality (or Letter Quality)
- Modern dot-matrix printers
How does the tractor-feed paper work on a dot-matrix printer?
the feed paper has holes on its side that are engaged by metal sprockets to pull the paper through
(sprockets = wheels of a tractor)
On an inkjet printer, what 2 things move the carriage back and forth so the ink can cover the whole page?
- carriage belt
- motor
An inkjet printer uses a printhead connected to what?
the printhead is connected to a carriage that contains the ink
On an inkjet, what grabs the paper? (2 options) Where are they located?
- roller (under or inside printer)
- feeder (usually on the back of the printer)
What does DOD stand for and how does it work? (2)
- Drop-on-Demand
- Software directs the ink to eject through tiny tubes a drop at at time
What’s a second class of inkjet printers that is used for commercial printing?
Continuous inkjet
What are the 2 types of DOD inkjet printers? Which is most common today?
- Thermal (uses heat to push the ink)
- Piezoelectric (uses electricity to push the ink) [most common today]
How does piezoelectric printing control the direction of the inkjet spray?
each nozzle is surrounded by half+/half- electrically charged horizontal/vertical plates
What are ink cartridges?
special, small containers that store inkjet ink
What did early ink setups for early inkjets versus more modern ones look like?
Older inkjets came with 2 carts: 1 black, 1 CMYK
Newer inkjets come with at least 4 carts: 1 red, 1 yellow, 1 blue, 1 black
[more carts = more quality]
Older inks would ___ if the paper …. or….
Older inks would smudge if the paper got wet or start to fade
(modern inks are smudge-proof and archival quality)
What are 2 key measures of an inkjet’s capabilities?
- Print resolution
- Print speed
How is resolution measured in?
Dots per inch (dpi)
What does print resolution mean?
How densely the printer lays down the ink onto the page
What do higher dpi numbers mean for the print resolution?
Higher Dots Per Inch (dpi):
the ink dots on the page are closer together (the document will look better)
What is print speed measured in for an inkjet?
pages per minute (ppm)
Are there different speeds for inkjets?
Yes, most printers have a speed for monochrome printing (black ink), and another for full-color
If you primarily print photos, what’s a good printer to use?
inkjet, they excel at printing on glossy photo paper
Can you use an inkjet to print a high volume of ordinary document pages? Why?
No, because the print speed can be slower than a laser printer and cost a lot more
What happens if you don’t use an inkjet printer for a while (weeks)?
the ink in the nozzle can dry up and clog it
How do you unclog an inkjet nozzle?
you run a special cleaning cycle to flush out the ink (called cleaning the heads)
What’s a downside to having to clean the heads on an inkjet?
it wastes time and ink (expensive)
What is duplexing? What printer(s) can it be found on?) (2)
- Duplexing is printing on both sides of a paper (some don’t need a manual flip)
- More common with laser printers, but also found on high-end inkjets
How do thermal printers work?
they use a heated printhead to create a HQ image on special or plain paper
Which type of thermal printer needs special heat-sensitive paper?
Direct thermal printers
What are the 2 types of thermal printers?
- Direct thermal printers
- Thermal-wax transfer printer
How do direct thermal printers work? What type of printing medium do they need?
They use a heating element to burn dots into the surface of special heat-sensitive thermal paper
A direct thermal printer uses what to draw the thermal paper past the heating element?
feed assembly
What process do laser printers use to print?
electro-photographing
How do laser printers work? What do they rely on?
They rely on the photoconductive (electricity-conducting) properties of certain organic compounds when exposed to light
What do laser printers use as a source for photoconductivity? (2)
- lasers
- LED arrays (cheaper printers)
What’s spot color?
A laser printer benefit of adding eye-catching color elements to a plain page
What is toner? What printers is it used in?
- A powder that consists of a mixture of iron and plastic that creates the image on the page
- Laser Printer (toner cartridges)
( The iron makes it respond to magnetic charges and the plastic makes it meltable to adhere to the paper.)
Color laser printers have what 4 toner cartridges?
- Black
- Cyan
- Magenta
- Yellow
What is an imaging drum? What does it drain?
a grounded, aluminum cylinder that drains the electrical charge from the photosensitive compound particles it’s coated with
What is an imaging drum also called? For what type of printer are they used with? (2)
- Photosensitive drum
- Laser Printers
What is the laser printer’s erase lamp?
it’s what exposes the photosensitive particles in the imaging drum to light so any electrical charge bleeds away into the grounded drum and leaves the particles electrically neutral
LP: Where is the primary corona/primary charge roller located?
close to the photosensitive drum (but doesn’t touch it)
LP: What does “corona” mean?
an electric field
LP: How is voltage passed to the imaging drum to charge the photosensitive particles on the surface?
the primary corona/charge roller’s high voltage creates an electrical field that enables voltage to pass to the drum
What acts as the writing mechanism of a laser printer?
the laser
What does the toner cylinder do?
charges the toner with a negative charge of between ~200 and ~500 volts
The primary corona wire/charge roller apply a uniform negative charge of between ___ and ____ to the drum
between ~600 and ~1000 volts to the drum
What negative charge are the particles on the imaging drum left with after the laser strikes those certain areas?
~100 volt negative charge
The toner cylinder charges the toner with a negative charge of between…?
~200 and ~500 volts
In older laser printers, a thin wire called the ___ ____ applied a positive charge to the paper
transfer corona
In newer printers, what did the transfer corona turn into?
transfer rollers
What does a transfer roll do?
attracts toner onto the paper with a positive charge
Since the imaging drum is negatively charged, how does the positively charged paper stop from wrapping around the drum?
a static charge eliminator removes the charge from the paper
What are 3 ways to clean the delicate transfer corona?
- Use the
- Use a
- Some toner or
- Use the specialized tool it comes with
- Use a q-tip soaked in 90% denatured alcohol
- Some toner or drum carts have a slider to clean the wire without touching it
What does the fuser assembly contain? LP
the pressure roller and heated roller that fuse the toner to the paper with heat
Techs should be extra careful with ___ printer power supplies because….?
laser printer PSU, because of their high-voltage capacitors
What makes a laser printer one of the most dangerous devices in computing?
the corona requires extremely high voltage from the power supply
Always __ __ and ___ the printer before performing any maintenance
turn off, unplug
LP: A separation pad uses what to separate a single sheet from others that were picked up?
friction
What can you do to a LP model to help fix bugs, add new features, and update the fonts in the printer?
flashing the ROM (like upgrading the BIOS/UEFI on a PC)
As each printer has its own RAM (DIMM sticks), which ones tend to have more RAM and which ones have less?
More = Laser printers
Less = print line by line like inkjet and dot matrix
What’s an important maintenance issue for laser printers?
the coronas generate ozone (O3) and the special ozone filter needs to be vacuumed or replaced periodically
3D Printers require what connection to work?
they require a manual connection of the plastic filaments to the print device (apart from USB connection and installed drivers)
What’s the 3D print preparing process called and also what each layer is referred to?
slicing
(refers to the layers for the print job)
