Printer Type Comparison

Question 1

What advantages do Inkjet Printers have?

Answer 1

They are easy to use.
They have a low initial cost.
High Resolution.
Quick to warm up.

Question 2

What are some disadvantages of Inkjet printers?

Answer 2

Nozzles are prone to clogging.
Ink cartridges are expensive.
The ink is wet for a few seconds after printing.

Question 3

What are the six parts of an Inkjet Printer?

Answer 3

Ink cartridges/Paper
Print Head
Roller
Feeder
Duplexing Assembly
Carriage/Belt

Question 4

What factors concern Ink cartridges? What should be done about these factors?

Answer 4

Ink quality and correct type.

Refer to the printer software for quality and the manual for ink/paper type.

Question 5

What are print heads? What are the two forms of print head?

Answer 5

Print heads are the part of inkjet printers which contain the ink nozzles.
Thermal-A pulse of electrical current is applied to the nozzle. This creates a bubble of steam, forcing ink out of the nozzle onto the paper.
Piezoelectric-Crystals in the back of the chamber have a charge applied to them. They vibrate, controlling the flow of ink to the paper.

Question 6

What do duplexing assemblies do?

Answer 6

They are for printing on both ides of a piece of paper. They flip the paper over once it has been initially printed on.

Question 7

What do feeders do?

Answer 7

It may hold blank paper in a tray or cassette. They hold paper which is fed page by page onto a scanner bed for copying.

Question 8

What does a carriage/belt do?

Answer 8

The print head and ink cartridges are located here.

The carriage is attached to a belt and motor. The belt moves the carriage across the paper in order to spray ink on it.

Question 9

What are the advantages of laser jet printers?

Answer 9

Low cost per page.
High PPM.
High capacity.
Prints come out dry.

Question 10

What are the disadvantages of laser jet printers?

Answer 10

High cost of startup.

Toner cartridges are usually expensive.

Question 11

What are the parts of a laser printer?

Answer 11

Imaging drum.
Toner cartridge/paper.
Fuser assembly.
Transfer roller.
Pickup rollers.
Duplexing assembly.

Question 12

What do imaging drums do?

Answer 12

It is the central part of the laser printer.
It is a metal cylinder that is covered with a light insulating material.
When a beam of light hits the drum, it becomes a conductor at that point of impact.

Question 13

What do toner cartridges do? How does it work?

Answer 13

It is essentially the ‘ink’ of the printer. It is made up of plastic and metal particles.

As the drum rotates, the laser draws an electrostatic image on it. The undeveloped image is passed by a supply of toner.
The toner is negatively charged and attracted to the image on the drum.

Question 14

What is a fuser assembly?

Answer 14

This is where the paper is passed through.

It is made up of hot rollers which fuses the toner to the paper.

Question 15

What does the transfer roller do?

Answer 15

It assists in transferring the toner from the imaging drum to the paper.

Question 16

What do pickup rollers do?

Answer 16

They are responsible for the movement of the paper.

Question 17

What are the seven stage of laser printing?

Answer 17

1. Processing
2. Charging
3. Exposing
4. Developing
5. Transferring
6. Fusing
7. Cleaning

Question 18

What does the processing stage of laser printing entail?

Answer 18

The data is first converted to a printable format.
It converts from Adobe PostScript (PS) and HP Printer Command Language (PCL) to a bitmap image stored in the printers memory.
Some printers have built in Graphical Device Interface (GDI) support.
GDI is used by Windows to display printed images on a monitor, hence there is no need for conversion with these devices.

Question 19

What does the charging stage of laser printing entail?

Answer 19

The drum is set that that it is blank and prepared for a new image.
A wire, grid or roller receives a charge of 600 volts DC across the surface of the drum to do this.
The charged wire or grid is called the primary corona.
The roller is called a conditioning roller.

Question 20

What does the exposing stage of laser printing entail?

Answer 20

This is the stage where the image is written on the drum.
Every portion of the drum that the light hits has the charge reduced to about 100 volts DC.
This electrical charge has a lower negative charge than everything else.
As the drum turns, an invisible image is created on it.

Question 21

What does the developing stage of laser printing entail?

Answer 21

The toner is then applied to the image that has been created.
A control blade holds the toner at a microscopic distance from the drum.
The toner hen shifts to the more positively charged areas of the drum.

Question 22

What does the transferring stage of laser printing entail?

Answer 22

The toner, in the form of the image is transferred to the paper.
The corona wire places a positive charge on the paper.
Because of the negative charge of the drum, the toner ends up attracted to the paper.
The image is on the paper and held in place by the positive charge.
Colour printers have three cartridges of toner. They must go through multiple transfers to be completed.
To ensure precise images, some colour printers write multiple times onto a transfer belt that transfers the complete image.

Question 23

What does the fusing stage of laser printing entail?

Answer 23

The toner is permanently fused to the paper.
It goes through a heated roller and a pressure roller. This fuses the loose toner with the paper, by melting and fusing it with the papers fibers.
It is then placed in the output tray.

Question 24

What does the cleaning stage of laser printing entail?

Answer 24

The remaining toner is removed from the drum.
This may be done by a blade scraping the excess toner, or AC charge to repel the toner away from the drum.
The excess is stored in a used toner container that is either emptied, or discarded.