Thermal/Virtual/3D Flashcards
Where are thermal printers common?
In cash machines/registers and old fax machines.
What are the qualities of thermal paper?
The paper has a waxy quality.
It goes black when heated, which is where the ‘print’ comes from.
It is fed through the assembly and heated to get this quality.
Electrical current goes through the print head in order to form these prints.
What are the advantages of thermal printers?
They last a long time due to the few moving parts.
They are quiet.
There is no cost for toner/ink.
What are the disadvantages of thermal printers?
Thermal paper is expensive.
It is stored at room temp and degrades over time.
They are poor quality and don’t print colour.
How do impact printers work?
They have print heads that strike an inked ribbon o imprint characters on paper.
They have print heads that are pins surrounded by electromagnets.
When energized, the pins push the inked ribbon forward. The number of pins is either 9 or 24, and it determines the quality of the print.
The highest quality is referred to as near letter quality (NLQ)
What are the qualities of Impact printers?
They are either dot matrix or daisy wheel printers.
Dot matrix used pins.
Most use continuous feed paper, otherwise known as tractor feed.
A large roller, called the platen stops the paper from slipping.
What are the advantages of impact printing?
They aren’t very costly.
They can use continuous feed or normal sheets of paper and can print carbon copies.
What are the disadvantages of impact printing?
They are noisy.
They are low resolution.
They have low colour printing capabilities.
What is virtual printing?
This is the process of sending a print request, not through the local network, but instead to a remote destination through the cloud.
What are the four forms of virtual printing?
Print to PDF.
Print to File.
Print to XPS.
Print to Image.
What is XPS?
The XML Paper Specification (XPS) was intended to be an alternative to PDF by Microsoft.
How does the print to file work?
Originally, they only saved as a .prn file.
This file could be printed without opening the original document.
However, more formats are available nowadays.
What formats does the print to image cover?
Formats such as JPG or TIFF.
What are the features of 3D printing?
They typically use plastic filaments to print.
They are a form of additive manufacturing machine, creating prints in layers of material.
This is in contrast to subtractive manufacturing, such as wood carvings/prints.
What are the 5 different parts of 3D printers?
Filament Feeder Hotend Nozzle Axis Print Bed
