Inkjet Printers: Probably More Than You Need To Know
Inkjet printers were introduced in the mid to late 1980′s. Since then, they’ve continued to drop in price and gain in popularity every year. And with good reason–they’re versatile, reliable, and suitable for most people’s printing needs.
So what are we really talking about when we say “inkjet printer?” An inkjet printer is actually comprised of several components working together almost seamlessly. Let’s look closer at some of these components.
Print head assembly
The print head assembly usually includes the print head and the cartridges. If you’ve had to change one, you know what a cartridge is. But what about the print head?
The print head is the core of the inkjet printer. It contains a series of nozzles which spray very tiny droplets of ink. How tiny? Well, the human hair measures about 70 microns in diameter. These droplets are as tiny as 50 microns. Some inkjet printers have resolution of up to 1440 X 720 dots per inch (dpi).
Stepper Motor
If you’ve watched your inkjet printer at work (and who hasn’t), then you’ve noticed its back and forth motion. This is the print head assembly being powered by the stepper motor. Some inkjet printers have a separate stepper motor to “park” the print head assembly, just to make sure there’s no unwanted motion.
Stabilizer Bar
So how does the stepper motor move the print head assembly so smoothly back and forth? You guessed it. The stabilizer bar. It literally keeps the print head assembly on track in a very precisely controlled manner.
Paper Tray/Feeder
This is one of the more obvious parts of the inkjet printer. Typically, paper is placed in the tray and, when the computer assigns a job to the printer, the printer pulls the paper inside. How does it do that, you ask?
Rollers
Sorry to disappoint you, but there are no tiny hands inside your printer that grab the paper when the printer is ready to do its job. Rollers perform this task. The rollers are powered by a paper feed stepper motor. This powers the rollers to move the paper in the exact increment it is needed.
Control Circuitry
You might be thinking, “This is all great, but how does the printer know what to do?” Good question. If your printer is anything like mine, sometimes it seems to have a mind all its own. And you know what? It does. Well, sort of.
The control circuitry in your printer controls all mechanical operations. It also allows the computer to communicate with the printer.
In the past, most inkjet printers used parallel interface ports. Today, almost all inkjet printers use USB ports.
1 Trackbacks/Pingbacks
- Trackback: RANDY on June 26, 2010