Thermal DOD printing Most consumer inkjet printers, including those from Canon (FINE Cartridge system, see photo), Hewlett-Packard, and Lexmark, use the thermal inkjet process. The idea of using thermal excitation to move tiny drops of ink was developed independently by two groups at roughly the same time: John Vaught and a team at Hewlett-Packard's Corvallis Division, and Canon engineer Ichiro Endo. Initially, in 1977, Endo's team was trying to use the piezoelectric effect to move ink out of the nozzle but noticed that ink shot out of a syringe when it was accidentally heated with a soldering iron. Vaught's work started in late 1978 with a project to develop fast, low-cost printing. The team at HP found that thin-film resistors could produce enough heat to fire an ink droplet. Two years later the HP and Canon teams found out about each other's work. Thermal inkjet In the thermal inkjet process, the print cartridges consist of a series of tiny chambers, each containing a heater, all of which are constructed by photolithography. To eject a droplet from each chamber, a pulse of current is passed through the heating element causing a rapid vaporization of the ink in the chamber and forming a bubble, which causes a large pressure increase, propelling a droplet of ink onto the paper (hence Canon's trade name of Bubble Jet). Early thermal heads ran at just 600–700 dpi but improvements by HP increased the firing range of 8–12 kHz per chamber and as high as 18 kHz with 5-picoliter drop volume by the year 2000. Thermal printheads do not have the power of piezo DOD or continuous inkjet, so the gap between the face of the head and paper is critical. The ink's surface tension, as well as the condensation and resultant contraction of the vapor bubble, pulls a further charge of ink into the chamber through a narrow channel attached to an ink reservoir. The inks involved are usually water-based and use either pigments or dyes as the colorant. The inks must have a volatile component to form the vapor bubble; otherwise droplet ejection cannot occur. As no special materials are required, the print head is generally cheaper to produce than in other inkjet technologies. Piezoelectric DOD printing Piezos are electrically polarized ceramic devices, just as a magnet is polarized. Most commercial and industrial inkjet printers and some consumer printers (those produced by Epson (see photo) and Brother Industries) use a piezoelectric material in an ink-filled chamber behind each nozzle instead of a heating element. When a voltage is applied, the piezoelectric material changes shape, generating a pressure pulse in the fluid, which pushes a droplet of ink from the nozzle. Single nozzle tubular inkjets actually are fluid resonator chambers and the drops are expelled by sound waves in the ink chamber. The 1972 patent called them squeeze tube inkjets but later it was discovered to be acoustical inkjets. Piezoelectric (also called piezo) inkjet allows a wider variety of inks than thermal inkjet as there is no requirement for a volatile component, and no issue with kogation (buildup of ink residue), but the print heads are more expensive to manufacture due to the use of piezoelectric material (usually PZT, lead zirconium titanate). However, the ink cartridges can be separate from the head itself and individually be replaced as needed. Piezo, then has the potential for lower running costs. Piezo heads are said to achieve firing rates that are faster than thermal heads at comparable drop volumes. Piezo inkjet Piezo inkjet technology is often used on production lines to mark products. For instance, the "use-before" date is often applied to products with this technique; in this application the head is stationary and the product moves past. This application requires a relatively large gap between the print head and the substrate, but also yields a high speed, a long service life, and low operating cost. Thermoplastic/3D printing In the 1970s, the first DOD inks were water-based and higher-temperature use was not recommended. In the late 1970s, wax- and oil-based inks were used in the Silonics in 1975, Siemens PT-80i in 1977 and Epson and Exxon in 1980s DOD inkjets. In 1984, a small company, Howtek, Inc., found that solid ink materials (thermoplastics) could be jetted at by maintaining the piezo poling charge while printing. In 1986, Howtek launched the Pixelmaster solid ink-jetting printer, which opened the door to printing three-dimensional plastic inks and led to a 1992 3D patent, US5136515A. This patent was licensed by the first three major 3D printer companies (Sanders Prototype, Inc, Stratasys and 3D Systems). Braillemaster In the late 1980s, Howtek introduced the Braillemaster, a printer that used four layers of solid ink per character to create documents in Braille that could be read by people who were blind. Howtek Solidscape, Inc., currently uses the Howtek-style thermoplastic materials and Howtek-style single nozzle inkjets (see illustration) very successfully. Ballistic Particle Manufacturing also used the Howtek style materials and inkjets. These inkjets can produce up to 16,000 drops per second and shoot drops at 9 feet per second. Originally designed to only print on standard letter-sized paper sheets they now can print 3D models requiring hundreds of layers. Thermojet The thermoplastic inks in piezoelectric inkjets (called Thermojet technology by Howtek) are sometimes confused with the thermal (heat expansion) bubble-jet technology but they are completely different. Bubble jet inks are not solid at room temp and are not heated. Thermojet inks require 125 °C to reduce fluid viscosity in jetting range. Howtek was the first to introduce an inkjet color printer using thermoplastic inks in 1984 at Comdex, Las Vegas.
Thermal DOD printing Most consumer inkjet printers, including those from Canon (FINE Cartridge system, see photo), Hewlett-Packard, and Lexmark, use the thermal inkjet process. The idea of using thermal excitation to move tiny drops of ink was developed independently by two groups at roughly the same time: John Vaught and a team at Hewlett-Packard's Corvallis Division, and Can,on engineer Ichiro Endo. Initially, in 1977, Endo's team was trying to use the piezoelectric effect to move ink out of the nozzle but noticed that ink shot out of a syringe when it was accidentally heated with a soldering iron. Vaught's work started in late 1978 with a project to develop fast, low-cost printing. The team at HP found that thin-film resistors could produce enough heat to fire an ink droplet. Two years later the HP and Canon teams found out about each other's work. Thermal inkjet In the thermal inkjet process, the print cartridges consist of a series of tiny chambers, each containing a heater, all of which are constructed by photolithography. To eject a droplet from each chamber, a pulse of current is passed through the heating element causing a rapid vaporization of the ink in the chamber and forming a bubble, which causes a large pressure increase, propelling a droplet of ink onto the paper (hence Canon's trade name of Bubble Jet). Early thermal heads ran at just 600–700 dpi but improvements by HP increased the firing range of 8–12 kHz per chamber and as high as 18 kHz with 5-picoliter drop volume by the year 2000. Thermal printheads do not have the power of piezo DOD or continuous inkjet, so the gap between the face of the head and paper is critical. The ink's surface tension, as well as the condensation and resultant contraction of the vapor bubble, pulls a further charge of ink into the chamber through a narrow channel attached to an ink reservoir. The inks involved are usually water-based and use either pigments or dyes as the colorant. The inks must have a volatile component to form the vapor bubble; otherwise droplet ejection cannot occur. As no special materials are required, the print head is generally cheaper to produce than in other inkjet technologies. Piezoelectric DOD printing Piezos are electrically polarized ceramic devices, just as a magnet is polarized. Most commercial and industrial inkjet printers and some consumer printers (those produced by Epson (see photo) and Brother Industries) use a piezoelectric material in an ink-filled chamber behind each nozzle instead of a heating element. When a voltage is applied, the piezoelectric material changes shape, generating a pressure pulse in the fluid, which pushes a droplet of ink from the nozzle. Single nozzle tubular inkjets actually are fluid resonator chambers and the drops are expelled by sound waves in the ink chamber. The 1972 patent called them squeeze tube inkjets but later it was discovered to be acoustical inkjets. Piezoelectric (also called piezo) inkjet allows a wider variety of inks than thermal inkjet as there is no requirement for a volatile component, and no issue with kogation (buildup of ink residue), but the print heads are more expensive to manufacture due to the use of piezoelectric material (usually PZT, lead zirconium titanate). However, the ink cartridges can be separate from the head itself and individually be replaced as needed. Piezo, then has the potential for lower running costs. Piezo heads are said to achieve firing rates that are faster than thermal heads at comparable drop volumes. Piezo inkjet Piezo inkjet technology is often used on production lines to mark products. For instance, the "use-before" date is often applied to products with this technique; in this application the head is stationary and the product moves past. This application requires a relatively large gap between the print head and the substrate but also yields a high speed, a long service life, and low operating cost. Thermoplastic/3D printing In the 1970s, the first DOD inks were water-based and higher-temperature use was not recommended. In the late 1970s, wax- and oil-based inks were used in the Silonics in 1975, Siemens PT-80i in 1977 and Epson and Exxon in 1980s DOD inkjets. In 1984, a small company, Howtek, Inc., found that solid ink materials (thermoplastics) could be jetted at by maintaining the piezo poling charge while printing. In 1986, Howtek launched the Pixelmaster solid ink-jetting printer, which opened the door to printing three-dimensional plastic inks and led to a 1992 3D patent, US5136515A. This patent was licensed by the first three major 3D printer companies (Sanders Prototype, Inc, Stratasys and 3D Systems). Braillemaster In the late 1980s, Howtek introduced the Braillemaster, a printer that used four layers of solid ink per character to create documents in Braille that could be read by people who were blind. Howtek Solidscape, Inc., currently uses the Howtek-style thermoplastic materials and Howtek-style single nozzle inkjets (see illustration) very successfully. Ballistic Particle Manufacturing also used the Howtek style materials and inkjets. These inkjets can produce up to 16,000 drops per second and shoot drops at 9 feet per second. Originally designed to only print on standard letter-sized paper sheets they now can print 3D models requiring hundreds of layers. Thermojet The thermoplastic inks in piezoelectric inkjets (called Thermojet technology by Howtek) are sometimes confused with the thermal (heat expansion) bubble-jet technology but they are completely different. Bubble jet inks are not solid at room temp and are not heated. Thermojet inks require 125 °C to reduce fluid viscosity in jetting range. Howtek was the first to introduce an inkjet color printer using thermoplastic inks in 1984 at Comdex, Las Vegas.