Whether you’re eyeing off a new model, grappling with a problem with your current one, or just wondering how it turns your files into pieces of paper, it can be valuable to understand how you printer works.
Printers are complicated devices – the process of transforming a series of 1s and 0s into a real, tactile document that you can bind, mail and store is a complex one that involves a lot of very sophisticated technology. But while they may accomplish the same goal, not all printers are the same. There’s a fundamental difference between inkjet printers and toner – or laser – printers, and we’ll explain it to you. In this article, Toner City lifts the curtain on how your JPEGs become beloved additions to family photo albums, and how you turn a digital document into something that will fit in your filing cabinet. Read on to better understand the difference next time you’re considering an upgrade.
How an inkjet printer works
When people are asked how a printer works, an inkjet printer is probably closest to what they imagine. In an inkjet printer, droplets of ink are propelled onto a piece of paper as it moves through the system. The ink is stored in a cartridge attached to a device called the printing head – the head moves back and forth across the page and propels the ink through hundreds or thousands of tiny nozzles onto the page at high speeds – often up to 20 metres per second.
Inkjet printing uses one of two technologies to create a completed document: continuous inkjet and drop-on-demand. In a continuous inkjet system, ink is pumped in a continuous stream directly into the nozzles, which is then broken into individual droplets needed to separate the letters in a word or different lines in an image by a piezoelectric crystal that vibrates. This vibration is precisely controlled to ensure droplets are uniformly sized, after which the droplets are electrostatic-ally charged and directed by electrically charged plates in the right direction.
In a drop-on-demand system, ink only moves when the head is over the part of the document that requires that particular colour. This system relies on one of two methodologies to expel the ink – either a small heater above the nozzle vaporises part of the ink which propels a droplet onto the page, or a small piezoelectric element that changes shape to generate a pressure pulse in the ink to force a droplet out.
How a toner (laser) printer works
While an inkjet printer is a wet process, a toner or laser printer works on an entirely dry printing process that relies on the principles of electromagnetism.
A rotating photo-receptor drum is given a positive static electric charge before a laser draws the image of the page being printed onto the drum. The parts of the drum that the laser touches then lose their positive charge and are given a negative charge. An ink roller than coats the drum with tiny particles of powdered ink (toner) – this toner has been given a positive charge, so it only adheres to the parts of the drum that the laser has touched. A sheet of paper with a positive charge is then passed under the drum, attracting the now negatively charged toner particles onto the paper in the shape of the text/image to be displayed. This toner is then fused to the paper by a pair of hot rollers and the completed print is expelled.
If you’re in need of a fresh toner or ink cartridge for your printer, speak to the experts at Toner City and let us help you find an affordable, genuine or compatible unit to suit your model.