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If you’re like most inkjet printer owners, you
only look inside your printer when the printer ink cartridge needs
to be replaced. But the ink cartridge is just one element of a pretty
complex mechanism -- let’s take a look inside your inkjet printer.
The print head
At the heart of your inkjet printer is the print head, which houses
the nozzles responsible for spraying the ink onto the printer paper.
Some printer manufacturers now build the print head into the ink
cartridge, so as to keep the price of the printer itself down, and
to increase the lifetime of the printer. The print head and ink
cartridges (together, called the print head assembly) are pushed
back and forth across the page by the stepper motor. The print head
assembly travels across a stabilizer bar, to ensure even and precise
motion.
Rollers
Paper is pulled into the printer from the paper tray or feeder by
a pair of rollers, which control the rate at which the paper advances
past the print head assembly. The rollers are powered by the paper
feed stepper motor.
Twin inkjet technologies
Most inkjet printer manufacturers (including HP and Canon) use thermal
bubble (bubble jet) technology to transfer ink to the page. In these
printers, tiny resistors heat the printer ink to form bubbles. As
these bubbles pop, ink is fired onto the page. Some other inkjet
printers, including those manufactured by Epson, use piezoelectric
technology instead. This technique involves a piezo crystal, housed
in the ink reservoir of each nozzle, which is stimulated by an electric
charge. That charge causes the crystal to vibrate, forcing ink out
through the nozzle in which it is located.
Back to General Printer Tips
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