Bryakotnin Nikolay Aleksandrovich

National Research Irkutsk State Technical University

Printers and their characteristics

Statement of the problem. In the modern world there are many types of printers and each has its own features and characteristics. Each type of printer is designed to perform a specific operation. Usually when choosing the right printer to buy people cannot make a decision because of the enormous variety.

The analysis of researchers and publications. A lot of different works are dedicated to the topic of structure and basic options of monitors, created by such authors as: A.V. Rodin, N.A.Tunin, Y.G. Spindeev, Vitaly Pecherovy, Jacob Shpjunt and etc.

This article aims to collate the main options of printers because usually when choosing the right printer to buy people cannot make a decision because of the enormous variety.

The main results of the study. A printer is a device for printing the digital information on solid media - paper. The printing process is called print output, and the finished document is a solid media or printout. The printer is a raster device. It displays a bitmap image, which is a grid of discrete pixels. Each of these pixels has a certain horizontal and vertical coordinate within the grid.

Dot matrix printers. The image in a dot matrix printer is made with the print head which consists of a set of pins, driven by electromagnets. The print-head moves along the line of the sheet by using pins to strike against the inked ribbon, making dots on the paper and forming the desired characters, symbol by symbol. It’s a line dot matrix printer. Printers were produced with 9, 12, 14, 18 and 24 pins in the head. The most common were 9 pin- and 24 pin-printers. The quality and speed of the printing process depends on the number of pins: the more pins, the more points. Such printers and its consumables have a low price and use low- quality paper. The main disadvantages of dot matrix printers are monochrome, low speed run, and high noise level.

Inkjet printers do not refer to the impact printers category. Inkjet printers provide a print head moving horizontally and a vertical paper feed. The ink sprayer jets on the print-head correspond to dot-matrix printers’ nozzle needles. Usually, the number of sprayer jets varies from 12 to 64 depending on the model. As a sprayer jet is smaller than a nozzle, and the jets’ number is higher than the nozzles’, inkjet printing provides a sharper print. The maximum resolution of inkjet printers is 720 dots per inch. The ink can be stored at two models of construction. The first one joins the ink storage and the print head directly which, if needed, requires full replacing. The second construction considers the ink storage joined through the capillary system.

Laser printers use dry xerography principle. Principle: to dust powder on solid media followed by fusing. Technology is as follows: it charges up the photoreceptor drum so the drum gains a positive charge spread uniformly across its surface, then the laser draws the latent image onto the drum after removing the charge in the right places. Next, the paper is passed through the photoconductor, thereby the toner is transferred on to the paper. Then the paper gets heat strengthening which fixes the toner and the photoconductor is cleaned from the residual toner, and is discharged into the purification unit. Such printers have high- speed printing, a sharp image with precision of laser. The main disadvantage is the high cost and high peak power consumption.

The plotter. It is used to display graphical information. This vector device is the most effective for displaying images which are drawn with simple lines. The first ones were fountain pen plotters. However they are traditionally widely used. As a printing device, pen plotters became used interchangeably with markers which are inserted into the rotating drum.

Led printers. They have very similar structure with laser printers, so they are sometimes confused. The difference is that the image is drawn not with a delivery of the laser beam on the photoconductor (as in a laser printer), but with the system LEDs (as in copiers).

Conclusion. There have been invented a great variety of printers with different options and characteristics and technologies. Some technologies are quite rare to see now, and some of them are widely applied everywhere. With all the variety of printers, each printing technology has both advantages and disadvantages. This diversity allows the user to choose a printer that is the most suitable and meets his requirements.

Literature cited

1. A.V. Rodin. 2006. Modern printers, secrets of maintenance and repair. Salon-Press: 285 p.

2. Jacob Shpjunt. 2005. Selecting a printer for your home and office. NT Press: 128 p.

3. Y.G. Spindeev. 2001. Printers. Phoenix: 215 p.