Analyze Printer Technology and Cost Micro Piezoelectric Contrast Bubble

Friends went to the market to buy printers and walked into the Epson store. The Epson staff explained that Epson machines use micro-piezoelectric printing technology—good print quality. Turned into the HP store, HP personnel strongly recommend HP bubble technology - printing speed. A friend confused for a time, two different technologies in the end to buy which is more cost-effective? In the past, although people were talking about micro-piezoelectric printing technology and bubble technology, they had heard of their own advantages and disadvantages, but they never really compared what they had. If you choose micro-piezoelectric printing technology, will you lose the advantage of faster printing speed? If you choose bubble technology, is the printed quality better than micro piezoelectric printing technology? If you want to have a double-edged sword - both print quality and speed, can you? The situation of the author's friends, I believe most of the consumers have encountered and have been confused. In the end, the author's friend finally got a satisfactory printer under the author's description. You want to know which of my author's friends have chosen, so please look down.

First, on the seniority ranking

If you speak of generations, bubble-jet technology has been born 15 years earlier than micro-piezoelectric technology. One day in July 1977, Ichiro Endo, the 22nd researcher at the Canon Institute of Product Technology in Meguro, Tokyo, performed an experiment in the laboratory and accidentally placed a heated soldering iron on the attachment of the injection needle. The ink quickly flew out. Inspired by this, two years later invented the bubble jet technology. At the same time, Hewlett-Packard also invented the same technology in essence, and began the history of inkjet printers.

Micro Piezo printing technology was born in 1994, more than ten years later than the bubble jet technology, but to really pursue it, micro piezoelectric printing technology is the real "brother". Because as early as the 1970s of the last century, Epson began the research of piezoelectric technology. After nearly 20 years, it finally succeeded in applying micro-piezoelectric printing technology to the printer field in 1994 and achieved productization. Both of them have been working hard in the past 15 years. However, from the perspective of market acceptance, bubble-based inkjet technology still occupies a leading position in time. It takes more than 15 years to penetrate the people's hearts.

Second, print technology anatomy

1, working principle

The working principle of micro-piezo inkjet printing technology is completely different from the thermal bubble type. It is to place many small piezoelectric ceramics near the nozzles of the inkjet printer's print head, and it will be deformed and oscillated under the action of voltage. The principle of timely adding voltage to it. Piezoelectric ceramics are then telescoped to eject the ink from the nozzles and form a pattern on the surface of the output medium.

The bubble jet printing technology works by putting the ink in a tiny capillary tube and quickly heating the ink to the boiling point through a tiny heating pad to form a very tiny vapor bubble that expands to eject a drop of ink. To the top of the capillary. Heating is stopped, the ink is cooled, the steam condenses and shrinks, the ink stops flowing until the next generation of steam bubbles, and so on.

2, nozzle comparison

Epson's micro-voltage control technology is characterized by a very high print resolution that can be achieved with a unique ink process to achieve perfect photo printing. The disadvantage is that the nozzle is too precise, and if it is used improperly, it is easy to malfunction. Once the nozzle is blocked during use, whether it is to clear or replace the cost is relatively high, and it is not easy to handle, the whole printer may be scrapped. Moreover, the ink jet print head made by the micro-piezo inkjet technology has a relatively high cost, so in order to reduce the user's cost, the print head and the ink cartridge are generally made into a separate structure to reuse the print head, and the ink is not replaced when the ink is replaced. Print Head.

HP is using bubble jet printing technology, which is characterized by relatively mature technology, lower production costs of nozzles, and the use of inkjet cartridges integrated design, the most direct benefit for DIY is to facilitate the dispersion of ink, but this technology It is determined that the print resolution (dpi) cannot be very high. However, the ink jet printing technology uses an ink cartridge in which the print head and the ink cartridge are integrated. The number of integrated nozzles on the nozzle is much larger than that of the micro voltage control technology. The number of nozzles is arranged in multiple rows, and the width of each line printed is also wide. Of course, the time to complete a page will be short. Therefore, the same bubble jet printing technology is faster than the micro voltage control technology in the printing speed.

3, ink drop contrast

Before discussing the two technologies, we must know what causes the inkjet printer to output fine photos and pictures. What is the difference in print quality between different models? To discuss these issues, it is necessary to start with the core of the inkjet printer, the nozzle technology, and talk about the formation of each droplet. Print accuracy has always been a technical indicator that users are concerned about, and manufacturers also focus on publicity in this regard. To effectively increase the dpi value, it is necessary to have a sufficiently small ink dot, which is a small enough droplet volume. Only when the ink droplets are small enough can high print accuracy be achieved before the print quality can be improved.

Reducing the volume of ink droplets, accurately controlling the position of the ink droplets and the shape of ink dots, and reducing the splashes of ink droplets have become important technical challenges for inkjet printer manufacturers in improving print quality. Microelectronics used by Epson Piezoelectric nozzle technology, through the electric pulse signal control of piezoelectric devices, the formation of the corresponding size of the pressure of the ink, so that the corresponding volume of ink droplets ejected from the nozzle. Compared with the bubble jet technology, due to the use of more accurate and high-speed electrical pulse signal control, the droplet volume control is more precise, the ejected ink dot is very rounded, it will form a splash, but also makes the droplet ejection direction stable , the ink point of the paper more precise position. Many of Epson's models have reached a minimum ink droplet volume of 4 picoliters, 3 picoliters (Epson ME2), and 2 picoliters (Canon i950), and individual models have reached a record 1.5 picoliters of ink droplets (Epson Stylus Photo R800 ). In terms of ink drop control, micro-piezoelectric methods also have some inherent advantages.

4, ink contrast

Since there is no need for heating during ink jet, the ink does not undergo chemical changes, and the ink composition is not very high, but its production cost is relatively high and it is more expensive than bubble-type technology. The disadvantage of the bubble technique is that it will heat the ink during use, and the ink is prone to chemical changes at high temperatures, and the nature is unstable, so the authenticity of the colors produced will be affected to a certain extent; on the other hand, the ink is passed through the bubbles. The directionality and volume size of the ink particles ejected are very difficult to grasp, and the edges of the printed lines are jagged and uneven, which affects the print quality to some extent. Although thermal ink jet technology produces showerheads with low cost, the electrodes in the showerhead are subject to electrolysis and corrosion, so they generally do not have a long service life. In addition, since the ink undergoes a chemical change due to heating, since the ink contains a large amount of harmful ions, when a chemical reaction occurs, condensed matters are generated and the health of the user is affected for a long time.

Third, the cost of analysis

Printing cost is a concern for users. The cost mainly comes from the consumption of consumables. The consumables of inkjet printers mainly include paper and ink cartridges. In terms of paper, the price of printing media needed to purchase various brands of printers is not much different. Ink cartridges are the pain in the hearts of users forever. As long as the printer is used, the consumption of ink cartridges is unavoidable.

Printers using bubble technology are usually integrated with the print head and ink cartridges, commonly known as “headwater one,” and printers that use micro-piezoelectric printing technology usually have separate printheads and ink cartridges, commonly known as “headwater separation.” The difference between the two printing technologies also brings a fundamental difference in printing costs.

First of all, inkjet printers using bubble printing technology use a "headwater in one" method, and each cartridge includes a new printhead, so each of its ink cartridges is relatively expensive. Inkjet printers using micro-piezoelectric printing technology use "headwater separation," so that when replacing an ink cartridge, there is no need to replace the printhead. A printhead can be used for a long time until the printhead is damaged, so the cost of a single ink cartridge is low. .

Secondly, the “bubble” and “micro piezo” printing technologies, in addition to the above-mentioned different connection modes of the print head and the ink cartridges, have also adopted different ink dispensing modes, and the cost control in the printing also reflects the two. Different ways. Epson as the representative of the micro-piezoelectric printing technology inkjet printers are usually separate color ink packaging, so that you can make full use of each color ink for each drop of ink, more economical and practical. Inkjet printing technology represented by Hewlett-Packard as the representative of the multi-color ink inkjet printer is mixed, there is a certain amount of waste, because when one of the colors used up, although all other colors are not used up have all replace.

Finally, printers using "headwater separation" may cause clogging of the nozzles due to friction with the paper and volatilization of ink after prolonged use. Once blocked, the printed content will appear white lines, broken lines, and colors. Do not wait for the phenomenon. With the prolonged use of printheads, the more serious these phenomena are, the more opportunities arise. The solution is to clean, use a large amount of ink to flush the blocked nozzle, wasting a lot of precious ink. When the number of nozzles that cannot be recovered reaches a certain amount, the print head must be replaced. In this regard, the use of "headwater one" printer will basically not appear, because the printer is newly purchased with the ink cartridge, each print head only need to complete a print cartridge, the time used and the print volume are a bit less.

In addition, the above analysis is based on the cost of a single ink cartridge. In fact, the long-term cost of the printer using the "piezo-water separation" technology using the micro-piezoelectric printing technology is higher than that of the "headwater-integrated" ink jet printer using the bubble printing technology. Experiments have shown that inkjet printers using "headwater separation" usually have a certain degree of blockage and damage when each print head completes the printing tasks of 4 to 5 cartridges, and the print heads of such printers It is usually much more expensive than the "head is not one" (such as a Epson print head usually requires more than 300 yuan), once replaced, it is equivalent to about half the price of the entire printer. At the same time, replacing such a print head usually requires a special maintenance master to perform, and it also needs to pay a certain maintenance cost. In fact, the cost to be allocated to each ink cartridge is even higher than the “headwater one” ink cartridge.

After comparison and analysis, the author's friend finally chose Epson ME2 because friends belong to home users and usually have less print, but they pay great attention to print quality. If you choose Epson as the representative of the piezoelectric printing technology "head water separation" spray Ink printers, in addition to the fine print quality, also save on printing costs. Because a print head can still be used for a long time, if it is well maintained, the printer may not need to replace the print head for a lifetime, so the total printing cost will be much lower, and the Epson ME2 print speed compared to the ME1 To promote, choosing ME2 is the ideal one-shot double-engraving. So how do you choose these two technologies for some enterprise users or users with large print volume? The author proposes to choose the bubble printing technology “headwater one” inkjet printer represented by HP. Because at the same time when replacing the ink cartridge type, the print head is replaced. On the one hand, the print quality can be ensured. On the other hand, the print head is usually not blocked or damaged. The price for buying a print head is also much lower than that of “head water separation”. You can also get a brand new cartridge at the same time. Is printing speed not the most important for business users and mass-printing home users? Is bubble printing technology's rapid print speed not meeting the requirements?