Solid ink printer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.
Colorstix of a Xerox ColorQube 8570

With solid ink printers , also solid ink printers or wax printers, wax droplets liquefied by heat are applied to the paper or other media using the so-called solid ink process (see also color sticks ). The solid ink printing process was developed by the company Tektronix , after Xerox bought this technology (including the word mark Phaser ) in 1999, Xerox is now the patent owner and the only manufacturer to offer this technology. The process is used there on some models of the Phaser , WorkCentre and ColorQube series . The "wax cartridges" used for printing colored pages are called "Colorstix".

Advantages of a solid ink printer

Xerox ColorQube 8570, printing unit
  • The printers stand out i. d. Usually through strong, true-to-color and lightfast colors, (with long print runs) low printing costs and ease of maintenance.
  • The print quality is almost independent of the print medium. Particularly brilliant results are achieved on overhead transparencies .
  • In contrast to toner, the color sticks are non-toxic and can be inserted with bare hands, there is no dust exposure when filling.
  • In relation to the service life of a comparable laser printer, there is about 80 percent less waste
    • the wax blocks are delivered in blister packs ,
    • no toner cartridges need to be changed when refilling
    • the rest of the non-toxic wax (melt flow) can be disposed of with household waste.
  • If necessary, individual colors can even be refilled during operation, i.e. also during the printing process.
  • The ink consumption or ink requirement can be determined very easily based on the fill levels of the slots.
  • Modern devices of this type sometimes achieve high printing speeds that significantly exceed those of laser printers in the same price class.
  • The printing costs per page are comparatively low and hardly differ between color and pure black and white printing.
  • In contrast to color laser printers, apart from the Colorstixs and the maintenance kit, no other parts need to be replaced, which lowers the price per page.

Disadvantages of the printing principle

  • Each time it is switched on or off, the spray nozzles are emptied, which greatly increases the consumption of ink.
  • After switching on, ten to twenty minutes warm-up time before the first printout is not uncommon. To get around this, the devices are left switched on, so that the wax melt in the printing unit always remains liquid due to continuous heating, but the power consumption in standby mode is very high.
  • The printouts are slightly wetted with a release agent transferred to the drum by the maintenance unit , and the waxy solid ink also has a repellent effect. The color of felt-tip pens will therefore roll off and ballpoint pens slide over the printouts without rolling off. It is therefore hardly possible to add handwritten notes to printouts.
  • The applied paint layer is not scratch / abrasion resistant.
  • The prints are not heat-resistant.
  • When exposed to sunlight, the colors fade faster than with laser printers.
  • Printouts that are no longer required cannot be used as concept paper in conventional laser printers or in solid ink printers, since the solid ink melts in the fusing stations and causes considerable contamination. It is not practical to thermally laminate prints for the same reason .
  • Due to the waxy color, scanning / copying multi-page documents using an automatic document feeder (ADF) is not recommended.
  • The printing principle is particularly sensitive to clogging of the nozzles.
  • The compartments for solid ink cubes are relatively small, refilling is very easy, but with mass printing, supervision is necessary to check the ink reserve.
  • A wax odor can sometimes be detected during operation.

commitment

The printers are particularly suitable for continuous use in the commercial sector, where emphasis is placed on color fidelity, brilliance and low printing costs. Otherwise they are mainly used for proof prints in prepress and in the advertising industry .

See also

Individual evidence


Web links