Since the invention of continuous inkjet technology by a professor at Stanford University in the 1960s, the development history of inkjet printers has been rapid. Today, common inkjet printers include thermal inkjet and micro-piezoelectric based on their working principles.

Whether it is a thermal inkjet or a micro-piezoelectric inkjet printer, it is inseparable from the print head. It can be said that the print head is the core component of the inkjet printer. In addition, there are paper feed components and precise positioning components, ink cleaner components and electronic signal control components.

Inkjet printer working principle

When the printer mainboard receives the computer to send the print command, immediately through its own decoding into a variety of signal pulses, it first controls the feeder to enter the paper. So how to determine whether the paper has entered? The inkjet printer feed channel has a paper sensor, it is controlled by the time pulse signal, if not triggered within the specified time, then the mainboard determines that the paper feed fails and continues to the next paper feed. If paper feeding fails twice in a row, a signal that the printer is out of paper will be fed back to the computer. If the sensor is triggered successfully within the established time, the mainboard will record this data and precisely control the step signal through the grating disk sensor. Subsequently, the print head carriage is positioned according to the transverse grating sensor. At this time, the mainboard has acquired the X, Y axis data of the printhead and paper, and then it can calculate the precise coordinates according to the X, Y axis data. When the printhead goes to the coordinates with print data, the main board immediately gives a pulse signal to control the print head to eject ink droplets, and so on repeatedly to form patterns on the paper.

When it is necessary to clean, the printhead carriage according to the grating sensor signals to move to the ink stack position, then ink stack lifted, completely sealing the print head nozzle parts, clean pump starts working and forms a negative pressure at the sealing part, draws out the ink, and starts flushing the nozzle with the ink. After flushing, the ink stack down, scraper pop-up, scrape off the nozzle residual ink, and then the printhead carriage reset, cleaning is complete.

Inkjet printhead working principle

We mentioned above, now commonly used inkjet printers according to the principle of operation are divided into thermal inkjet and micro-piezoelectric, so how do they work?

Micro-piezo inkjet technology: micro-piezoelectric printhead is the key component of the piezoelectric element, through the current signal to control the piezoelectric element deformation, thereby generating a jet of ink accumulation, can more accurately control the size of the ink droplets and the direction of the jet, to ensure that the precise control of the ink. Micro-piezo printheads are different from thermal inkjet printheads because the entire ink jetting process is completed at room temperature, the whole process does not need to be heated, so from the principle micro-piezo printheads are more durable than thermal inkjet printheads, and in fact, this is also the case.

Thermal inkjet technology: it is instantly heated through the heating components of the ink, resulting in instantaneous vaporization of the ink, and then the pressure generated by its vaporization and expansion of the ink from the nozzle jet. When the ink is ejected, the bubbles disappear and the ink pressure in the printhead returns to its initial state. Because the ink in the jet when acting as a coolant exists, the thermal inkjet nozzle can not be missing ink to continue to use, it is easy because of the high temperature and burns.