Innovative Idea

About
Printer

By,

Reshma T
INTRODUCTION
The word printer means different things in different fields of applications.
Going by the generic meaning, a printer means one who is in the
occupation of printing and publishing. It also means a device which prints
out the results of data computed by computers, as applied to computers. In
the celluloid world, it stands for devices used to copy and modify films. It is
extremely relevant to talk about the computer printers in this article.

A computer printer transforms digitally stored documents of graphics or

text data into paper/hard copies. Printers can be permanently interfaced
with individual computers or can be anywhere in the network, invariably
through network interfaces, either wired or wireless, so that any or all users
can share for hard copy production. You will normally see a wired network
in small areas known as LAN and wireless networks or Ethernets are over
a wide area (WAN).

Types of Modern Printers have evolved so much that you can have true life
quality printing with them which is a departure from the earlier 'dot matrix'
printers. Here are some printers which are relevant today.

A· Inkjet printers

B· Laser printers

C· Plotters

D· Thermal printers

E· Digital minilabs

Generally in an office environment, the first three types of printers are the
preferred ones. These are designed especially for office needs such as
printing text matters, graphics like charts and power point presentation
documents etc with an exception that plotters are dedicated for uses like
constructional drawings which can't be 'printed'.
Printing technology
Printers are routinely classified by the underlying print technology they
employ; numerous such technologies have been developed over the years.
The choice of print engine has a substantial effect on what jobs a printer is
suitable for, as different technologies are capable of different levels of
image/text quality, print speed, low cost, noise; in addition, some
technologies are inappropriate for certain types of physical media (such as
carbon paper or transparencies).

Another aspect of printer technology that is often forgotten is resistance to

alteration: liquid ink such as from an inkjet head or fabric ribbon becomes
absorbed by the paper fibers, so documents printed with a liquid ink
sublimation printer are more difficult to alter than documents printed with
toner or solid inks, which do not penetrate below the paper surface.

Checks should either be printed with liquid ink or on special "check paper
with toner anchorage For similar reasons carbon film ribbons for IBM
Electric typewriters bore labels warning against using them to type
negotiable instruments such as checks. The machine-readable lower
portion of a check, however, must be printed using MICR toner or ink.
Banks and other clearing houses employ automation equipment that relies
on the magnetic flux from these specially printed characters to function
properly.

Printing mode
The data received by a printer may be:

1. a string of characters
2. a bitmapped image
3. a vector image

Some printers can process all three types of data, others not.
 • Character Printers (such as Daisy wheel printers) can handle only
plain text data or rather simple point plots.
• Pen Plotters typically process vector images. Inkjet based Plotters
can adequately reproduce all three.
• Modern printing technology, such as laser printers and inkjet printers,
can adequately reproduce all three. This is especially true of printers
equipped with support for PostScript and/or PCL; which includes the
vast majority of printers produced today.

Today it is common to print everything (even plain text) by sending ready

bitmapped images to the printer, because it allows better control over
formatting. Many printer drivers do not use the text mode at all, even if the
printer is capable of it.

Monochrome, color and photo printers

A monochrome printer can only produce an image consisting of one color,

usually black. A monochrome printer may also be able to produce various
tones of that color, such as a grey-scale.

A color printer can produce images of multiple colors.

A photo printer is a color printer that can produce images that mimic the
color range (gamut) and resolution of photographic methods of printing.
Many can be used autonomously (without a computer), with a memory card
or USB connector.

The printer manufacturing business

Often the razor and blades business model is applied. That is, a company
may sell a printer at cost, and make profits on the ink cartridge, paper, or
some other replacement part. This has caused legal disputes regarding the
right of companies other than the printer manufacturer to sell compatible
ink cartridges.

Printing speed

The speed of early printers was measured in units of characters per

second. More modern printers are measured in pages per minute. These
measures are used primarily as a marketing tool, and are not well
standardized. Usually pages per minute refer to sparse monochrome office
documents, rather than dense pictures which usually print much more
slowly. PPMS are most of the time referring to A4 paper in Europe and
letter paper in the US, resulting in a 5-10% difference.

Other printers
A number of other sorts of printers are important for historical reasons, or
for special purpose uses:

• Digital minilab (photographic paper)

• Plotter
• Line Printers
• Dot matrix Printer
• Daisy wheel Printer
• Impact Printer
• UV Printer
• Thermal Printer
• Electrolytic printers
• Pen-based plotters
• Typewriter-derived printers
• Teletypewriter-derived printers
• Microsphere (special paper)
• Spark printer
• barcode printer multiple technologies, including: thermal printing,
inkjet printing, and laser printing barcodes
• Billboard / sign paint spray printers

Laser etching (product packaging) industrial printer

Our suggested idea:

To have a rewritable printer. Normally, in any workplaces if a paper is
wasted because of some kind of disturbance it is thrown away, as it cannot
be used again. But, her with the help of our rewritable printer those papers
can again be used.

Technique behind our idea

A special pigment in the paper that reacts to heat. If heated above 180
degrees centigrade the pigment turns black, creating an image on the
sheet. However, if the surface is heated to between 130 and 170degrees
the pigment reverts to white, allowing the image to be ‘erased’.

Characteristics of the Rewritable Printer:

1. A rewritable printer characterized by comprising a printing processing

unit for printing on a rewritable heat sensitive medium and an erasing
processing unit for erasing a printed portion of the printed heat sensitive
medium.

2. The rewritable printer, according to Claim 1, characterized by comprising

a stocker for storing the heat sensitive medium with the printed portion
erased by the erasing processing unit and feeding means for feeding the
heat sensitive medium to the printing processing unit.

3. The rewritable printer, according to Claim 1 or 2, characterized by

sequentially providing the erasing processing unit and the printing
processing unit in a paper carriage of a printing machine.

4. The rewritable printer, according to Claim 1 or 2, characterized by

separately forming the erasing processing unit and the printing processing
unit.

5. A rewritable printing method characterized in that a heating temperature

toward the heat sensitive medium at an erasing mode is more than a
temperature of lower limit of a discoloring area and less than a temperature
of lower limit of a coloring area when printing continuously after erasing
printing of the heat sensitive medium with leuco type coating applied.

6. The rewritable printing method, according to Claim 5, characterized in

that the heating temperature toward the heat sensitive medium at the
erasing mode ranges from 120 DEG C to 180 DEG C.

7. The rewritable printing method, according to Claim 5, characterized in

that an energy to be loaded in order to heat for the printing in printing
continuously after erasing is changed according to an outside air
temperature and/or a surface temperature of the heat sensitive medium.

8. The rewritable printing method, according to Claim 5 or 7, characterized

in that printing is performed by a printing head with printing resolution from
200 dpi to 600 dpi and the energy to be loaded in order to heat for the
printing ranges from 0.1 mJ to 5 mJ per one dot.

Conclusion
By this new concept of ours we expect that it will be used and feasible in all
the work places.