Band Printer (belt printer) Definition/Meaning:
A type of impact line printer in which the font
-characters and timing marks - is etched on a steel band. The operating
principle is similar to that of the chain printer and train printer. Although
demonstrated in the mid-1960s it was 1972 before machines with satisfactory print quality and band life were available. Band
printers have price/performance advantage over drum (or barrel) printers and
satisfy the preference for printers in which the font moves horizontally: any mistiming of the impact on a horizontal-font machine results in a change in the
space between characters, which is less noticeable than the vertical
displacement that occurs with mistiming in a drum printer.
The majority of new
impact line printers in the late 1970s were band printers. Machines were
available at speeds from 300 1pm to 2500 1pm when using a 64 character
repertoire. Designs for the lower-speed machines often time-share a print hammer
between adjacent print positions. In one implementation this is achieved by
having a wide hammer head that spans two columns and in another a bank of
single-width hammers is moved - or shuttled -laterally by one or more column
pitches. An advantage of some shuttle printers is the ability to print at
"compressed pitch", i.e. 15 characters per inch as well as the standard 10
characters per inch.
|
