Ink Jet Printer Definition/Meaning:
A printer that forms the required image by projecting droplets
of ink onto the paper. The technique has been used for a number of years in the
printing and labeling industry. Although there have been devices for use in the
data-processing environment since the late 1960s, the IBM 6640 (1976) was the
first ink jet machine to achieve widespread use. The pulsed jet printer has one
or more columns of nozzles mounted in a head that can traverse along the line to
be printed. Each nozzle ejects a single drop of ink
onto the paper. The line of characters is printed as a matrix array of the drops
of ink. With a single column of jets, speeds up to 400 characters per second
have been achieved. Printers with larger numbers of nozzles offer higher
resolution or multicolor capability.
One design of the continuous stream printer has a print head with a single
nozzle that emits a jet of ink. The ink jet is made to break up into a
constant-velocity stream of droplets of uniform size. Just prior to its
separation from the jet each droplet receives an electric charge. In the
ballistic flight toward the paper the droplets pass between electrode plates and
each droplet is therefore deflected. The deflection is generally used to
position the dot along the vertical axis of the printed character and the head
is moved to give horizontal placement. Print speeds of 100 cps are achieved.
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