Stored energy printer

Stored energy printer

A stored energy printer is a type of computer printer that uses the energy stored in a spring or magnetic field to push a hammer through a ribbon to print a dot. As compared to dot matrix printers that print a single column of dots at a time, these printers generally print an entire line of dots at a time and so are sometimes called line matrix printers.

This technology is used to produce premium impact printers that print for millions to billions of dots per hammer. The advantage of this technology is that it has the lowest known cost of ownership: ink is transferred by conventional typewriter-style ribbons, and the rest of the printer simply never wears out.

The most common printers to use this were the line-matrix printers made by Printronix and its licensees. In these, the hammers were arranged as a "hammerbank," a sort of combs that was oscillated horizontally to produce a line of dots.

A character matrix printer has also been produced. In this printer, the hammers were machined from an oval of magnetically-permeable stainless steel, and the hammer-tips form a couple of vertical rows.

The original technology, patented by Printronix in 1974, was to have the top of a stiff leaf spring held back by a magnetic pole-piece. A tungsten carbide hammer would be brazed to the center-top of the leaf spring. When it was desired to produce a dot, a coil (electromagnet) wrapped around the pole-piece would neutralize the magnetic field. The leaf spring would snap the hammer away from the pole-piece, pushing the hammer out against a ribbon and push an image of a dot onto the paper.

Recent designs have performed complex optimizations on the magnetic circuit, and eliminated unwanted resonances in the spring. The result was a near-doubling of speed. Recent designs have used electrical discharge machining to produce complex, three-dimensional hammers that trade-off the magnetic circuit, mechanical resonances, and printing speed.

The way the mechanism normally wears is that the spring rubs against the pole-piece as it returns. This causes the pole-piece to wear, eventually requiring the pole pieces to be reground and recertified.

Hexavalent chrome plating on the pole-piece, combined with careful design, more than doubled speeds and improved life-span tenfold to something like a billion impressions per hammer.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Printer (computing) — A modern printer with scanning/copying capability Small printer …   Wikipedia

  • Line matrix printer — A line matrix printer is a computer printer that is a compromise between a lineprinter and a dot matrix printer. Basically, it prints a page wide line of dots. It builds up a line of text by printing lines of dots. Robert A. Kleist and business… …   Wikipedia

  • Laser printer — HP LaserJet 4200 series printer, installed atop high capacity paper feeder …   Wikipedia

  • Printronix — Infobox Company company name = Printronix company company type = Public (nasdaq|PTNX) foundation = (1974) location = Irvine, CA key people = Robert A. Kleist, Chairman, President CEO num employees = 715 industry = Computer Peripherals products =… …   Wikipedia

  • Planetary habitability — is the measure of a planet s or a natural satellite s potential to develop and sustain life. As the existence of life beyond Earth is currently uncertain, planetary habitability is largely an extrapolation of conditions on Earth and the… …   Wikipedia

  • Bicycling terminology — The following terminology is used in the general cycling, as well as the more specific sports of road bicycle racing and mountain bicycle racing.AalleycatA bicycle race typically organized by bicycle messengers or couriers. Alleycat races seek to …   Wikipedia

  • P.E. — noun the mechanical energy that a body has by virtue of its position; stored energy • Syn: ↑potential energy • Hypernyms: ↑mechanical energy • Hyponyms: ↑elastic energy, ↑elastic potential energy * * * …   Useful english dictionary

  • information processing — Acquisition, recording, organization, retrieval, display, and dissemination of information. Today the term usually refers to computer based operations. Information processing consists of locating and capturing information, using software to… …   Universalium

  • Business and Industry Review — ▪ 1999 Introduction Overview        Annual Average Rates of Growth of Manufacturing Output, 1980 97, Table Pattern of Output, 1994 97, Table Index Numbers of Production, Employment, and Productivity in Manufacturing Industries, Table (For Annual… …   Universalium

  • Computers and Information Systems — ▪ 2009 Introduction Smartphone: The New Computer.       The market for the smartphone in reality a handheld computer for Web browsing, e mail, music, and video that was integrated with a cellular telephone continued to grow in 2008. According to… …   Universalium

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”