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What’s the difference between an inkjet printer and a laser printer?
An inkjet printer uses ink to print documents, while a laser printer uses a laser to print documents. Pretty simple, right?The different printing processes affect each printer’s speed, functions, and image quality. Let’s go into a bit more detail.
How does an inkjet printer work?
An inkjet printer uses ink cartridges.Here’s how it gets the ink onto paper:1. The printer processes an image or document from a device.2. Small nozzles (jets) are positioned throughout the printer to spray ink droplets onto a sheet of paper as it passes by. Hundreds of nozzles release thousands of ink droplets.
3. To release an ink droplet, the nozzle is heated by electricity. The heat causes the ink to expand in a bubble, and it expands through the nozzle until it squirts onto the paper.4. When the ink bubble collapses, a vacuum is created that draws more ink into the nozzle from the ink cartridge, ready to release the next droplet.5. It takes many droplets to form a single character.The nozzles are attached to a printhead, which can move left and right across the paper to create new characters.
How does a laser printer work?
Although it’s called a laser printer, static electricity is the main phenomenon that occurs to get those images and text on the page. Remember, when it comes to static electricity, opposites attract; only positive charges and negative charges stick to each other.Negative can’t attach to negative and positive can’t attach to positive (try playing with the ends of two magnets if you don’t believe it).A laser printer cleverly manipulates static electricity to attach toner to a sheet of paper. Laser toner is a powdered ink that’s more grain-like than regular ink.
Using a flash dryer for flashing.
Typically a flash dryer is placed 2-3 inches above the screen printing platen height. Depending on the wattage and type of the flash dryer the flash is positioned over the platen for anywhere from 3-15 seconds. Typically the ink needs to reach about 240-250 degrees Fahrenheit which is its gel point. The ink should not come up on your fingers if you touch it but still feel tacky.
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