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Inkjet Head Technology Review by David Foster
There is a divide in the inkjet industry, piezoelectric print manufacturers such as Epson (& Mutoh, Roland and Mimaki), vs Canon/HP/Lexmark using bubblejet.
All inkjet printers have an ink reservoir (cartridge) that is connected to a firing chamber which in turn is attached to a nozzle - where the ink droplet emerges. The fundamental difference between the two technologies is in the firing chamber.
Piezoelectric crystals are cool things, when an electric charge is put across them they change shape and they do this quickly and repeatably. A microscopic crystal in the chamber twitches and creates a pressure wave that fires a droplet from the nozzle.
A bubblejet printer on the other hand has a tiny heater element within the chamber, this boils a drop of the ink which expands violently creating the pressure wave that drives the drop from the nozzle.
Why does the ink fire out of the nozzle rather than going back up to the cartridge? Well to a certain extent it does, it's a matter of scale. Imagine that you are standing by a building and there is a small expansion between you and the building...guess which one moves the most?
So in principle there's no great difference between the two methods. But the consequences of their differences do lead to some major issues.
A bubblejet head, using a heater and boiling ink is generally less robust than a piezo crystal which runs near room temperature. The heater can easily burn out leading to a failure of the nozzle, this is especially true if run dry, but more importantly, the boiling of ink by the element causes deposits to form on the element (the Japanese call it biscuiting). This can lead to a gradual loss of efficiency over the life of the head. Therefore bubblejet heads tend to be replaced often, usually with every ink cartridge change (where the head is part of cartridge). Piezo heads outlive the printers and only the ink is replaced.
The deposit on bubblejet heads is a serious constraint upon the formulation of the ink and the correct formulation is crucial. Third party inks can be a poor choice.
Piezo heads have a much greater formulation tolerance.
Which technology is better?
Both do the job at roughly the same price and, if you can't tell the difference on the paper,...who cares.
About the Author
David Foster has 22 years in the pre-press industry, specialising in the supply of imagesetters.
For more details contact Positivity Limited, suppliers of Agfa SelectJet and CopyJet films in the UK.
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