Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!ucsd!sdcsvax!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!artecon!tony
From: tony@artecon.UUCP (Tony Parkhurst)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Ink Jet's: What's best?
Message-ID: <859@artecon.UUCP>
Date: 14 Mar 88 20:44:16 GMT
References: <2802@gryphon.CTS.COM> <172200105@uxc.cso.uiuc.edu> <818@sdcc8.ucsd.EDU>
Reply-To: tony@artecon.UUCP (Tony Parkhurst)
Organization: Artecon, Inc.
Lines: 27

In article <818@sdcc8.ucsd.EDU> cs178abu@sdcc8.ucsd.edu.UUCP (John Schultz) writes:
>>"thermal ink-jet"?
>>
>>what's that?  have they scrapped piezo-electric jets in favor of

>  Thermal inkjets use a "plastic" ink, which is heated to a liquid before being
>sprayed on the paper. It cools and hardens on the paper, voila!

Not quite.  Although the solid ink technology is indeed thermal :-), what is
referred to by "thermal ink-jet" or tij is the method a spraying the ink.

That is, there is a resistor near the nozzle which heats up and creats a
bubble which forces a droplet of ink out the nozzle.  This is all done
with thin film technology (nozzle, resistor,etc), so the comonents are
small, quick and accurate.

Of course, the ink is quite special, because it can't dry up or it would 
clog the small nozzles.  So a special paper is needed to absorb the ink
base better than normal paper.  Ethalyne Glycol is a popular base for these
inks.

-- Tony

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