Engineering:Stored energy printer
A stored energy printer is a computer printer that uses the energy stored in a spring or magnetic field to push a hammer into a ribbon to print a dot. It is a type of impact printer.[1]
As compared to dot matrix printers that print a single column of dots at a time, this printer generally creates an entire line of dots at a time. Therefore, it is also known as a line matrix printer.[clarification needed]
An advantage of this technology is its low running costs: printer hammers have a lifespan of millions to billions of dots, and ink is transferred using conventional typewriter-style ribbons.
Technology
The most common printer to use this technology was the line-matrix printer made by Printronix and its licensees. In this type, the hammers are machined from an oval of magnetically permeable stainless steel, and the hammer-tips form vertical rows. The hammers are arranged as a "hammerbank"; a type of comb that oscillates horizontally to produce a line of dots. The original technology was patented by Printronix in 1974.[2]
Character matrix printers have also been produced.[2]
Improvements
Recent[when?] designs have performed complex optimizations in the magnetic circuit, and eliminated unwanted resonances in the spring. The result was a near-doubling of speed. Other improvements include the use of electrical discharge machining to produce complex, three-dimensional hammers that trade-off the magnetic circuit, mechanical resonances, and printing speed.
Normal wear occurs on the pole piece when the spring rubs against it as it returns. This eventually requires the pole pieces to be reground and recertified. However, using hexavalent chrome plating on the pole-piece, combined with careful design, more than doubles speeds and improves life-span, allowing approximately a billion impressions per hammer.
References
- ↑ Hendriks, Ferdinand (May 1983). "Bounce and Chaotic Motion in Impact Print Hammers". IBM Journal of Research and Development 27 (3): 273–280. doi:10.1147/rd.273.0273. ISSN 0018-8646. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5390421. Retrieved 29 March 2025.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Romano, Frank (22 February 2006). "The Business and Market for Desktop Printers" (in en). Color Desktop Printer Technology. CRC Press. pp. 85–107. ISBN 978-0-8247-5364-1.
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