Ink Cartridges

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How Ink-Jet Printing Works

At the root, ink-jet printing method implies putting million ink drops of required size to paper, in proper places thereof. This remains unchanged since the time an ink-jet printer was invented. As for the way of pushing drops from nozzles, here two printing technologies are used, which are thermospray technology and piezoelectric technology. Thermospray printing works as follows: each cartridge nozzle (a hole letting ink to paper) has its own small heating unit. While printing, a printer converts the data received from computer and, depending on the result expected, it instantly heats an ink portion in the corresponding nozzle at proper time. When heated, ink expands and jets to paper, thus forming an image. In the process of piezoelectric printing the special (piezoelectric) substances change their volume under electric pressure. Piezoelectric plate, being influenced by the electric pulse, changes its volume and shoots an ink drop out. Piezoelectric printing technology is used by Epson. A cartridge (print head) may contain from 48 to 416 nozzles average, which makes possible to print from 300 to 4,800 and more dots per inch (= 25.4 mm). The less the size and the more the number of dots is, the better image quality they give. Please note that in case ink in cartridge has run low or has dried up after a long downtime, the nozzle heating units may burn out when such cartridge is being used. In this case the cartridge becomes non-recoverable. The same may happen, for instance, to an electric kettle. If you switch it on without water in it, the kettle heating coil will burn out. The fact that ink in cartridge is running low may be revealed through different print defects appearing, such as skipping, white stripes or wrong color. In case you have some problem areas, first try to clean print head, as maybe it is just clogged. In the event that after cleaning the defects remain (or new defects appear), the cartridge is to be replaced or refilled. You must not continue printing, as cartridge nozzles may burn out! If your printer has an ink counter installed, you shall monitor its reading. You should not refill Epson cartridges, because it may lead to a print head break, and result in expensive repair or a new printer needed.