User`s guide

HP
Thermal Inkjet Printing Technology
Thermal Inkjet
Thermal inkjet printers use heat to generate vapor
bubbles, ejecting small drops of ink through nozzles
and placing them precisely on a surface to form text or
images. Its advantages are small drop sizes, high
printhead operating frequency, excellent system reliability
and highly controlled ink drop placement. Integrated
electronics mean fewer electrical connections, faster
operation and higher color resolution. Originally
developed for desktop printers, thermal inkjet is designed
to be inexpensive, quiet and easy to use.
Piezoelectric Inkjet
Piezoelectric printing technology—commonly called
piezo—pumps ink through nozzles using pressure, like a
squirt gun. The printhead regulates the ink by means of
an electrical current passed through a material that swells
to force ink onto the paper. Piezo printheads require vacu-
um pumps and large ink-absorbent pads to keep nozzles
printing reliably. Piezo mechanical stability is also highly
sensitive to small air bubbles, and the system must be
flushed with ink to purge trapped air, a process that
wastes a lot of ink.
PRINTERS
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HP pioneered thermal inkjet technology more than 20 years ago. From their first monochrome Thinkjet printers to their
advanced six-color modular ink delivery systems, waterfast pigmented inks and high-security fluorescent inks, HP
technology leads the ongoing printing revolution with outstanding quality, ease of use and low cost of ownership. HP’s
printing technology spans a diverse clientele, from home computing to fax, industrial mailing and point-of-sale systems.
What is Thermal Inkjet Technology?
There are two main types of inkjet technology: Continuous-flow and drop-on-demand.
• Continuous flow technology deflects ink drops from a constant flow of ink to form an image.
• Drop-on-demand inkjet printers use printhead nozzles that each eject a single drop of ink only when activated. The two
most common drop-on-demand inkjet technologies are HP’s Thermal inkjet and Epson’s Piezoelectric inkjet.
With thermal inkjet technology, tiny
resistors rapidly heat a thin layer of
liquid ink. The heated ink causes a
bubble to form, expelling the ink
through a nozzle. As the bubble col-
lapses, it creates a vacuum that pulls
in fresh ink. This process is repeated
thousands of times per second. A com-
bination of factors—the formulation of
the ink itself, the heating of the ink,
and the architecture of the nozzle—
allows hundreds of nozzles per color,
per printhead. The multiple nozzles
mean small drop sizes, fast speeds,
outstanding system reliability and
highly controlled ink placement.
The HP Thermal Inkjet Advantage:
Cost-effective: There’s no warm-up cycle, no down time. When it’s time to replace a car-
tridge, replace only the one you need.
Easy to use: No special training is required to operate and maintain thermal inkjet printers.
Cartridges are clean and easy to install.
Fast: Hundreds of tiny nozzles firing at a high frequency allow high-quality printing at high
speeds. And with no moving parts other than the ink ejection, you get maximum speed for
maximum throughput.
Reliable: Thermal inkjet is less sensitive to air bubbles in the firing chamber than other
printing technologies, avoiding print quality problems and delays caused by trapped air.
HP’s unique ink delivery system reduces clogging.
High Quality: Thermal inkjet technology places smaller drops more accurately—meaning
superb image and text quality.
Flexible: Print in black or color simply by snapping in the cartridge you need. Or use HP's
modular ink delivery system, with individual ink cartridges and printheads. Either system
supports a wide variety of media. And now there's HP's new Versatile Black Ink, a single car-
tridge for rich, sharp blacks on coated and uncoated surfaces alike.
Thermal Inkjet vs. Piezoelectric Inkjet