Back in the mid-90s, having on your desktop not a nasty buzzing “matrix”, but a beautiful, compact, fast “inkjet” was a cherished dream of many, then still not very numerous, computer users of the post-Soviet space (then even dream of a laser printer did not have to).
The first inkjet printer was developed by Siemens in the mid-twentieth century. In 1953, he entered the market. More precisely, it was not an inkjet printer familiar to today's users, but a device for recording measurement results, which, using a jet of liquid ink, which decayed into separate drops in the air, transferred certain data to paper.
The author of the first "inkjet" in the form in which we are used to perceive it is Epson. And until now, this company has consistently taken the leading place in terms of sales of inkjet printers, and millions of users answer the question “Which inkjet printer is better?” Without hesitation, answer “Epson”.
The principle of operation of the first inkjet printer Epson was called piezoelectric. The printhead of the device consists of thousands of small nozzles. A piezocrystal connected to the diaphragm is installed in each nozzle. If voltage is applied to the crystal, it is deformed, thereby pressing on the diaphragm, which pushes the drop out of the nozzle. Over time, this printing method has undergone some changes (the use of piezoelectric plates, piezoelectric transducers, etc.), but the basic principle has not changed for several decades. In addition to Epson, the piezoelectric printing method is used by Brother in their printers.
Canon in the late 70s modernized the principle of the inkjet printer, previously proposed by Epson. The main change is that the piezocrystal has been replaced by a heating element. With its help, a drop of ink in the nozzle was heated to a temperature of 400 ºC in a matter of fractions of a second and, under the action of thermal expansion forces, flew out of the nozzle onto paper. This principle of printing is called thermal printing.
Many improvements to the inkjet printer have brought another company, known for including its printing devices - Hewlett-Packard. For example, in its "inkjets" this company began to use a slightly modified thermal principle of printing, when ink gets on paper not in a liquid but in a gaseous state, i.e. still in the form of heated steam. This is not a very fundamental change, therefore, as a rule, experts do not allocate Hewlett-Packard inkjet printers in a separate class. It was also at Hewlett-Packard in the early 90's that they came up with the idea that by mixing cyan, magenta and yellow in different proportions, an inkjet printer can produce almost any other color.
Another important criterion dividing all inkjet printers into two camps is the type of printhead. Hewlett-Packard and Lexmark use ink cartridges with printheads built into them. Other major inkjet printer manufacturers (Epson, Canon, Xerox, Brother) use printheads, which are a part of the printer, and the cartridge is actually a small ink tank. True, over the past few years, Canon in its low-cost inkjets has gradually moved to the use of combined cartridges.
The approach with a cartridge separate from the print head has its main advantage in the low cost of the ink tank itself. But at the same time, such printers are extremely vulnerable to ink drying in the head due to long downtime. Unwanted is considered to be simple for a week, critical - three to four weeks. In case of failure of the print head, the cost of which is up to 50% of the cost of a new printer, it is usually cheaper to buy a new printer. Thanks to this, printers with a combined print head, despite the high cost of consumables, are in steady demand.
At the beginning of our century, inkjet printers began to gradually leave the stage, cramped by becoming increasingly cheaper devices with laser printing. On the side of the latter were the speed and low cost of consumables. It seemed that a few more years, and the inkjet printer will turn into a niche product, which at one time happened with the "matrix".
The development of digital photography has given a new impetus to the development and popularization of inkjet printing. Having got the opportunity not to carry the film for development to the photo lab, users seriously thought about whether it is worth carrying the photos somewhere, or can they be printed at home? Thus, home photo printing has become the segment in which inkjet printers are reborn. And, notably, they still feel great in it.