Solid ink printers. Solid Ink Printer Disadvantages of Solid Ink Printers

20.07.15

Solid ink printing is considered one of the most convenient for business use. A printer based on this technology is ideal when large volumes of color images are required. What is special about solid ink printing?

History of appearance

The technology was invented by the American company Tektronix (1986). Already in 1991, the first solid ink printer was released, designed for use in the printing industry. It had a mind-blowing price of $10,000. In 2000, Tektronix was acquired by the renowned giant Xerox, and research into solid ink printing didn't stop. Currently, the cost of such printers is comparable to the price of classic office equipment.

How a Solid Ink Printer Works

Printer ink comes in bars of black, yellow, magenta, and cyan. They are made from a wax-like substance with the addition of dyes. Bars of different colors, as well as for different models of printers, differ in shape and exactly repeat the shape of the hole in the receiving container intended for it. This is done to avoid errors when refueling. No more than 4 bars are placed in each compartment. Refilling is possible even during printing.

The main components of a solid ink printer are:

  • print head with heating element;
  • imaging drum;
  • node for its warming up;
  • ink storage and melting unit;
  • vacuum head cleaning unit;
  • waste container.

When turned on, the imaging drum and print head heat up first. The temperature of the latter reaches 180°C. Then the head ink bars of each color in the storage blocks are pressed against the piezoceramic melting plates. When heated, they liquefy and enter the print head containers. There, the ink is maintained in a liquid state. When one of the head reservoirs is full, the corresponding heating plate is turned off and the ink flow stops.

The next step is to clean the injectors of the print head. It is made from of stainless steel and has 1236 nozzles. Unlike an inkjet printer, the head covers the entire width of the printed page. To carry out the procedure, a cleaning unit is brought to it and pumps out air using a vacuum pump, while sucking in a small amount of melted ink. They are then dumped into a waste container. After this operation, the printer starts printing.

The print head is brought to a heated, rotating drum at a distance of 0.3-0.6 mm and puts an image on it. The drum is made of stainless steel and covered with a thin layer of silicone oil on top. Its temperature is less than the temperature of the print head, so the ink passes from a liquid state to an intermediate elastic state. The piezo elements of the nozzles are able to provide an ejection of 30 million drops per second. This explains the high print speed of printers up to 30 ppm.

On the final stage the image is transferred to a sheet of paper. Dyes have greater adhesion to it than to an oil-coated drum, so they are easily transferred to the rolled sheet and finally solidify.

Benefits of Solid Ink Printing

  1. Simple design with few electronic, optical and mechanical elements. For this reason, it is more reliable than a laser printer.
  2. Easy and convenient filling.
  3. Consistent print quality at any device resource.
  4. Brilliant colors and no ink bleed on any type of paper.
  5. High print speed.
  6. Possibility of drawing the image on paper with a density up to 220 g/m 2 .
  7. Very little waste.
The HP LaserJet 4700 laser printer and the Xerox Phaser 8560 solid ink printer are similar in class. At the same time, having printed 100,000 sheets, the first generates 71 kg of waste, and the second - 2 kg.

Disadvantages of solid ink printers

  1. High power consumption.
  2. The need to constantly keep the printer on to keep the ink molten.
  3. Long exit time from power-saving mode. On average, it is 4-5 minutes.
  4. No bleeding and mixing of ink on the surface of the paper. For this reason, such devices are not suitable for printing photographs. In light areas, the characteristic dottedness becomes especially noticeable.

Such characteristics of solid ink printers determine the best application for them - large amounts of text or business graphics with solid color fills.

The cost of technology has led to color print Recently, it has become more and more popular, therefore, the demand for color printers has increased.

About the benefits of color

In addition, the color reduces the search time necessary information by 80%, reduces the number of errors, for example, when filling out questionnaires, and even encourages the buyer to pay the full amount of the invoice, if it is clearly highlighted in the document. Finally, color plays an important role in brand recognition.

Solid ink technology

Currently, there are two main technologies that are used in desktop color printers: laser and inkjet. A variation of laser technology is LED printing. Solid ink technology is closer to inkjet in principle, but it has its own characteristics. Sometimes it is also called sublimation, but this is not entirely true.

The solid ink system is a rather interesting solution, which is an invention of Tektronix. In 2000, a division of this company and the rights to all developments were acquired by the technology giant Xerox. He currently produces two lines of solid ink printers: Phaser and ColorQube. By the way, there are no black-and-white printers that use pigment ink in briquettes. This technology originally developed for color printing.

The process of operation of a solid ink printer is as follows: when the device is turned on, solid dyes are heated in special containers to a temperature of +60 ° C and, in a molten (viscous) form, are fed to a fixed piezo-jet print head. The diameter of the holes through which the melted ink is fed is comparable in size to the thickness of a human hair. This provides excellent image quality!

Then a mirror image of the future print is formed on the heated surface of the transfer roller, and then, with the participation of the pressure roller, by pressing the dye is transferred to paper carrier. On paper, the ink dries instantly, producing a durable and vibrant final print.

Since the circumference of the transfer drum is the same as the length of the paper, the image is transferred in one pass. This provides enough high speed print. For example: many modern color laser printers use 4-pass technology, so they print quite slowly.

Solid ink printers use special inks in briquettes (sticks) of four primary colors corresponding to the CMYK scheme: cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The stick of each color has a specific shape, which prevents errors during ink loading. You can load consumables into the printer at any time, even without interrupting the printing process.

Solid ink printers are most widely used in offices where there is a need to print a large number of documents in color.

Benefits of solid ink printers

Solid ink technology is built on the principles inkjet printing, which is known to produce higher quality images than laser printers.

Prints created with the XEROX Phaser or ColorQube feature bright, rich colors, high fill density, and a glossy finish. The print quality does not deteriorate even when the printer is used for a long time.

Due to the absence of exposure to very high temperatures, thick paper, cardboard, films, and even plastic can be used as print media for solid ink printers.

At the same time, the device of solid ink printers is more primitive (in the good sense of the word) than the design of laser printing devices, which contain many elements that fail and fail one after another and require replacement. The minimum number of moving components and parts ensures maximum reliability of the equipment. Therefore, solid ink printers require repairs much less often, and their operating time before replacing the drum is about 5 years.

Disadvantages of solid ink printers

Unfortunately, when operating a solid ink printer, it is almost impossible to avoid wastage of consumables. The melted ink must be in a liquid state until it is completely used up, because once it solidifies again, it can no longer provide excellent image quality.

In this regard, the solid ink printer must be constantly connected to the network, and this is an additional power consumption. If this is not possible, before starting work, the machine melts the solidified ink and pours them into a special container for waste materials.

The second disadvantage of solid ink is the instability of prints obtained with their help to physical and thermal effects. Since this dye is a waxy substance, the image is easily damaged by accidental scratching, especially if it is applied to glossy paper, peeling off after being under pressure for a long time (for example, if the sheet lies in the middle of a stack of documents), and also "floats" in direct sunlight .

For the same reason, prints obtained on a solid ink printer can only be laminated at t + 100-115 ° C. Under the influence of higher temperatures, the dye melts.

And finally, to the question of economy. Prices for XEROX Phaser and ColorQube printers initially seem quite high. Reducing the cost of printing is only possible through the purchase and use of alternative consumables.

In contact with

Classmates

Solid ink for printer are solid-state dyes used in inkjet printing.

Solid ink was developed in 1986 by Tektronix, and in 2000 the rights to all developments in the field of solid ink printing were purchased by Xerox. Currently, solid ink printing is used in Xerox product lines such as Phaser and ColorQube.

After the user submits a job for printing, part of the ink briquettes melts and changes from a solid to a liquid state. The melted ink enters the printer's print head, then onto a rotating drum coated with silicone grease, and from there onto a heated sheet of paper. The image is transferred in a single pass, making solid ink printers print very quickly.

Some authors classify solid ink as a type of sublimation ink, but this is fundamentally not true. Sublimation ink for the printer during the printing process passes from a liquid state to a solid state, and then to a gaseous state, and solid ink from solid to liquid, and in this form is applied to paper.

The transition of solid and sublimation ink and one state to another

Solid ink cartridges are available in standard CMYK colors (cyan, magenta, yellow and black).

Xerox Solid Ink Standard CMYK Colors

The table shows the most common Xerox solid ink options.

Xerox Solid Ink Options

Xerox ink sticks have different transverse section and serial numbers from "1" to "4", which allows users to accurately determine the sequence of their installation in the printer. The top of the cartridge is marked with an arrow ““”.

Xerox Solid Ink Sticks are uniquely shaped and labeled for easy installation into the printer.

A significant advantage of solid inks over liquid inks and toners is the fact that they can be loaded into the printer at the time of printing.

Considering that solid inks contain polymeric additives and wax, they are perfectly fixed on almost any type of media, including fabrics made of coarse fibers.

Prints made with solid inks are comparable in contrast and brightness to prints made with oil or water-based paints, and in terms of durability they are only slightly inferior to pigment inks. They are absolutely resistant to moisture, but fade under the influence of direct sunlight. Therefore, when used in an open environment, such images should be laminated with a special film. Regular film will not protect solid ink prints from fading, and they will very soon lose their brightness and attractiveness in the sun. This feature solid ink should be considered when printing materials intended for outdoor use, such as street advertising.

The figure below shows a comparison of two solid ink prints that have been exposed to the sun for 4 weeks. The print shown on the left side of the figure was protected with a special laminate, and the print shown on the right side was protected with a conventional laminate.

Comparison of solid ink prints coated with a special (left) and conventional (right) laminate

Laminating solid ink prints with a special film allows you to extend their life cycle.

The advantages and disadvantages of solid ink are listed in the table.

Advantages and disadvantages of solid ink

Benefits of solid ink Disadvantages of solid ink
  • bright, saturated colors and excellent print quality;
  • safety of use;
  • environmental friendliness;
  • facilitated installation of briquettes;
  • compact design;
  • print speed;
  • cheap prints compared to color toner
  • need time to warm up;
  • sensitivity to ultraviolet rays;
  • increased consumption of electricity;
  • create an imperceptible relief on the carrier;
  • best for high volume printing

Solid printer ink is capable of applying high-quality images to any surface, including paper of various densities, cardboard, film, and fabrics. Wax, which is part of solid inks, gives them gloss, provides brightness and saturation of prints, uniformity of filling. The ink sticks do not melt in your hands, do not disperse in the air like dry toner, and do not spread like liquid ink. They are safe for environment and human health, as they are made from plant materials and oils.

Mechanism and principle of operation

Ink cartridges are loaded into the printer. Briquettes of different colors are different in shape, which can avoid the error when loading ink. Expendable materials can be loaded without interrupting the printing process.

When turned on, the printer melts part of the ink, which then enters the stationary print head. The head applies an image to a rotating anodized aluminum drum coated with silicone grease. Then a slightly heated sheet of paper is fed into the tray, which is pressed against the drum by a special roller. The image is transferred to paper in one pass, so that printing can be carried out at high speed.

Since the design of solid ink printers is simpler than that of laser printers, and the number of moving parts in it is minimized, the reliability of such a device is much higher, and the need for maintenance occurs less frequently. The operating time of a solid ink printer before replacing the drum is an average of 5 years.

Scope of application

The melted ink in the printer must be kept liquid. Re-cured ink can no longer provide perfect image quality, so it melts and merges into a waste container before starting work. Therefore, it is recommended to keep the solid ink printer connected to the mains whenever possible to avoid ink loss.

Given this feature, as well as the relatively high initial cost and performance, solid ink printers are most often used in offices for printing color documents.

Benefits of solid ink printers

  • Solid ink printers are resistant to wear and tear due to their simple design. The print quality remains stable and does not degrade over time.
  • Solid ink devices are capable of printing on a wide range of media, including paper of various weights, cardboard, film, etc. without quality loss.

Disadvantages of solid ink printers

  • The need for a constant connection to the mains and, as a result, the consumption of electricity.
  • Ink consumption when restarting the printer.
  • Unstable prints at high temperatures (greater than 125°C).

see also

Notes


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .

See what a "Solid Ink Printer" is in other dictionaries:

    This article or section needs revision. Please improve the article in accordance with the rules for writing articles ... Wikipedia

    Samsung SPP 2040 printing a photo. Sublimation printer (thermal sublimation printer) a printer that prints an image on dense solid surfaces by introducing a solid state (usually crystal ... Wikipedia

    1993 Apple LaserWriter Pro 630 ... Wikipedia

    - (English Light emitting diode printer, LED printer) one of the types of printers, which is a parallel branch of the development of laser printing technology. Like a laser, an LED printer is designed to transfer text or ... ... Wikipedia

In the past five years, a very strange situation has developed in the market for home and office printers. On the one hand, there are several large manufacturers that regularly update lineups and seriously competing with each other. On the other hand, there is absolutely nothing for an IT journalist to write about their struggle. The business press can juggle a little bit with market shares and other boring things. And our man, having looked more closely at the "new" models, immediately notices that from a technical point of view, no serious improvements are observed in them. Rather, on the contrary - in parallel with the addition of various embellishments, such as high-definition LCD screens, the actual printing part is being simplified.

First of all, of course, this applies to inkjet printers where progress stopped in the middle of this decade. I find it hard to believe it myself, but even HP, which once led the race to increase the number of ink tanks in photo printers, today considers using just four colors sufficient. Four! This is after NINE in the older models of HP Photosmart five years ago! Four inkwells in those days were considered acceptable only for very simple models, where photo printing is not the main function. Epson still has eight-color models, but they have been produced for the second five years (for example, the eight-color Epson R800 went on sale back in 2004), new products do not cross the six-color barrier. Yes, and according to the main characteristics, somehow print resolution and drop size, Epson printers and MFPs have not gone ahead over the past five years. Take a look at the characteristics of laser devices - they also have not changed for a long time, both in black and white and in color models. So why did the industry, which was developing so rapidly at the beginning of the century, pick up and “slow down”?

Blame, of course, the marketers of printer manufacturers. At the turn of the century, when digital cameras entered the mass market, they suddenly decided that this was their chance. Like, since citizens now do not have to go to the laboratories to develop the film, they themselves will prefer to print the photographs at home, and not at someone else's uncle. If so, they should ensure the quality of the minilab right on the desktop ahead of time. The market for photo printers seemed huge, and a lot of money was invested in R&D, both in inkjet and laser directions. It was planned that inkjet printers would live at home, and laser photo printers (and such were being developed) would be actively bought up by companies that use high-quality pictures in their work (ie, from real estate agencies to mail-order stores).

At first, everything went fine: people, by inertia, continued to print photographs on paper, because it seemed to be accepted that way. But then suddenly the understanding came that, it turns out, the pictures look good on the computer screen, but there are Cell phones, laptops, digital photo frames, smart players, etc. etc. And for transferring them over long distances, optical media, flash drives and e-mail are better suited. As computer equipment Mastered by pensioners, the last hope of manufacturers of photo printers, the demand for really high-quality printing at home or in the office was also melting. All that citizens really wanted was to print quickly and, most importantly, cheaper. Well, if where some shade is not accurately transferred, it’s not scary. And even those who continued to print photos on paper still rushed to minilabs, where the price of a print is one and a half to two times cheaper than that made at home, especially when it comes to large formats.

As a result, printer manufacturers have received very advanced printing technologies with no chance of recouping their development costs in the planned time frame. Resigned and realizing that the existing backlog in terms of picture quality would last for a long time, everyone switched to increasing the speed of printing and reducing the price of both the devices themselves and the prints. An equally important direction of modernization was the damage to the lives of manufacturers of so-called compatible cartridges and toner, which prevented them from recouping at least the price of the device itself. The development of new, alternative printing technologies, if not stopped, then slowed down significantly. And then the global financial crisis began ...

This long introduction is written so that you understand the harsh conditions under which Xerox is trying to market solid state ink MFPs, which are radically different from both inkjet and laser printers.

Solid on the outside, liquid on the inside

The idea of ​​using solid consumables in printers has been on the minds of developers for a long time, and among the companies where it came to at least pre-prototypes are Howtek, Exxon, Dataproducts, Hitachi, Spectra and Brother. Experiments were the most successful American company Tektronix, which in 1986 patented Solid Ink printing technology, and in 1991 began selling the world's first color printer using this technology.

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I printed the Tektronix Phaser III on Letter-sized paper (slightly smaller than A4 we are used to), and it took about two minutes per sheet. Considering that we are talking about a full-color print of a very decent quality for those times, the speed could be called very acceptable. But the price - $ 10,000 - made many think (for comparison, a black-and-white laser printer in those days cost around $ 2,400). Plus, the first implementation of the technology left much to be desired. After all, the ink remained solid only until it got inside the printer. There, solid sticks, consisting of a mixture of wax, toner and vegetable oils, turn into a liquid with a temperature of more than a hundred degrees. At first, they were applied directly using a moving head weighing - attention - 1.8 kg on paper, and therefore, for users who were too lazy to take care of the correct fastening, printers jumped around offices like mad washing machines. When installing on the table, it was necessary to choose a thicker tree, and fasten the legs to the floor with self-tapping screws. In fact, the print speed, which was not high by our standards, was precisely due to the need to constantly accelerate and decelerate the heavy head. There was no way to guarantee accurate reproduction of shades even within a single print. Due to the peculiarities of the technology, it was impossible to follow the order in which drops of ink of different colors hit the paper. For example, if yellow was applied first, and then purple, the red hue turned out to be somewhat different than when yellow was applied over purple. Add to that the lingering smell of either a candle factory or an artist's workshop in the room where the printer was used, and you'll understand why Tektronix's solid-state ink business didn't do well.

Despite the difficulties, Tektronix continued to develop the technology, and the engineers achieved considerable success, which, however, did not allow the Color Printing and Imaging division to achieve acceptable financial performance. In 2000, it was sold to Xerox Corporation along with all the patents and the Phaser trademark. Today, the corporation produces devices that print on A4 and A3 paper. Despite the differences in exterior and dimensions, they are very similar, and they intricately combine inkjet and offset printing technologies.

So, today the print head is stationary, and it generally does not come into contact with the surface of the paper. Printing is carried out on a rotating drum made of anodized aluminum, which is cleaned of ink residues before each cycle and covered with thinnest layer silicone lubricant. The width of the head repeats the width of the drum, and has an operating temperature of 135 degrees Celsius, while the drum itself only warms up to 65 degrees. Ink, falling on the drum, instantly thickens and fixes on its surface. When the head (which, given its size, one would like to call head) finishes work, a slightly heated sheet appears in the tray, it is pressed against the drum with a special roller, and in one pass the entire image is transferred to paper. The ink layer is very thin, and the paper is almost cold, so no additional operations are required to fix the print.

Due to the relative simplicity of technology and a minimum of moving elements in the design, the print speed in the older XeroxColorQube models reaches 85 A4 color prints per minute! Yes, the younger ones give out up to 60 pages, which, you see, is also not bad at all. Given that the ink practically does not interact with paper, you can print fairly high-quality photographs even on ordinary office sheets. Moreover, thanks to the wax base, they will shine like the pages of glossy magazines. Due to the high "tenacity" of the ink and the low heating of the media, it is possible to print on films and even on foil - the main thing is to choose more or less dense samples. The engineers also managed to overcome the problem of smell: modern models are quite neutral in this parameter. If we remember that the price of a color print on a solid-state ink printer is half that of a laser one, it is worth asking the question: why hasn't Xerox-Tektronix technology conquered the entire market yet?

Little nothings of life

Briquettes of solid-state ink look nice and even appetizing - probably not in vain in the mid-nineties, the president of Tektronix bit off and ate a piece of such an "ink" at one of the presentations. To avoid confusion, each color has its own shape, and therefore it is almost impossible to set the bar in the wrong place by mistake (unless, to undermine it with a file or crumble it).

They do not melt in the hands, they treat drops during transportation with understanding, the shelf life is practically unlimited, you can load from 3 to 6 briquettes of each color at the same time, depending on the model. An important nuance: after installation in the printer, the user is left with only a small box made of recyclable plastic. For residents of the States and Western Europe, this is a very serious advantage compared to cartridges with ink or, even worse, toner. In general, such printers have few consumables: only the ink itself and the cleaning module, which also contains silicone grease. Everything else, from the head to the drum, will last at least five years (the head life is at least a million prints), and, if necessary, can also be replaced. Although, most likely, it will be easier to buy a new model by then.

But here we come to the first disharmony. Once in the tank, combined with the print head, the ink turns from solid to liquid, and should remain so until it hits paper or other media. While waiting for use, they are kept at a temperature that does not allow freezing, and as long as the printer is plugged in, everything is almost fine. Almost - because electricity is consumed to heat the ink. But if someone turns the printer off or the power goes out, the ink will dry out and become unusable. The next time you turn on the printer, they will warm up and merge them into a special waste tray. In large A3 printers, the losses will be relatively small, around 4% of the volume of one briquette, but in relatively portable models (due to design features, printers with solid-state ink cannot yet be completely compact), where the bars are much smaller, up to 20% is consumed, and this is already much more serious. Such features of the technology are very disliked by users and serve as an object of ridicule for competitors.

On the left is the waste ink tray, on the right is the cleaning module

The second disharmony lies in the slow start of printing. More precisely, if the ink is heated to right level, the first page comes out of the printer almost instantly. But keeping them constantly perfectly liquid is too expensive, so when the printer is “sleeping”, they are maintained in a fairly thick state, saving energy. The “wake-up” time is up to fifteen minutes, and this, to put it mildly, is not very advantageous against the background of laser solutions . Xerox engineers figured out how to get around the problem: a freshly installed printing device carefully studies the behavior of its owners for two weeks, and determines when it is necessary to be in full readiness, and when it is possible to take a nap. I did not check it myself, but Xerox says that the system works quite efficiently, and the solid ink printer consumes no more than its laser colleague with similar characteristics per circle. So, in new models, power consumption in sleep mode does not exceed 50 W, and this is really a little against the background of general office costs.

Prints at first look very impressive: juicy shades, smooth color transitions, glossy shine. But, by running a fingernail or the back of a fountain pen across the picture, you will certainly leave a strip on it - the wax is very gentle, and is not prepared for mechanical stress. Moreover, the higher the print quality and, accordingly, the thicker the ink layer, the “softer” the print. Laminating it is also categorically not recommended: from the high temperature in the laminator, the wax will simply spread in all directions. Also, do not print blanks on a solid state printer, such as letterhead or certificates of honor, which then have to go through a laser printer: it is too hot in a laser for waxing.

The list of technology disharmony is closed by the increased sensitivity of printing devices to external influences. So, if the printer or MFP gets a strong enough push (who knows what fantasies office workers will have?), or they want to move it without waiting thirty minutes from the moment it was completely turned off, splashing of ink can occur (remember the temperature of 125 degrees) with extremely unpleasant consequences for internal parts . This type of damage is easily calculable and is not covered under warranty.

Success against all odds?

The first Xerox models with solid ink printing technology were accepted by the market rather reservedly. Firstly, they lacked shortcomings, and, secondly, competitors made a fuss in time and organized a powerful campaign in the best traditions of black PR. Until now, on Youtube you can find surprisingly high-quality and funny videos (rumor ascribes their authorship to HP) about the unlucky system administrator Karl, who installed a Xerox printer in the office and daily scolds for it the full program from colleagues and superiors. Printers smell bad, turn off spontaneously, spoil the ink - in general, if you are interested, do a search for "Carl Xerox solid ink." Xerox is especially not liked by the white bear, whose protection Karl is so concerned about.

But in 2009 it came out new line ColorQube, which supports A3 format and consists of three models, 9201, 9202 and 9203. Externally, they look the same, and differ only in performance. So, if in black-and-white mode the print speed for the whole trinity is the same, from 38 to 85 A4 pages per minute, then in color the peak speed is 60, 70 and 85 A4 pages per minute, respectively. The rest is completely similar: 512 MB of RAM, 80 GB hard drive, four gradations of print quality with a resolution of 600x600 DPI, fax, scanner with automatic document feeder and a lot of options, from a booklet finisher to a two-line fax.

And these office MFPs, unexpectedly for many, "shot", they began to snap up like hot cakes, and there is still a certain shortage of Xerox ColorQube in the American market. Not quite the same as on the iPhone4, but still quite tangible, given that the price of the younger model starts at $22,500. Agree, the figure is quite impressive for spontaneous shopping.

There seem to be two reasons for the success. Firstly, the next incarnation of Xerox solid ink technology got rid of very obvious shortcomings, such as a 20 percent loss of usable ink volume when turned off and an unpleasant smell. More precisely, the same amount of ink is lost, just the bars have become larger, but purely psychologically 4% are perceived easier than 20%.

Secondly, in developed countries devices of this class are usually not bought, but leased, and payment is often based on the number of prints, divided into color and black and white. And when companies offer to choose between several devices with similar characteristics, but on only one color printing costs almost half the price ... In general, you understand. Plus, unlike laser devices, there is no strict division into color and black-and-white prints: the area occupied by a color image is calculated, and if it is a small logo, the price of printing a particular document may practically not increase.

By the way, the appearance of compatible briquettes can serve as indirect evidence of the popularity of new MFPs. True, Xerox does not recommend using them for obvious reasons, but those who have tried them do not write terrible things on the forums. In no case do I urge you to use clones, you just need to understand that Chinese craftsmen rarely clone consumables of completely “dead” products.

Solid Answer

Despite all the limitations of solid ink technology, I sincerely want to wish her success. If players of the caliber of Xerox and HP start a serious battle, it certainly won't hurt consumers.

Just keep in mind that solid-state ink will not appear soon, if at all, in home printing devices. This is a technology for large volumes of printing, and at home, where most of the time printers and MFPs work as dust collectors, it has nothing to do. Nevertheless, if you want to be original, you can buy the cheapest of the "hard drives" - Xerox Phaser 8560. It prints up to 30 A4 pages per minute (black and white or color), costs from 35,000 rubles, and a set of briquettes for 1000 sheets will cost about 3300 rubles.

 

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