Archived from groups: comp.periphs.printers (
More info?)
A friend had an old Canon with 4 cartriges, one large BCI-3e black and 3
BCI-6 CMY. When he first plugged in the cartridges he did not follow the
instruction by pulling the tape at the top to break the wrap as well as
opening up the cartrige vent. He somehow unwraped all of them without
opening up the vent.
The printer printed black and colors briefly and printed well. But then
stops printing CMY colors minutes later. There was no problem with the
black, however. He thought the printer had broken down in printing CMY
colors. At least a year went and he exhausted the BCI-3e Black ink. He
plugged in another one, without opening up the vent either. The printer
went on fine withe the 3 original CMY tanks full of ink but not working.
The 2nd BCI-3e Black ran out of ink again some long time later. The
printer was used as a black text printer only.
When I visited the friend I found his printer with full CMY ink tanks
but not printing CMY colors. I quickly discovered the vent was still
closed so I opened it up one by one. Magically the printer began to
print all colors immediately. Replaced another BCI-3e Black, with vent
opened of course and the printer worked just like new.
So my conclusion is thermal printhead does not burn out due to low or
no ink. It was an old Canon. I don't think a new modern one would be
different.
Arthur Entlich wrote:
> Thermal or Piezo: Its All in Your Head
>
> By Art Entlich Copyright 2005
>
> The differences in thermal and piezo printheads is of some importance in
> terms of inks that can be used, and other issues, but the type of
> printhead does not necessarily preclude that one will always provide a
> better quality result when looking at the output.
>
> This was not always the case. One of the reasons the piezo ink head
> system caught on (and Epson inkjet printers have always been piezo head
> design) is because they were lightyears ahead of thermal printing
> designs when they were introduced when it come to output.
>
> Epson, part of the Seiko group, had a fair interest in piezo technology.
> Some of you might remember the Seiko Quartz watches with a vibrating
> quartz crystal that kept the watch accurate. This was the same
> principle that piezo crystals work on. While thermal ink heads use a
> resistor that rapidly heads a tiny quantity of ink at the tip of the
> outlet forming a vapor bubble or boiled ink and pushing the ink in front
> of it forward and out, piezo heads use mechanical force (vibration) to
> move the ink.
>
> When thermal ink heads were the only inkjet technology available for
> consumers, they were still fairly low resolution, about 150-300 dpi
> maximum, and they tended to have a large ink droplet which wasn't very
> accurate in size, placement or shape.
>
> When Epson came on the scene with a 720 dpi piezo head (in black only,
> just like the thermal companies started with) and smaller and more
> accurate dots, the industry competition began "heating up" (excuse the
> pun).
>
> It wasn't until Epson came out with the very first Stylus Color printer
> at 720 dpi that the industry really took notice. It put all the thermal
> printer output to shame.
>
> The reason the piezo technology could do this was because it was using a
> much more controllable process to move the ink through the nozzles. The
> ink didn't need to be heated, and could use different formulations,
> since it didn't have to boil the ink. In fact, as long as the viscosity
> was within a reasonable range and had the correct polarity to stick to
> or penetrate the paper reasonably well, and was small enough, it could
> be put through the heads.
>
> The life span of a piezo head was considerably longer, often by orders
> of magnitude, over that of a thermal head. Back then, thermal heads
> were integrated into the cartridge and were expected to be replaced with
> each ink change.
>
> Fast forward to today. The technologies still basically work the same
> way, but both have evolved. I would say thermal has evolved further
> relative to its beginning, but it also had further to go. They have made
> the heads more resilient, such as the Canon head, which lasts numerous
> ink cartridge replacements. The number of jets or nozzles has multiplied
> considerably making the printing process much faster. The dots now can
> be as small as one picolitre, and are more accurate and uniform in size.
> The piezo head has also improved. It can also go down to one picolitre
> in size, has been speed up, has more nozzles, but the cost per nozzle
> appears to be higher, and so they have not kept up with the speed of
> some thermal inkjets. They have, however developed variable dot
> technology which allows for different size dots to be produced from the
> same nozzle by varying the vibration of the piezo element.
>
> Today differences in output quality can be minimal. The main two areas
> tend to be in variations of inks available for piezo heads versus
> thermal. Piezo inks come in everything from dye, to pigment to
> pigmented to dye sublimation type. Thermal heads have a somewhat harder
> time with some of these inks, although some use pigment inks. The head
> life is still, in general, longer for piezo heads than for thermal type.
>
> Because the piezo head is mechanical, it doesn't heat the ink or the
> head. In spite of what some people have reported, I don't believe they
> burn out from lack of ink flow, where thermal head may, and probably
> will. With some of the heavier bodied inks, piezo will tend to clog
> more, and require a bit more maintenance. Those same inks may not flow
> at all with thermal.
>
> However, although the head is significant, you need to consider a lot of
> things when deciding on a printer. Cost of the printer itself, life for
> the build (head, gearing, paper transport, ink waste inkpads, etc),
> warranty, cost of ink, other cost of upkeep (head replacement, etc) ease
> of use of software, driver color management accuracy, paper profile
> availability, speed, paper types available for the inks that can be
> used, ink permanence, CD printing, ability to use bulk inking system,
> maximum paper size, how close to the edge it prints, how noisy,
> manufacturer's customer service support, cost of servicing, etc. In
> other words, you need to look at output and ability to do what you need
> it for.
>
> Five years ago, head technology may have been a deciding factor in
> selection of an inkjet printer, today it a much more complex puzzle.
>
> Art
>
> ngreplies wrote:
>
>> Continuing my search for a printer...
>>
>> Before I go on, this is not a canon v. epson battle - everyone has their
>> favourites and that's all I want to hear on the subject.
>>
>> I can understand how thermal print heads work, but how do they differ
>> from
>> piezo print heads?
>>
>> I have only had Epson printers to-date and looking at a Cannon iP3000 or
>> iP4000, but the lifespan of a thermal print head is less than a piezo
>> I am
>> told.
>>
>> I am now stuck not knowing which print head is better for me in the long
>> run.
>>
>> Can anyone give sensible (???) positive discussion on these two types of
>> print heads please.
>>
>> Terry
>>
>>
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