Thermal DOD[edit]

A Canon inkjet with CMYKcartridges

Most consumer inkjet printers, including those from Canon (FINE), Hewlett-Packard, and Lexmark, use
the thermal inkjet process. The idea of using thermal excitation to move tiny drops of ink was developed
independently by two groups at roughly the same time: John Vaught and a team at Hewlett-Packard's Corvallis
Division, and Canon engineer Ichiro Endo. Initially, in 1977, Endo's team was trying to use
the piezoelectric effect to move ink out of the nozzle but noticed that ink shot out of a syringe when it was
accidentally heated with a soldering iron. Vaught's work started in late 1978 with a project to develop fast, low-
cost printing. The team at HP found that thin-film resistors could produce enough heat to fire an ink droplet.
Two years later the HP and Canon teams found out about each other's work.[5][6]
In the thermal inkjet process, the print cartridges consist of a series of tiny chambers, each containing a heater,
all of which are constructed by photolithography. To eject a droplet from each chamber, a pulse of current is
passed through the heating element causing a rapid vaporization of the ink in the chamber and forming a
bubble, which causes a large pressure increase, propelling a droplet of ink onto the paper (hence
Canon's trade name of Bubble Jet). The ink's surface tension, as well as the condensation and resultant
contraction of the vapor bubble, pulls a further charge of ink into the chamber through a narrow channel
attached to an ink reservoir. The inks involved are usually water-based and use either pigments or dyes as the
colorant. The inks must have a volatile component to form the vapor bubble; otherwise droplet ejection cannot
occur. As no special materials are required, the print head is generally cheaper to produce than in other inkjet
technologies.

Piezoelectric DOD[edit]

Piezoelectric printing nozzle of an EPSON C20 printer.

Most commercial and industrial inkjet printers and some consumer printers (those produced
by Epson and Brother Industries) use a piezoelectric material in an ink-filled chamber behind each nozzle
instead of a heating element. When a voltage is applied, the piezoelectric material changes shape, generating
a pressure pulse in the fluid, which forces a droplet of ink from the nozzle. Piezoelectric (also called Piezo)
inkjet allows a wider variety of inks than thermal inkjet as there is no requirement for a volatile component, and
no issue with kogation (buildup of ink residue), but the print heads are more expensive to manufacture due to
the use of piezoelectric material (usually PZT, lead zirconium titanate).
A DOD process uses software that directs the heads to apply between zero and eight droplets of ink per dot,
only where needed.[citation needed] Piezo inkjet technology is often used on production lines to mark products. For
instance, the "use-before" date is often applied to products with this technique; in this application the head is
stationary and the product moves past. Requirements of this application are high speed, a long service life, a
relatively large gap between the print head and the substrate, and low operating cost.

Ink formulations[edit]
The basic problem with inkjet inks is the conflicting requirements for a coloring agent that will stay on the
surface vs. rapid dispersement of the carrier fluid.[citation needed]
Desktop inkjet printers, as used in offices or at home, tend to use aqueous inks based on a mixture of
water, glycol and dyes or pigments. These inks are inexpensive to manufacture, but are difficult to control on
the surface of media, often requiring specially coated media. HP inks contain sulfonated polyazo black dye
(commonly used for dyeing leather), nitrates and other compounds.[citation needed] Aqueous inks are mainly used in
printers with thermal inkjet heads, as these heads require water to perform.
While aqueous inks often provide the broadest color gamut and most vivid color, most are not waterproof
without specialized coating or lamination after printing. Most Dye-based inks, while usually the least expensive,
are subject to rapid fading when exposed to light or ozone. Pigment-based aqueous inks are typically more
costly but provide much better long-term durability and ultraviolet resistance. Inks marketed as "Archival
Quality" are usually pigment-based.
Some professional wide format printers use aqueous inks, but the majority in professional use today employ a
much wider range of inks, most of which require piezo inkjet heads and extensive maintenance:
Solvent inks
The main ingredient of these inks are volatile organic compounds (VOCs), organic chemical
compounds that have high vapor pressures. Color is achieved with pigments rather than dyes for
excellent fade-resistance. The chief advantage of solvent inks is that they are comparatively
inexpensive and enable printing on flexible, uncoated vinyl substrates, which are used to produce
vehicle graphics, billboards, banners and adhesive decals. Disadvantages include the vapour
produced by the solvent and the need to dispose of used solvent. Unlike most aqueous inks, prints
made using solvent-based inks are generally waterproof and ultraviolet-resistant (for outdoor use)
without special over-coatings.[citation needed] The high print speed of many solvent printers demands special
drying equipment, usually a combination of heaters and blowers. The substrate is usually heated
immediately before and after the print heads apply ink. Solvent inks are divided into two sub-
categories: hard solvent ink offers the greatest durability without specialized over-coatings but requires
specialized ventilation of the printing area to avoid exposure to hazardous fumes, while Mild or "Eco"
solvent inks, while still not as safe as aqueous inks, are intended for use in enclosed spaces without
specialized ventilation of the printing area. Mild solvent inks have rapidly gained popularity in recent
years as their color quality and durability have increased while ink cost has dropped significantly.
UV-curable inks
These inks consist mainly of acrylic monomers with an initiator package. After printing, the ink
is cured by exposure to strong UV-light. Ink is exposed to UV radiation where a chemical reaction
takes place where the photo-initiators cause the ink components to cross-link into a solid. Typically a
shuttered mercury-vapor lamp or UV LED is used for the curing process. Curing processes with high
power for short periods of times (microseconds) allow curing inks on thermally sensitive substrates. UV
inks do not evaporate, but rather cure or set as a result from this chemical reaction. No material is
evaporated or removed, which means about 100% of the delivered volume is used to provide
coloration. This reaction happens very quickly, which leads to instant drying that results in a completely
cured graphic in a matter of seconds. This also allows for a very fast print process. As a result of this
instant chemical reaction no solvents penetrate the substrate once it comes off the printer, which
allows for high quality prints.[7][8] The advantage of UV-curable inks is that they "dry" as soon as they
are cured, they can be applied to a wide range of uncoated substrates, and they produce a very robust
image. Disadvantages are that they are expensive, require expensive curing modules in the printer,
and the cured ink has a significant volume and so gives a slight relief on the surface. Though
improvements are being made in the technology, UV-curable inks, because of their volume, are
somewhat susceptible to cracking if applied to a flexible substrate. As such, they are often used in
large "flatbed" printers, which print directly to rigid substrates such as plastic, wood or aluminium
where flexibility is not a concern.
Dye sublimation inks
These inks contain special sublimation dyes and are used to print directly or indirectly on to fabrics
which consist of a high percentage of polyester fibres. A heating step causes the dyes to sublimate
into the fibers and create an image with strong color and good durability.