Ink Jet Printers

Ink jet printers project electrically charged droplets of ink onto a page. Types of ink jet printers include thermal and piezo.  Printers are portable or stationary equipment used to output industrial data in printed form.  General performance specifications, printer specifications, bar code symbologies, and features are important to consider when searching for ink jet printers.

Important performance specifications to consider when searching for ink jet printers include resolution, printing width, and memory.  Printer resolution is measured in dots per inch (dpi) and refers to the number of dots per square inch the printer is capable of achieving.  Generally, more dots per inch mean a higher resolution.  The printing width is the width the printer can print characters, not the width of the media it is printing on.  Memory choices include RAM, Flash, and EPROM.  Memory capacity is the amount of information the printer can store in memory. Bytes are used to measure memory.  Interface choices include serial interface, parallel interface, Ethernet, and USB.

Media types handled by ink jet printers include single sheet, fan fold or continuous, and roll.  Important media specifications to consider include maximum media thickness, maximum media width, maximum media length, media roll outside diameter, and media roll inside diameter.

Common features include color printing, copying and or sorting capabilities, industrial metal housing, user controls, indicators, application software, and cutters.  Ink jet printers with color printing are capable of color output in addition to monochrome output.  Printers with copying and/or sorting capabilities are a multifunction system for printing, copying, and/or scanning.  An industrial metal housing a cabinet for protection.  Controls on the front panel are used for user programming.  These controls can include a touch pad user interface, or buttons for power, on-line, menu, store, form feed, reset, up, or down.  Audio or visual indicators are used to indicate for paper out, paper jam, or other errors.  The indicators can be LED lights or an alphanumeric display.  A cutter is used to cut media from continuous forms or rolls.  Applications for ink jet printers include graphics, CAD or engineering, GIS or mapping, bar codes, labels, forms, receipt or POS or kiosk, mail pieces (envelopes), checks or financial documents, and ID cards. 

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Part Numbers for Ink Jet Printers