How Does an Inkjet Printer Work?
Quick Answer
An inkjet printer fires thousands of microscopic ink droplets per second through tiny nozzles, placing them precisely to form text and images.
The Full Story
The print head moves back and forth across the paper while the paper advances line by line. In thermal inkjets, a tiny heater boils a speck of ink, creating a bubble that pushes a droplet out of the nozzle. Piezoelectric inkjets instead use a crystal that flexes when voltage is applied, squeezing out a droplet. Combining cyan, magenta, yellow and black dots in patterns creates the full range of colours. Droplets can be just a few picolitres, far smaller than a raindrop.
Key Facts
YouTube Angle
Suggested video title for this topic:
"Tiny explosions: what happens inside an inkjet print head."
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