Historical Computer Engineering - Gutenberg's Heirs
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Gutenberg's Heirs



Dot-Matrix Printer

General Structure

The printer has a printhead which is equipped with (8, 9, 12, 18, 24 or 48) needles is attached to a rail. A color ribbon is stretched between the printing ribbon and the printing paper. The feed roller then moves the paper smoothly through the printer.

Nadeldruckerfunktionsweise
Functional principle of a Dot-Matrix Printer

Printing Process

When printing, the printhead is moved through the rail over the paper and the whole needles, which are in the print head there, pricks against the color ribbon. This process allows the paper to be hit indirectly and the color pigments enter the sheet.

The greater the number of pins in the printhead, the closer the points lie next to each other and the better the quality and the print speed? However, the speed of printing is impaired with increasing number of needles.

Advantages

When using dot-matrix printer, one is able to use any type of paper and even water-resistant prints are no problem. The printing with pressure surges and line printing is also possible. The running costs are low, this is due to the use of the ribbon and a long life is guaranteed.

Disadvantages

Unfortunately, the dot matrix printer reproduces colors poorly and on cannot print on transparencies. The tremendous noise and low speed are also one of the printers weaknesses. Furthermore the printer has a varying print quality, because of the changing status of the ribbon and low production numbers a purchase would set one back financially.

Contemporary Use

Due to their robust structure and reliability of the dot matrix printers the are still frequently used in business and medical practices, as well as in banks, ? ? savings and cash transactions. They are also in ticket validators, department stores, cash registers and ticket machines because they require considerably small amount of maintenance.

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Animation of a dot-matrix impact printer

Examples in the Faculty