Types of Printers

Inkjet Printer

Inkjet printers use a highly accurate nozzle to spray a narrow jet of ink on to a piece of paper.

Main uses

• Home printing
• Photo printing

Advantages

• Cheap to buy
• Affordable ink

Disadvantages

• Expensive for high volume printing
• Ink not waterproof
• Slow printing speed.

 

 

Source – Wikipedia

Laser Printer

Laser printers uses a combination of static electricity, magnetically sensitive toner and a heated roller to fuse plastic coated toner on to a piece of paper.

Main Uses

• Office environments

Advantages

• Cheap for high volume applications
• Toner is waterproof.
• Very quiet

Disadvantages

• Machines are expensive to buy
• Toner refills are expensive to buy
• Very sensitive to dirt

 

Dot Matrix Printer

These machines physically strike a piece of paper with a print head ( in the shape of a dot), transferring ink to the paper and causing an imprint on a carbon copy sheet below.

Main Uses

• Factories and dirty environments

Advantages

• Can be used in dirty environments
• Only printer that can carbon copy

Disadvantages

• Very low print quality
• Very noisy!

 

 

Source – Wikipedia

 

Graph Plotter

This is a very large format printer, that prints highly accurately to scale.

Not to be confused with a graphics tablet!

Main Uses

• Architectural Drawings
• Schematics

Advantages

• Can print very large printouts accurately

Disadvantages

• VERY expensive (Thousands of pounds) to buy
• Paper very expensive!

 

 

Source -Wikipedia

 

3D Printer

This printer uses a nozzle that ejects a fine thread of melted plastic on to a surface. The printer then repeats the process over hundreds of layers, building up a 3D object in the process.

Main Uses

• Prototyping
• Small scale production

Advantages

• Cheap to produce working prototypes
• No need to  ship globally as can be printed on demand and on location.

Disadvantages

• More expensive that injection moulding for large production runs
• Not a accurate as other techniques

Source – Wikipedia