The working principle of a dot matrix printer

Dot matrix printers are one of the oldest types of printers in use today. Printing is done thanks to a print head and a set of needles, which are driven by electronic magnets. The head moves along the sheet, while the needles strike the paper through the ink ribbon, thereby printing the text. Matrix printers, despite their almost complete displacement from various fields, are still widely used in certain areas today. On forums you can often find a message: “be taken aback by the operation of the matrix device.” The article will discuss exactly the operation of such a device.

Dot matrix printer device

It is not difficult to describe the actions of such a device. The most expensive element in any dot matrix printer is the head, which is located on the carriage. Various parameters of this device will depend on the design of the carriage. The body contains electromagnets that can pull in or push out the core where the needles are located. This part can only print one line of text per pass.

The ribbon cartridge is a plastic box with an ink ribbon inside. During text transfer, the tape is constantly brought to the head in new sections, which ensures high-quality printing. In the design of the tape pulling mechanism there are 2 rollers, and the head is pulled between them.

To pull paper and hold it during printing, the printer is equipped with a paper drum. To ensure a reliable grip on the paper, the drum is covered with rubber or plastic. In addition, at the same time there are rollers that support and press the sheets against the drum. The latter is moved using a stepper motor.

Reference! Also in the body there is a device that is responsible for feeding the sheet, which ensures that the paper is held until it is pulled into the drum. Another task of this element is the normal arrangement of the sheet. If printing is done using roll paper, the device is equipped with a holder.

Another important part is the control board, which includes a buffer memory, a control device, and interface circuits that are designed to provide communication with the computer. That is, its main purpose is to help the equipment perform all its basic functions. The controller board is a microprocessor that decrypts commands that come from the PC.

The working principle of a dot matrix printer

Using a dot matrix printer, text is generated by the head. This element consists of a set of needles, the movement of which is carried out thanks to electromagnets. The head moves along guides along the paper. When printing, needles hit the sheet in a certain order. But before they pierce the paper, they pierce the ink ribbon located in the matrix cartridge.

The carriage moves thanks to a belt drive. A stepper motor acts as an electric drive. This type of printer is called an impact matrix printer.However, there are also linear matrix devices characterized by high printing speed. Hammers are installed here, evenly located on the shuttle mechanism. This equipment uses technology that allows stitches to be transferred in one pass.

Reference! To obtain a specific font, simultaneous strikes of different combinations of needles are used. That is, you can print almost any font this way. In some cases, the built-in software supports loading different fonts. In addition, most dot matrix printers support individual control of needles from a computer.

Advantages of a dot matrix printer

Although this technology is outdated, dot matrix printers are still widely used today. Since they have many advantages in a certain field of operation.

Main advantages:

1. The most important advantage is low cost. The price of this equipment is tens of times less, in contrast to inkjet or laser printers.
2. The operating time is significantly higher than the operating time of other printers. The ink ribbon does not dry out quickly; this can always be seen in advance, as the quality of the printed text begins to fade a little. Other types of devices may shut down at an inopportune moment when there is no time to charge the cartridge.
3. Any type of paper. You can print not only on special paper, which is intended for other models.
4. Resistance of printed text to dirt and water.
5. The device provides carbon copy printing, which allows you to quickly reproduce the same type of text.

Despite the large number of advantages, this equipment also has disadvantages that make the device unsuitable for use in certain cases.

Flaws:

1. This equipment will not be able to print photos. It cannot transfer the image qualitatively. Therefore, the matrix device is absolutely not suitable for this.
2. Low performance. Unlike modern analogues, a dot matrix printer produces significantly fewer printed pages. Naturally, if you use it when copying documents of the same type, the speed is sometimes even higher than its analogues. There is also a mode that can be used to increase printing speed. But in this case, the quality of the resulting text is lost.
3. The device is quite noisy. Since the majority of parts perform work mechanically, the equipment has a high noise level. To fix this, it will be necessary to separately purchase a special casing or install the equipment in another room.

Matrix office equipment is one of the oldest in the device segment. Engineers have revised this technology more than once, making many changes, but the mechanical part has remained at the same level. But this also determined the advantages that distinguish matrix devices. However, the price of these printers covers many of the shortcomings.