Unit 2 P1

D1 corrections

Describe and evaluate the on-going developments in these printing/output techniques

1.       Vinyl cutters – a vinyl cutter is a computer controlled machine and can be used for many of different things. Over the years, vinyl cutters have developed massively. Firstly, the vinyl would have to be changed every time to a different colour that was desired. This would have been very costly indeed. Although, in recent years, you are able to print onto white vinyl and in any colour that is desired. Also, different cutter heads have been made to use on different types of vinyl due to the cutter heads wearing down quickly. The machines have now been made to cut at a higher/faster speed. A good example of this would be the craftROBO silhouette as this has a cutting speed of 600mm/s.

Laser cutters – a laser cutter is a form of technology that uses a light grade laser to cut materials. They are used on many materials such as wood and plastic in industrial manufacturing. Over the years, laser cutters have developed massively. They are now able to cut onto a wider range of materials such as rubber, foam, plastic, leather etc. The newer laser cutters also have a positioning accuracy of 10 micrometres and repeatability of 5 micrometres. A good example of this would be Speedy 300 as it has a high standard of quality, performance and reliability. It is also able to cut onto different materials and can work at a speed and immensely accurate cutting over varied sized working fields.

2.       Inkjet printing – inkjet printing is a type of computer printing. It drops small amounts of ink onto paper, plastic and other materials to create a digital image. A typical inkjet printer will provide a resolution of around 300 dots per inch. However, over the years, inkjet printers have been developed to offer higher resolutions, print onto several different materials rather than just paper and able to print onto various sized materials.

Wide format printing – wide format printing is usually accepted as any printer with a print width of 1 inch to 100 inches to which tends to be used to print banners, posters and general signage. Over the years, wide format printing has been changed for the better due to the quality and quantity of the image production has improved massively. One of the biggest improvements was the printing time. An good example would be Roland Soljet Pro 4 XR/XF because the printing speed is up to 102 metres squared per hour. The rollers have been developed as they use 16 pinch rollers and grit rollers to hold the media in place to stop any distortion of the image. A heating unit has also been developed to make sure that there is an even temperature distributed across the whole image so that it dries quick and minimises any running of the image. 

3.       Laser printers – laser printing is an electrostatic digital printing process that produces high quality text and graphics by passing a laser beam over a charged drum to form a differentially charged image to which, the drum will collect charged toner and transfer the image to the paper which will be heated to fix the image. This type of printer is better to be used for printing leaflets and flyers. Over the years, laser printers have changed as they are now able to print onto different materials and different sized materials. The speed has also been developed as a monochrome laser printer use to be able to print 8 pages per minute in comparison to now which can print 30-35 pages per minute. A colour laser printer use to be able to print 12-25 pages per minute in comparison to now which has a speed of 25-35 pages per minute. A good example of this would be the Lexmark X864de Multifunction printer as it prints up to A3 and can print up to a speed of 55 pages per minute, this means that the first page can be printed out as fast as 6.5 seconds. It also offers a high print resolution at 1200x1200 dpi.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_printing