日本語
My ol HP 4000n black and white laser printer packed up recently, not that
it gave very dense black images on transparencies for photoresist printing
for PCB etching. I went to a fairy local large printer refurb
place yesterday and they ran my pdf ile through a few different laser
black and white printers and the results were less than stunning. The
senior technician there reckoned a thermal wax printer would be more
appropriate and has set one up for me to try today. he says the
results on my transparency film were much better than even a high end
laser achieved.
has anyone any experience of using a thermal wax printer for
transparencies for photo resist board?
- Comments(1)
A****min
Nov 15.2019, 18:10:54
There's the thermal transfer printer where a full-width thermal printhead selectively melts ink off a full-area ribbon onto the paper. I don't think this is what the technician is recommending since thermal transfer is usually used for high-speed, easy-maintenance label printing in narrower widths (4-inches). There's the related dye-sublimation technology which thermally transfers dye to its own dedicated paper. Its selling point is continuous tone printing for photos.
I think your technician is recommending solid ink printer technology. Waxy ink blocks are melted and the printhead deposits it on the page. It's compatible with a wide range range of media and the ink is very opaque. However, it might be a bad choice for a low usage application. The printer has to keep the ink melted for on-demand printing. If you only print a few pages once in a while, you'll cook the inks in the tanks so much that they'll go bad. Ask your technician how many pages a month are needed to keep the inks fresh. Ask if you can disable the color part of printer as you won't be using color printing at all for photoresist masks.
