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Phase Change Inkjets:
Inks which are liquid at room temperature rely on the evaporation of a solvent to leave material fixed to the paper. One disadvantage is that the rate of evapoation relies on temperature and humidity, so some printing may be smudged.
Phase change inkjets use solid ink sticks on which the tip is melted just before use. A phase-change machine will generally melt the ink at a temperature of 70-80 centigrade just before use. The mechanism is then similar to that of a liquid inkjet, but the rapid drying avoids some of the problems of liquid inks. In principle it is possible for a phase-change inkjet to emulate a phase change thermal printer making a machine capable of very high quality colour printing. Phase-change inks can also contain metallic flakes which can give attractive and unusual effects on paperwork.
At the moment the main phase-change device is the Xerox "phaser".
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© Graham Huskinson 2010
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