Epson Micro Piezo Technology
This is for the science buffs out there!
We’ve joked (a little, and probably not to successfully) about the release of Epson’s new Micro Piezo print head technology. While most people just care about the end result, the print out, there are a few that want to know what the heck the Mirco Piezo print head is all about. So, this post is for them.
Micro Piezo actually comes from piezoelectric or piezoelectricity. Piezoelectricity is the ability of crystals and certain ceramic materials to generate a voltage in response to applied mechanical stress. Epson took this technology and put it in to all of their inkjet printers. They place a piezoelectric crystal in each nozzle of their print head rather than a heating element (as is done by HP, Dell, Lexmark, etc.). When a current is applied to the crystal it changes its shape/size and a droplet of ink is forced from the nozzle. According to those that “really” understand all this, a piezoelectric inkjet printer allows one to print with a wider variety of inks with higher quality than thermal inkjets. It also allows for much more economical ink usage.
Do you have any stories to share about your experiences with an Epson printer versus printers made by any of the other manufacturers? Share them with us.
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May 30th, 2007 at 6:11 am
So is Epson the only company with this type of print head? Not too sure how this print head makes for a “much more economical ink usage”… any further explanation on that?
Thanks,
Will
May 30th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Will - As far as we can see Epson is the only one that uses Micro Piezo technology. All the other manufacturers have their own technologies. Most utilize a heating element to heat and cool thus resulting in ink squirting from the nozzle.
As for the more economical ink usage we have no further explanation on that. We can across it in our readings, but could not find anything to back it up, but we thought it would be good to share to elicit some talk. In our many years of receiving customer feedback we haven’t heard anything that distinguishes Epson as being any more economical than printers made by HP, Lexmark, Dell, etc. We’ll have to leave this to the blog readers to decide.