How does inkjet printing work? In order to figure this out, first you have to understand what an inkjet printer is. Inkjet printers are printers that exert incredibly small droplets of ink toner onto paper in order to create the printed image.  These dots are tinier than the diameter of human hair, and thousands all mesh together to make a single, finished product.

How do they get those microscopic images from the printer to the paper?  It’s more complex than you may think.

Inside of your inkjet printer, you will see the printhead, which contains a series of nozzles—these are the nozzles that spray the ink droplets.  These usually attach directly to the inkjet cartridges, although sometimes ink cartridges come with a printhead already attached. The printhead is moved back and forth over the paper by a stepper motor—a belt attaches the printhead and stepper motor together. A stabilizer bar ensures controlled movement of the printhead, and a set of rollers advance paper when the printheads are ready for another pass through.  While these things control where the ink is dispersed, the paper tray, or feeder, controls the paper’s movement. When these parts work together, with the help of the rest of the printer’s parts, an image can be created.

Inkjet printers have two different technologies for dispersing ink—heat and vibration. Thermal inkjet printers, or thermal bubbles, like HP models, use tiny resistors to create heat and vaporize HP ink into a bubble. The bubble expands and pushes ink from the nozzle to the paper.

The other type is a piezoelectric inkjet unit.  These printers use piezo crystals that are on the back of the ink reservoir of every nozzle. A tiny electric charge is sent to the crystal, which causes the crystal to vibrate forcing ink out of the nozzle.

Inkjet printers are some of the most popular and simplest units on the market—it’s hard to believe so much goes into one print!

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