“Is there any technology for needles? This is a bias!†This is the first time that OKI, the first company to develop a dot matrix printer, has spoken to visitors. OKI firmly believes that the technical content of needles is actually very high, but it is easy to be overlooked because of high maturity.
Looking at the current printer market, page printers and inkjet printers are generally more concerned, and people have forgotten the existence of dot matrix printers. With the development of printing technology, people are tired of the printing sound of the “pink†printer and the printing process starting from “points.†The remarks that “dead to death†have long been circulated. Although years of market practice have proved the irreplaceability of dot matrix printers, people still maintain a “customary neglect†attitude toward dot matrix printers. Obviously, the stylus printer completely tends to be "ordinary" is a state of reality, and in OKI's view, the stylus of its stylus printer is revealing no less than the subtle technique of a color printer.
A few days ago, the reporter came to OKI Corporation and experienced the deep and classic needle printing technology with several technical experts.
Precision machinery manufacturing technology
Needle-type printer is a product that integrates machinery, manufacturing, software and other technologies. Because of its unique "knock-on" printing principle and the workload of high-load, the pin-type printer first requires a simple and stable product structure. Each welding part, riveting part and screw and other parts must use high-quality materials to ensure first-class quality in terms of wear resistance and stability. Among them, precision machining manufacturing technology is the key technology of the needle printer, especially the print head with the largest load.
In terms of the materials used in the print heads, various manufacturers have already been undivided. However, there are still many differences in the precision machining process in the print head manufacturing process. OKI not only makes print needles in a diamond pattern, but also develops unique and unique spring energy storage methods in print head manufacturing. On the one hand, the print head is well adapted to Chinese and English fonts, on the other hand. Better control of the impact force of the print needle each time, which greatly reduces the broken needle rate and improves the service life of the dot matrix printer.
Media Sensing Technology
The stylus printer is mainly used for the printing of ticket vouchers. With its wide application in different industries, needle printers are taking more and more types of ticket vouchers. Obviously, for each kind of ticket printing, it is absolutely impossible to develop a dedicated needle printer. Therefore, this imposes strict requirements on the processing capability of the dot matrix printer media, and the media's adaptability is closely related to the sensing technology.
The current advanced practice is to install multiple photoelectric sensors and mechanical sensors at the paper feed port of the dot matrix printer to complement each other. On the one hand, it can be able to exert the advantages of the mechanical sensor from the external environment, especially light and dust, on the other hand. The sensitivity of the photoelectric sensor allows the thinned medium to sense normally. In addition, in order to be able to truly realize the superior media processing capabilities of the dot matrix printer, the feed roller segment is crucial. Among all needle-printer manufacturers, OKI's paper-feeding wheel is unique and made of unique materials. The paper-feeding wheel itself can not only adapt well to various environmental conditions, but also can have photoelectric and mechanical sensors in the paper-feeding capacity. With perfect cooperation, you can easily print thicker cards. This is the root cause of the strong adaptability of the OKI dot matrix printer media.
Ribbon production technology
As the daily consumables of the dot matrix printers, the ribbons have received widespread attention from users. The quality of the ribbons directly affects the performance of the dot matrix printers in the later period of use. In ribbon production, tape, interface, and ink are three key elements. The ribbon belt base has been developed from the very beginning of the cotton belt to the currently widely used nylon ribbon. With the appearance of the endless seamless nylon printing ribbon, the interface problem has been well resolved.
Although ribbon production technology has made considerable progress, due to the more professional and stringent requirements of the application industry for dot matrix printers, ribbons have been proposed in terms of cycle life, printing capabilities, and ease of installation and even environmental protection. Good request. In these areas, OKI's experience is the use of high-quality nylon and ink material technology, so that the reliability of the basic body and the ink itself is well guaranteed, and then through the good adhesion between the base and the ink , Makes the entire ribbon ink content maximize, at the same time the surface is not easy to deink, the user is more convenient when installing, changing the ribbon.
Switching power supply loading technology
Switching power supplies are power supplies that use modern power electronics to control the turn-on and turn-off ratios of switching transistors to maintain a stable output voltage. Switching power supplies have many advantages such as miniaturization, light weight, high reliability, low power consumption, low noise, and anti-interference, and are widely used in electrical appliances and other fields.
Like all electrical appliances, power supply is the power source of the dot matrix printer. The stability of the power supply and energy-saving technologies have a profound impact on the future application of the dot matrix printer. Therefore, some professional printer manufacturers also apply the switching power supply to the power supply of the dot matrix printer, which greatly increases the loss, operating frequency, and efficiency of the dot matrix printer. And the small size, light weight, good heat dissipation, while the switching power supply's high efficiency and stability also determine the needle printer can adapt to a variety of current instability in the printing environment. Currently, OKI dot matrix printers have all adopted switching power supplies.
In addition to the above-mentioned hardware technologies, for the dot matrix printer, the software development technology can not be ignored. According to OKI technicians, dot matrix printers are generally used in certain industry users, such as banks, postal services, medical care, etc., and they need advanced software development technologies to meet the special needs of these users, and they must be able to customize on demand. Development support software system.
At the same time, these industry users have a special application environment. For example, in the window industry, whether it is a business hall of a department such as a bank or a postal service or a reception hall of a department of taxation, transportation, etc., the application environment can be called “hard workâ€â€”the temperature will be high and the dust will have a direct impact. Precision needle printers are used normally. In order to ensure that the product can adapt to a variety of complex application environments, OKI has set strict inspection procedures for the Chinese market: 1.5 meters drop test, -10[deg.] C. low temperature start test, and 8 hours sand dust abrasion test. Needle printers to meet the harsh requirements of these environments, there is no certain technical content is unthinkable. In contrast, many color printers are difficult to meet the requirements of these harsh environments.