Solid Ink Technology

Solid ink is a unique printing method from Xerox. It takes solid blocks of a wax-like material and melts it down before it's applied to a drum and then the paper. The result is vibrant and glossy on any paper type and is fantastic for point of sale material or anything else where colour matters.

Although photo's can look great, they can also look a little speckled on light shades and skin tones. A little more expensive to run than a laser but far more eco friendly.

How it works

Looking inside, the Phaser solid ink colour printer range reveals a surprisingly simple printing mechanism for such a powerful printer

Preparing to Print:

As the printing process begins, the long-life maintenance roller quickly applies a microscopic layer of silicone oil to the heated drum for reliable ink release.

Advantages:

• A simple, robust, reliable printing mechanism
• Maintenance roller lasts up to 10,000 prints for the Phaser 8500 and 30,000 for the Phaser 8550 (with the Extended Maintenance Kit)
• No other complex consumables

Single Pass Imaging

Next, the full width printhead applies all colours at the same time on the rotating drum.

Advantages:

• High-speed image transfer
• Simultaneous application of all colours eliminates misregistration of separate cyan, magenta, yellow and black image layers.

Image Transfers

A sheet of paper is rapidly fed between the drum and a transfix roller, transferring the ink to the paper.

Advantages:

• High-speed image transfer
• A short, simple paper path for speed and high reliability
• Transfer printing process yields great print quality on a wide variety of papers
• No fuser required

Ink Bonding

As the ink of the drum transfers to the paper, it penetrates the paper's fibres, but without the spreading of liquid ink-jets or the toner scattering of laser. The ink cools and solidifies immediately, forming a strong, permanent bond to the paper. Total time for the print process: as little as 4 seconds.

Advantages:

• Colourfast printing with no smearing or drying time
• More consistent colour quality on a wider range of media than liquid ink-jet or colour laser

Two-Sided Printing

For automatic two-sided or duplex printing, the sheet of paper is not fully ejected into the exit tray but is fed back into the printer through the duplex paper path. The print process repeats with the second image on the drum transferred to the other side of the sheet of paper.

Advantages:

• A simple, short, built-in duplex paper path means faster two-sided printing and fewer paper jams
• No additional paper tray required

Reloading

The ink loader draws ink from solid ink sticks instead of a self-contained toner cartridge. Ink can be replaced or added at any time without taking the printer offline.

Advantages:

• Easy, on-the-fly ink stick reloading for continuous operation
• Ink loader can be "topped-off" before long, high-coverage print jobs to avoid interruptions
• More environmentally friendly; less waste packaging, less waste ink by-products

Back to top

Environmental Benefits

Solid ink has a nearly waste-free printing process.

Bring green into your office scheme

The Xerox solid ink imaging process is the most environmentally friendly way to put an image on paper. From its nearly waste-free printing process to its safe, toxin-free solid ink sticks, it was made with the earth in mind.

Leaves no trace behind

Consider this - solid ink images are printed onto a rotating drum and offset onto paper in just one pass of the print engine. This Xerox-exclusive imaging process results in nearly 100% ink-to-page transfer efficiency during normal printing.

In comparison, conventional laser / LED printers' toner-to-page transfer efficiency is much less, resulting in residual toner and developer accumulation that requires the device to purge the excess material to a waste collection container after every print.

The bottom line?

Solid ink printing generates 95% less waste during use than a typical colour laser product.

Safe and clean

Resin-based solid ink sticks are completely safe and clean, and contain no solvents. Unlike toners, they cannot spill, leak or smudge on your clothes.

Recycle ready

You will be happy to know that you can recycle solid ink printouts just like the output from laser printers or office copiers.

And because solid ink prints the same vivid colour on any paper, you can use recycled paper for all your printing. You do not need expensive, super-white paper to get superb image quality.

Fewer replaceable units, less to throw away

Think you are done with a consumable when it needs to be replaced? Not with laser / LED devices. When a laser printer runs out of toner, you are still left with big, bulky print cartridges that need to be discarded. Not to mention other items such as fusers, fuser oil and imaging units.

Solid ink printers, on the other hand, utilise compact solid ink sticks with no casings. So when you run out of ink, there is nothing left to throw away.

The only other replaceable unit is a maintenance roller. This lasts for tens of thousands of pages, so it only needs to be replaced a few times in the life of the printer.

The bottom line?

For every 100,000 printed pages, a solid ink printer generates approximately 2.5 kg of landfill waste, compared to approximately 70 kg for a typical colour laser.

Move over print cartridges

Here comes something leaner. Because solid ink sticks are smaller than those cumbersome print cartridges, they are easy to store. And there's less packaging to recycle.

Download PDF

If you have any more questions about print technologies please contact Andy Leighton on 023 9262 3333 or email him at andyl@printware.co.uk

Back to top