Eastman Kodak is developing a faster ink-jet printer (US 2004/95441).
Conventional ink-jets printers use pulses of heat to fire ink droplets at the paper. The pulse is timed so that the ink bursts out of a fine nozzle when it is over the appropriate spot on the paper. This start-stop action limits the printing speed, so instead Kodak’s new printer fires a continuous stream of droplets, aimed so as to just miss the paper. They normally end up in a gutter which recycles the ink back to the reservoir, but where the ink is required, a jet of air…
