Scalable Printing Technology and HP 72 Printheads
Using HP 72 printheads and HP Vivera inks, HP Designjet T1100- and T610-series printers produce the fine and accurate lines and sharp text needed in technical graphics and business communication applications. Consistently high print quality and faster printing speeds require precise drop ejection characteristics, and these are determined by the design and construction of the printhead.
Figure 5. Detail of a Drop Generator on a Printhead built with HP Scalable Printing Technology
HP 72 Printheads are built with HP Scalable Printing Technology (SPT). SPT uses processes developed for integrated circuit fabrication to form the printhead’s fluidic structures onto the silicon substrate that contains the heaters (for drop ejection) and their control circuitry.
A cross-sectional detail of a single drop generator is shown in Figure 5. To get a sense of scale, the entire fluidic structure (shown in a tan color) is about the thickness of a human hair.
Exposing and developing photo-sensitive epoxy materials (shown in a tan color in Figure 5) produces ink channels and filters, drop generator chambers, and nozzles. These features are defined and aligned together with sub-micron precision and become an integrated structure that is assembled in- place and without adhesives on the silicon substrate.
Because the SPT process can define and produce very small structures, a filter can be placed in the ink supply for each drop generator (see the “pillars” in Figure 5). This improves printhead reliability because microscopic particles are prevented from clogging the drop generators. And, SPT materials are formulated to resist chemical interaction with Original HP inks to give long operational life.
SPT builds thousands of identical drop generators on a single silicon chip, and this ensures high print quality with consistent drop volumes, drop speeds, and drop trajectories. With 1,200 nozzles per inch, SPT-based HP 72 Printheads allow HP Designjet T1100- and T610-series printers to deliver high productivity in all print modes and to produce very fine lines and crisp text.
HP Designjet T1100- and T610-series printers use three HP 72 Printheads for a total of 6,336 nozzles in a 22.35mm (0.88 inch) print swath. Each HP 72 Printhead delivers two colors of ink (Gray/Photo Black, Matte Black/Yellow, and Magenta/Cyan) with 1,056 nozzles per color.
When it is necessary, the user can remove and install an HP 72 Printhead in about a minute without the expense, printer down-time, and inconvenience of a service call.
