13 ms·

I wonder if we could go jam-free with Continuous Stationary ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_stationery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_stati

I wonder if we could go jam-free with Continuous Stationary ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_stationery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_stationery ). That paper with the holes on both sides from the 80s, and some legacy systems today. It seems really helpful, but I'm not sure which problems discussed it would actually solve.

PotatoMatch 9y ago
Had a dot matrix printer that used continuous paper. Notorious for jamming. Usually something getting stuck on the little holes, or the perforated sides tearing mid-print.
- strictnein 9y ago
  One of my first "tech" jobs was refurbing dot matrix printers after we had them in the field for a while. The amount of little bits of that perforated paper that would get stuck in every moving part in one of those was kind of staggering. People were also really rough on those things. Yanking at the paper to tear it as the printer was just finishing it up.
- Moru 9y ago
  I had several dot matrix printers and can't remember any jams. And I did manage to accidentally dump the whole database to the one at work, the stack was at least 5 cm thick by the time we managed to stop it. It had it's own room though because of the sound so not your normal home printer...
- astrodust 9y ago
  The worst was when it lost traction, shredded the holes, usually in a tangle of paper. There'd also be cases where it kept pulling on the holes but those separated and got gummed up really badly. When you try and tug the pages out they're all perforated so you get, at best, a single page. It can be a lot of work to clear a jam. Most people think of dot matrix printers as slow, lumbering things that would take measurable time to print a single line. The industrial ones, enterprise grade, made by companies like IBM were dizzyingly fast, pages per minute, so if a jam happened it was usually severe. Most had multiple print heads to speed up printing. These also used much wider paper than normal for things like accounting reports. When they jammed, they jammed.
giarc 9y ago
Something similar could probably work if your print jobs required all the same width paper. Printers today need to handle many sizes (legal, letter, tabloid, envelopes etc etc).
- wink 9y ago
  There must be a market for "I only ever need A4 or letter" (depending on your area). I honestly don't remember printing anything but A4 for the last 20 years. We printed some labels in the 90s, that was the only diversion...
  - Symbiote 9y ago
    I print so rarely, that about half of what I do print is A3. If I don't want to read the thing on a screen, then doubling its size is often useful. But, for metric sizes, two consecutive sizes could be supported. A4 would print landscape, and A3 portrait. The large photocopier-like printer at work does this.
tonyedgecombe 9y ago
Still available now: http://printronix.com/emea/products/line-matrix-en/ http://printronix.com/emea/products/line-matrix-en/
djrogers 9y ago
Worked with plenty of line printers that used this type of paper in the 90s, and they still jammed. And it was often very bad, as a lot of paper could get jammed together before the printer and/or operator noticed there was a problem - it's not just one sheet getting stuck. One of the jobs our operator had was to constantly clean, dry, and dust off the rollers that went in to those little holes on our high-speed line printer - the amount of paper dust produced by a few boxes of paper was astounding.

PotatoMatch 9y ago

Had a dot matrix printer that used continuous paper. Notorious for jamming. Usually something getting stuck on the little holes, or the perforated sides tearing mid-print.

strictnein 9y ago
One of my first "tech" jobs was refurbing dot matrix printers after we had them in the field for a while. The amount of little bits of that perforated paper that would get stuck in every moving part in one of those was kind of staggering. People were also really rough on those things. Yanking at the paper to tear it as the printer was just finishing it up.
Moru 9y ago
I had several dot matrix printers and can't remember any jams. And I did manage to accidentally dump the whole database to the one at work, the stack was at least 5 cm thick by the time we managed to stop it. It had it's own room though because of the sound so not your normal home printer...
astrodust 9y ago
The worst was when it lost traction, shredded the holes, usually in a tangle of paper. There'd also be cases where it kept pulling on the holes but those separated and got gummed up really badly. When you try and tug the pages out they're all perforated so you get, at best, a single page. It can be a lot of work to clear a jam. Most people think of dot matrix printers as slow, lumbering things that would take measurable time to print a single line. The industrial ones, enterprise grade, made by companies like IBM were dizzyingly fast, pages per minute, so if a jam happened it was usually severe. Most had multiple print heads to speed up printing. These also used much wider paper than normal for things like accounting reports. When they jammed, they jammed.

giarc 9y ago

Something similar could probably work if your print jobs required all the same width paper. Printers today need to handle many sizes (legal, letter, tabloid, envelopes etc etc).

wink 9y ago
There must be a market for "I only ever need A4 or letter" (depending on your area). I honestly don't remember printing anything but A4 for the last 20 years. We printed some labels in the 90s, that was the only diversion...
- Symbiote 9y ago
  I print so rarely, that about half of what I do print is A3. If I don't want to read the thing on a screen, then doubling its size is often useful. But, for metric sizes, two consecutive sizes could be supported. A4 would print landscape, and A3 portrait. The large photocopier-like printer at work does this.

tonyedgecombe 9y ago

Still available now: http://printronix.com/emea/products/line-matrix-en/ http://printronix.com/emea/products/line-matrix-en/

djrogers 9y ago

Worked with plenty of line printers that used this type of paper in the 90s, and they still jammed. And it was often very bad, as a lot of paper could get jammed together before the printer and/or operator noticed there was a problem - it's not just one sheet getting stuck. One of the jobs our operator had was to constantly clean, dry, and dust off the rollers that went in to those little holes on our high-speed line printer - the amount of paper dust produced by a few boxes of paper was astounding.