4 ms·
I'm kinda at the point where I think someone needs to kickstart an (Semi)open Solid Ink printer design. 1. The tech has been around long enough that any/all pa
by to11mtm 3y ago
I'm kinda at the point where I think someone needs to kickstart an (Semi)open Solid Ink printer design.
1. The tech has been around long enough that any/all patents should be done with.
2. In general they are much more eco-friendly, the 'cartridge' is just a specially shaped wax block.
3. Prints wind up being extremely robust due to the wax ink, I remember when salespeople would spray photo prints with water and show it just run off.
Of course, the challenges would be providing a sufficient filter for ink, any foreign particles can clog up the print heads after all, as well as making sure users understand that there are processes in moving them.
- MostlyStable 3y agoAfter I got burned by Brother institute toner cartridge DRM, I started looking into this. Apparently there are a lot of patents around paper feed mechanisms etc. It would, apparently, be very expensive to design a new, non-infringing, non shitty paper feeding mechanism and the customer base would likely be extremely small, resulting in a sky high price. I'm no expert and can't vouch for any of the details, but this is what I encountered in multiple online discussions when I looked into it last. That being said, I'd probably be willing to pay up to $500 for a simple black and white open source, open hardware laser jet printer, assuming that it worked as well (from a pure mechanical perspective) as current consumer grade printers.
- matkoniecz 3y agoWhen this patents are expiring?
- whoopdedo 3y agoLet's bring back the pen plotter. It can use a lot of the existing parts and software now being made for 3D printers but changing the filament head to a pen carriage.