But it is essentially more complicated than that. It's ink in solid form ( aptly called "solid ink" ) made from a polymeric resin. Xerox analysts are using it, mixed with discoveries in print head technology, to make a greener printer. Solid ink isn't like what's employed in the average desktop printer. Rather than buying cartridges crammed with liquid ink, which are inserted into details heads that race forwards and backwards to transfer an image to paper, solid ink is liquified, then dripped into a single drum that is as wide as a regular sheet of paper. The image is then transferred with heat and pressure to paper. It takes ten revolutions of the drum to transfer the image, which is then toughened and ejected from the printer. So how is it greener? Liquid ink needs a load more packaging the cartridge as well as the box it comes in.

Xerox claims solid ink outputs ninety p.c less waste than liquid ink, plus it saves up to 120 kilos of dropped cartridges and packing over the length of a single desktop printer. It also doesn't need any water or solvent to dry the ink. It does nonetheless, need more energy to heat thick ink to melt it. ( The softening point is between seventy degrees and one hundred degrees Celsius. ) Xerox announces it's continuing to tinker with insulation and the ink's liquefying point to squash more energy conservation out of each solid ink printer. Xerox solid ink print head Smaller, modular print heads distribute softened solid ink. ( Credit : Erica Ogg / CNET News.com ) an alternate way analysts are aiming to improve the tech's green cred is thru the print heads themselves. By making the print head smaller in comparison to the standard 8.5-inch-wide one utilized in solid ink printing, the new modular print heads can scale to fit multiple types of printers using different ink and different media. Xerox explains it can output three hundred dpi ( dots per in. ) and the price of each drop is improved significantly. Regardless of the enhancements, new print heads do mean having to purchase a new printer to exploit the technology. Xerox claims this should be available in customer desktop printers inside a year.