Inkjet Printer

Overview

Inkjet Printer

Anders Liljeholm [4]

Description:

Through hands-on activities, visitors learn how inkjet printers produce tiny, precise drops of ink. They examine printed paper with magnifying glasses, see a few demonstrations of how liquids behave differently at the small scale, and see an explosive demonstration of how ink is forced out of an ink cartridge.

Objectives

Big Idea:

Inkjet printers take advantage of novel properties to print pictures and text.

Learning goals:

Inkjet printers use tiny technology.
Water and ink act differently on very small scales.
Many inkjet printers boil ink to make it move.
Nanoscale effects occur in many places. Some are natural, everyday occurrences; others are the result of cutting-edge research.

NISE Net Content Map:

Nanometer-sized things are very small, and often behave differently than larger things do.

Universal design:

Provide multiple entry points and multiple ways of engagement

Credits

Developed for the NISE Network with funding from the National Science Foundation under Award Numbers 0532536 and 0940143. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this product are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.

Checklist

Scientist reviewed? check_reviewed

Peer reviewed? check_reviewed

Visitor evaluation? check_reviewed

Nano Topics

Audience

11 and up [8]

Permissions

[15]
Creative Commons
Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike

Catalog section:

Programs

What kind of program?:

Cart demonstration

Nano topics:

Fundamentals

Materials, tools, and applications

Audience:

11 and up

Content keywords:

printer

surface tension

capillary action

explosion

demonstration

Highlight this product during NanoDays?:

K-12:

Standards

Science and Technology:

K-4: Understanding about science and technology

5-8: Understanding about science and technology

9-12: Understanding about science and technology

Physical science:

K-4: Light, heat, electricity, and magnetism

5-8: Properties and changes of properties in matter

5-8: Transfer of energy

9-12: Structure and properties of matter

Resources

[3]

Download all files (ZIP) [3]

Files:

Inkjet Printer - Lesson Plan [16]

Inkjet Printer - Animation [17]

Inkjet Printer - Flipbook [18]

Inkjet Printer - Presentation [19]

Links:

Injet Printer Training Video [20]

See FAQ #10 to learn more about downloading NISE Net video [21]

Video:

Evaluations

Comments

Cutting down on mess [22]

Submitted by kgorga [23] on Tue, 03/03/2009 - 09:26.

We found that holding your thumb or finger over the uninked end of the capillary tube while you heat the other end helps a great deal in preventing the ink from flying out the wrong end of the tube. You'll get a tiny dot of food coloring on your finger, but it won't spray all over everything else.

We purchased the Xyron [26]

Submitted by kgorga [23] on Tue, 02/17/2009 - 07:30.

We purchased the Xyron Design Runner handheld printer (http://www.xyron.com/enUS/Products/Xyron_Design_Runner.html [27]) for this program. The machine itself looks nice, but the quality of the printing is pretty poor. However, this is actually better for the program's purposes because it makes it easier to see the dots and lines that make up the images. The 40 image/text options that come with the printer are mainly cheesy scrapbooking things, and it can take awhile to scroll through the choices to find one appropriate for our purposes (we settled on image 25 - a fish), because the machine doesn't remember which image you used last. Overall, it's a pretty expensive, but since there doesn't seem to be another option, I think the handheld printer adds a lot to the program if you can afford it.

New Kodak "All-in-One [28]

Submitted by Uzelmeier [29] on Tue, 09/16/2008 - 20:20.

New Kodak "All-in-One inkjets boast "nano-particle" inks that make the ink stay vibrant times 7 longer and cost half as much. I'm guessing the 1/2 as much is because they use smaller amounts of ink per squirt. Any guess on the more vibrant part?

Calvin Uzelmeier
Rochester Museum & Science Center

Those of you at Ithaca [30]

Submitted by jchilders [31] on Sat, 09/13/2008 - 12:59.

Those of you at Ithaca recently will recall how we wondered what the dimensions of a picoliter drop in nanometers might be. Well, Google Calculator to the rescue! [32] It turns out a spherical picoliter drop has a diameter of about 12,400 nm (vs. 50,000 quoted above). An attoliter is 124nm across and a zeptoliter is 12.4nm across, so you need to go a millionth or billionth of a picoliter before you get to nano scales.

Inkjet Printer

Inkjet Printer

Description:

Big Idea:

Learning goals:

NISE Net Content Map:

Universal design:

Checklist

Nano Topics

Audience

Tags

Permissions

Catalog section:

What kind of program?:

Nano topics:

Audience:

Content keywords:

Highlight this product during NanoDays?:

K-12:

Science and Technology:

Physical science:

Download all files (ZIP) [3]

Files:

Links:

Video:

Cutting down on mess [22]

We purchased the Xyron [26]

New Kodak "All-in-One [28]

Those of you at Ithaca [30]