Investigations on an Ultrasonic Piezoelectric Printer

An ultrasonic piezoelectric printing technology was proposed and investigated. The printing head is composed of a multilayer piezoelectric actuator, operating in stiffened longitudinal mode, two-stage step horns and printing wire. The resonant frequency for the ultrasonic printing head is 146 kHz. The thermoplastic ink, melted by ultrasonic energy, is transferred onto the surface layer of plain rough paper by ultrasonic vibration. This technology realizes more rapid, lower noise and higher quality printing on a wide range of papers than conventional thermal transfer printing technologies. This unique non-impact printing method is useful for a personal desktop printer.