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What is a Bubble-Jet Printer?

Autumn Rivers
Autumn Rivers

A bubble-jet printer is a type of ink-jet computer printer, which is one of the most common kinds of printers on the market. Each type of ink-jet printer transfers the ink to the paper in a different way. The main distinction is that most ink-jet printers use piezoelectric crystals to create the ink, while bubble-jet printers use heat to do so instead. They are so named because they emit a tiny bubble of heated ink, each of which creates a small drop of ink on printer paper.

An ink-jet printer is the kind seen in many households, but the majority of the public does not appear to know how this machine works. This type of printing equipment puts tiny droplets of ink onto paper in order to make an image. Each dot is invisible to the human eye, but when the dots have completed a print job, they can all be easily seen as one image. Not surprisingly, with printers that provide only black and white results, each dot is black. Color printers, however, produce images that are comprised of colored dots, such as when photographs are printed.

A bubble-jet printer in a type of ink jet printer.
A bubble-jet printer in a type of ink jet printer.

Just one of many types of ink-jet machines, the bubble-jet printer uses a unique procedure to form the ink droplets that get transferred onto paper. During this process, heat is created by very small resistors. The newly developed heat is subsequently used to make the ink evaporate, which then shapes a bubble in the form of a droplet of ink. The droplet is then pushed out of the print head onto paper. Of course, this occurs countless times, with many drops of ink forming at the same time, until the image is complete.

Bubble-jet emit a tiny bubble of heated ink, each of which creates a small drop of ink on printer paper.
Bubble-jet emit a tiny bubble of heated ink, each of which creates a small drop of ink on printer paper.

The ink used in a bubble-jet printer is water-based, and is often touted as water-resistant. Additionally, the print head that comes with it is known for being quite inexpensive to replace. Another advantage of the bubble-jet printer is the fact that it is relatively quiet, so people can print either at home or in an office environment without disturbing others. Many people also claim that this a bubble-jet printer usually produces high-quality color images with high-resolution, which is why they may buy one just to print out pictures. In fact, some people connect their digital camera directly to their bubble-jet printer so that they can print without having to download and store the photographs on their computer first.

Discussion Comments

Lostnfound

Of course, you can just connect your camera to your computer and print photos without saving them to the hard drive. No problem.

Printer cartridges are pricey little devils. Even the refurbished ones are about $15 to $20, which isn't that cheap.

The printers that use a separate cartridge for each color are especially expensive to keep in ink. Sometimes, those carts are $15 apiece -- that's per color. Granted, you replace only the colors that are low, but still... that's not chump change.

I’m assuming my home printer is a bubble jet, but I don’t think I’ve ever looked it up, specifically. It’s an HP all-in-one scanner/copier/printer – which comes in handy, by the way.

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    • A bubble-jet printer in a type of ink jet printer.
      By: al62
      A bubble-jet printer in a type of ink jet printer.
    • Bubble-jet emit a tiny bubble of heated ink, each of which creates a small drop of ink on printer paper.
      By: Martinan
      Bubble-jet emit a tiny bubble of heated ink, each of which creates a small drop of ink on printer paper.