I talked a bit about this years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37007815

TL;DR: I'm surprised this isn't a laser printer, as those are actually quite a bit easier to design and manufacture, especially if you can use a cheap, older, commonly available, remanufacturable toner cartridge.

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SwellJoe 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

There are still quality laser printers on the market without extortion and surveillance built-in, unlike inkjets. The need for an open laser printer is less dire than for an open inkjet.

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myself248 2 hours ago | parent [-]

And not a single solid-ink-onto-paper sublimation printer, that I'm aware. There are badge printers still using a dye-sub ribbon, but the Tektronix Phaser, later the Xerox Phaser, is completely gone.

I wonder why. Were the consumables too cheap and the printers too reliable to be commercially viable? Did color laser printers catch up in terms of print quality? Did it have some other fatal flaw?

	▲	OneDeuxTriSeiGo 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Hot melt ink/solid ink has a laundry list of problems that complicate it. - A single ink clog can destroy a printhead. - partial clogs can result in ugly messes with ink smeared all over the pages and the assembly further smearing on later prints. - the printer has to be calibrated to the specific formulation of solid ink to work properly. A bad ink batch or calibrating to the wrong formulation (or a drift in specs on the formulation) can cause clogs, print head failures, etc. - solid ink printing massively complicates lamination if that's something you need to do (ex in an office). Overall it's a far more unforgiving process. You can't really have aftermarket inks like you can with modern inks and even variations in the first party manufacturing process can have catastrophic effects on the print hardware.

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cwillu 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Inkjet cartridges often contain the print heads; toner cartridges still need a fuser roll and imaging head to do anything.