Roller Jet Printer | Hacker News Reader

Roller Jet Printer

minimalissimo.com

40 pointsnull_object29 comments

So, like a thermal receipt printer (often in 80mm width), but wider?

Thermal receipts have their place. They are quite fast, and maintenance is either you replace the paper roll, or throw away the printer once its lifespan is over (usually about 50km on most entry level models), small, and cheap enough to install a bunch of them at every checkout lane, delivery driver, etc.

The downside is that the prints don't last. Try putting a tape on the printed paper, and the print fades in a day or two. Even a heat as small as running a nail with mild pressure on the paper activates the ink.

If this were to be a serious contender, the real innovation has to be the paper; not the printer.

Isn't the paper also full of BPA?

They were, there are non-BPA paper options now. (But they're probably just BPB or something else almost as bad.)

Yup. Exactly.

Is there a reason this could not be a tiny dot matrix printer? Or would people scoff at the noise?

My understanding of dot matrix printers is that the size is limited mostly by the mechanical machinery required for the printing functionality. But maybe we can make it smaller these days.

The mechanical complexity is exactly what would've made it so much cooler and less trivial.

> Using direct thermal technology that doesn’t require toner or ink cartridges

If I understand correctly this is the same as receipt printers, and I’ve come across articles in the past about the paper being somewhat toxic versus regular paper.

Yeah it’s full of the hormone mimicking plasticizers implicated in endocrine disruption.

BPA plastic, and in a very high concentration. I would like to see medical research on high-exposure individuals. I would guess that volatizing it until it discolors seconds before handling might make it even more bioactive. I often see cashers resting their hand on the printer while the receipt prints through their fingers. It could very well be a class action lawsuit in the making.

There are alternative papers that are considered safe. Keep in mind that many BPA free products just switch over to BPS', which are very similar and less understood.

https://ecochit.com/

The NIH has a paper.

> Holding Thermal Receipt Paper and Eating Food after Using Hand Sanitizer Results in High Serum Bioactive and Urine Total Levels of Bisphenol A (BPA)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4206219/

BPA itself isn't a plastic, it's the monomer used to make polycarbonate plastic

So it's just a receipt printer in a different form factor?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWlaT6Ge4Tw&t=492s

Reminds me of a printer we had at home many years ago. I’m still not sure what it was best used for, but at least this model didn’t need thermal paper.

The Atari 1020: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_1020

It too had a continuous roll of paper, but used pens to draw. Given that the article is talking about a single color thermal printer, having a pen plotter makes just as much sense.

Considering this thing already exists, I suppose the goal here is that it's a bit of industrial design?

Regardless of how it prints (be it the same as a ribbon-less Zebra printer), this obviously requires an additional device so instead of writing it down, then printing it, you could also not print it and keep the written down version. Or you could write it on the paper directly. But this is probably not why this was designed, it's not a solution to anything, but just conceptualised 'to exist'.

Lovely design. Worth noting that small, roll feed thermal printers exist:

https://brothermobilesolutions.com/products/printers/pocketj...

I've been looking for one that can print a single, very long (unpagenated) document recently.

The ones at Carrefour seem to do the job.

Looks like a slightly larger version of the Pentax PocketJet200 I got decades ago and still have in storage somewhere. It's even smaller than this and has a removable rechargeable battery. I think they were used in cop cars and delivery vehicles. It understood a subset of PCL which made it super easy to generate output without needing any special driver.

I used it a few times and never used it again because it's super neat and super useless for most needs.

I got it because it turned me on to have a printer in my laptop bag. But the images fade and the paper is annoying to use, source, handle, everything.

And this was all decades ago and it was even smaller than this thing while using the same full size paper.

I like the chrome S bar roll holder though.

This is not new. Back before time began we had thermal fax machines that did the same thing. Try reading the paper after it was left in the sunshine all afternoon.

Oops!

This is a niche that doesn't solve problems but may create new problems. It also doesn't "deserve production".

This looks like the Brother PocketJet with a paper towel holder taped to it.

I was expecting it be an inkjet due to the name. Instead, it is just a thermal printer. At least its pretty.

I'm a bit surprised that continuous feed paper is so hard to find outside of thermal printers.

The cheapest inkjet option I know is the Epson p900 ($1600 plus $250 for the roll adapter).

All it needs to do is make that awful dot matrix sound.

Its a receipt printer and toilet paper stand in one!

Insert obligatory Demolition Man reference here!

Violating the Verbal Morality Statute just to get some toilet paper.

Too.. much.. design...

Must.. buy.. beanie hat

so.. it's a fax without a modem?

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