this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2025
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Now make that with a continuous ink system.
I once worked at a place with a fancy printer that didn't use cartridges and instead used blocks of wax that could be continually fed into it. It took 20 minutes to start up and warm the wax up to the point it could be used as ink, but I thought it was a nifty idea. They're called solid ink printers if you're interested in looking them up.
So... Basically the same principle as 3d printing (melt the printing medium, send it through an extruding head that directs it onto a surface in a desired pattern), but just in 2 dimensions, and with a different printing medium? Neat.
Yes, called sth like Tektronix Phaser, and I seem to remember some big company bought the patent...