Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Bernie Ess" <albatros-@g...> wrote:
> 
> I also feel that the 4000
> is a much too big and heavy machine for the A2 format. There should be
> a printer exactly like the 2100, just wider. 

It's not. By a long shot.

First, if they just "stretched" a 2200 an extra 4 inches, it would get physically weaker. Even a print head the same size as the one in the 2200 would ride at non-uniform heights above the paper. When it got to the center of the print rails, the longer rails would sag under the weight of the head. The rigidity of long, thin structures, like the rails that the print head rides on, doesn't increase in direct proportion to the thickness of the rails, either. If they made the 13 inch rails 30% longer to get 17 inch rails, they'd also have to make them more than 30% thicker and wider, so the end result is, for a 30% increase in width, you end up making many of the printer's parts 3.8x heavier (1.3 longer, 1.3^2 thicker, 1.3^2 wider).

Now, assume that all you did was keep the 2200 mechanism, stretch it, and make whatever you needed to make thicker to increase strength. A 2200 in high res mode takes nearly 1/2 hour for a 13x19 print. Increase that to 16x24 and you've increased area by 50%. Print a 17x25, and you're up to a 70% increase in area. Or almost an hour for a big print.

And then you're talking about very small ink carts for such a big print.

The end result is, when you stretch a 2200, and keep the machine performing to 2200 standards of reliability and convenience (speed, ink change intervals) you need fater printheads, motors, electronics, and bigger ink carts.

In short, you end up building the 4000.