Laser Printing of Polymeric Materials

摘要

Electrophotography, the basis of photocopying and laser printing, is a reliable and well developed method of precisely depositing fine powders to form text or images. The process is highly adaptable to different types of materials; commercial toners are based on particular polymers but researchers have already shown the potential to deposit other materials including metals and ceramics. Once the powder layer has been deposited it can be heated to form a fused layer. This paper describes research conducted at DeMontfort University to develop a range of toners based on conventional engineering polymers and concludes by outlinning the challenges which will be tackled in the next phase of research.