Contents
This technical brief provides detailed information on the following topics, related to all EPSON impact
printers:
Functionality
Versatility
Reliability
Functionality—Printing technology
Why buy an impact printer? An impact printer has several advantages over any other type of printer:
Low cost — both in purchase price and low cost of ownership
Flexible paper handling — only impact printers can handle multi-part forms and multiple paper paths
that can all have paper loaded and waiting.
Reliability — EPSON impact printers are renowned for their reliability with tireless printheads and
superior quality ribbons.
Impact printers are either 9- or 24-pin, which determines the type of printing and the number of multi-part
forms that the printer are capable of printing.
Nine-pin impact printers — These printers have the sturdiest printhead pins which:
Hit the paper hard to make impressions through the thickest multi-part forms
Offer the fastest print speeds
Print from High Speed Draft up to Near Letter Quality
Twenty-four-pin impact printers — These printers have finer printhead pins which:
Hit the paper less hard to make impressions through most multi-part forms
Offer finer Letter Quality printing
Print from High Speed Draft up to Letter Quality
The name of an EPSON's impact printer tells you if it is a 9- or a 24-pin printer, and whether it has a narrow
or wide carriage:
Nine-pin printers all begin with FX, LX, or DFX
Twenty-four pin printers all begin with LQ
Wide carriage printers have 4 number in their names
Narrow carriage printers have 3 numbers in their names
EPSON Sales Training
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Printing technology
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Control code/emulation
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Paper handling
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SmartPark™ settings
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Flexible interfacing
Built-in fonts
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Computer-based set-up
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Ribbon quality
Ribbon cartridge reliability
M
Total Print Volume vs. MTBF
M
Off-carriage motor assembly
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EPSON is a registered trademark of Seiko Epson Corporation.
Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
FX-980—Nine-pin
narrow carriage
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