"Okay, time's up! You may stop writing and put your pencils down. Make sure everything is in order. Make sure that you've answered all the questions." It was the day before my Publishing paper. It was my finals might I add. I had just finished one of my papers. Hectic as it was I was almost severely stressed out. I had my big yellow bag where I put in most of my books, my stack of files filled with important documents and "NOTES". I think I might've under-emphasised it. Let me say that again. "NOTES!!!!". Yeah. It was in that chaotic moment when I suddenly forgot about one of my files which contained all of the notes for my following paper. My next paper was Printing and Binding.
The irony was, I just realised that I had forgotten my file when I was already at home in my room prepared for some late night study. At that very moment, I sort of snapped (I didn't screamed my lungs out, I was just in a state of catatonic). I sat there unmoved. Time sorta slowed down on me, I could hear echoes of my heart beating faster. My sweat glands was working overtime. In a few seconds I was drenched in sweat. Thinking of the most "not-so-wise" move I've made. Moments past by, I realised what's done is done. Maybe Allah was trying to teach me something during that moment.
Calm down I did, Alhamdulillah. My next move was a bit tacky, but it's all I've got. Since I don't have my notes I need Internet connection! Fast! So I borrowed my mum's laptop. I went to Youtube and started studying for tomorrows paper. My plan here was to use Youtube as a means to study and hopefully find substitutes to all of my notes that I have lost :( . Here's the thing, at a glance, people would think that I am crazy doing my studies via Youtube. Well, here's how I see it. Youtube, is actually more than just musics and animes and who knows probably tons of videos from a to zoos. Plus, if you studied Printing and Binding. You'd knew that this subject is based on hard evidence and facts. Which means only one thing. SCIENCE! ^o^
Ahem...forgive me, I tend to get overexcited when I mention the word Science. Back to my story, where was I? (Pause)... Ah yes, Science. In Printing and Binding most of the stuff you learn are on printing and binding techniques. Technically, it spans from the age old woodblock printing to the modern day digital printing.
It's all there on Youtube. I was surprised myself. Every phase of the printing process involves a systematic understanding of basic scientific knowledge. Let's take a simple laser print for example. Rite, first things first, the rolling thingy in the printer, yeah that's called a drum (sometimes a belt. Depending on the printer's model). What it does is, it projects negatively charged ions(1) onto the photosensitive(2) surface of the drum. Guess what! The drum is able to make the negataively charged ions stick onto it. Imagine an army of ants swarming a bar of Cadbury chocolate, that's how the drum looks like although you can't actually see those tiny ions with your naked eye. But, they're there. Waiting for their next move. Next, comes the best part. The laser!(3) Yeah, the laser. Like those you see in Star Wars. In the printer the laser starts aiming at the "spinning polygonal(4) mirror which then started directing it through a series of lenses and mirrors and finally onto the photoreceptor(drum). Of course at this point of time the printer already stored the soon-to-be-printed image into its memory.
When the laser reaches the surface of the drum it shoots away the negative ions leaving only the static electric(5) negative image on the drum (which is the latent or unrealised image itself). Or in plain simple English the laser started drawing on the drum. Reason being is so that it can lift the toner particles onto the negative image area. And now, comes the fun part. Let's paint the image! ^o^ . The latent image or the empty space is now exposed to the toner. Toners are fine particles of dry plastic powder mixed with carbon black or colouring agents. The toners are given negative charge and are attracted to the negaitve image. Naturally ions of the same type repel, you won't find the toner particles stick to places where theres already a negatively charged ions. It only sticks onto the places where the laser shot.
Now, for the moment of truth. It is now time to transfer the image onto paper. But before that, you can't just roll away and expect the image to stick to paper do ya. Firstly, you need another drum which has positively charged ions spread all over. The paper will move in between the first drum which has the image and the second drum below it which has the positively charged ions. The positives will sort of attract the negative onto the paper. But, its still not enough. Dry powder won't just stick onto paper just like that. Moving on to the next set of rollers. Next we have a hollow tube (heat roller) on top and a rubber backing roller (pressure roller) on the bottom. When the paper with the image passes through the hollow tube cranks up heat up to 200 degrees celsius to ensure that the dry powder sticks permanently and the pressure roller provide some serious pressure to ensure that the dry powder really sticks. If you guys can just stay with me for a few seconds we are about to see our image being printed. After all that hard work an electrically neutral soft plastic blade cleans off any excess of toner particles and a discharged lamp removes all the remaining negative charges. And Voila! you have your image done ^o^!
That's one chapter down and a couple umpteen more chapters to go before my finals. But in the end, I think I got a B for the subject. Alhamdulillah not too shabby ^_^. There were too many chapters to go through in such short notice. But one things for sure I'll let you in for some studying tips. Studying smart means not only studying for questions that might or might not come out in the exams. Its about having that ample time, knowing how to look for information and the most important part understanding and memorising goes together. Don't ever separate them. Islam teaches us that knowledge must be followed by practice. Finally, it all boils down to linguistics, if you get the feel, InsyaAllah you'll understand the subject matter at hand no matter how complex or confusing it might be.
1. ions; any atom or group of atoms that bears one or more positive or negative electrical charges. Positively charged ions are called cations; negatively charged ions, anions.
(http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/292705/ion)
other references on ions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=ion
2. photosensitive; sensitive to the action of radiant energy <photosensitivepaper>
(http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/photosensitive)
3. laser; a device that emits light (electromagnetic radiation) through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser)
4. polygonal; having many sides or relating to a surface marked by polygons; "polygonal structure"
(http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=polygonal)
other reference:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/polygonal
5. static electric; build up of electric charge on the surface of objects. The static charges remain on an object until they either bleed off to ground or are quickly neutralized by a discharge.
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