Pioneered in the second half of the 70’s by Bull Peripherals at Belfort, France, magnetography is a matrix transfer non-impact print technology, where a magnetic latent image is first recorded on a magnetic drum medium by a plurality of magnetic recording heads, then developed with dry magnetic toner, and finally transferred onto plain paper.
The 5 main steps in magnetography:
- Erasing : the drum is magnetically reset by a page-wide AC erasing head
- Recording : the dots that compose the image to be printed are recorded on the drum surface by an array of individually selectable recording heads
- Development : the latent magnetic image is developed by magnetic toner particles
- Transfer : the developed image is transferred onto plain paper
- Fusing : the transferred image is permanently fixed on the paper