On Wed, 31 Mar 2021 04:16:24 +0000 (UTC)
Cydrome Leader wrote:

snip
GE dot matrix printers? How long ago was this? What speeds, shaft
diameter and loads? I'm really quite curious. How did they wear?

I've searched for info on these before, nada...

I recall it was a GE Model TN200 Dot Matrix printer, around 1980.
Had two maybe 5/8 inch highly polished bars carrying a 7 or 9 pin dot
matrix ballistic print head. Movement was done using a servo motor, not
a stepper. It was strong, knock your hand out of the way if you weren't
careful. I believe it was 200 characters per second speed. Could get it
with a full keyboard for terminal use.

The only time the graphite bearings were a problem was if somebody
lubed them. Lube was standard on other similar printers so couldn't
really blame the customer. Was nasty to fix though. You could try
spraying Electro-wash in, slide, wipe, spray, slide, wipe, spray... but
you'd get a call back. Needed to remove the bearings and replace them.
Think there were three of them. You could clean them once out but at
that point just cut your losses and put new in...

GE had a whole line of hammer bank/print belt, dot matrix and after I
left laser printers. Company changed from GE to Genicom around the same
time in the early 1980's.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GENICOM

Manual for a really old TermiNet 300 hammer bank/belt printer he

https://archive.org/details/bitsaver...e/n33/mode/2up

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI