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A plateless printing process that produces an image with the use of an electron cartridge that creates a negative charge on a nonconductive surface. The nonconductive surface consists of a drum with a dielectric surface of aluminum oxide, which attracts a magnetic toner. Ionography uses a static electric charge to draw the toner particles from the drum onto the substrate. The toner is then fixed to the substrate with a cold fusion process that includes a high pressure roller, which fuses the toner to the substrate. A scraping device removes any excess toner from the drum and an erasing rod removes the latent image from the drum so that it will be ready for the next image. Ionography is used only for one color printing because the high pressure cold fusion process can slightly distort the substrate, which means that multiple colors may not line up correctly. It is useful for high volume applications and for variable information printing, which allows for changes in the content of the print application during the press run. Variable applications such as checks, statements, letters, tickets, and tags, are printed with the ionographic process. Ionography is also known as ion deposition or electron charge deposition printing.
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