In February 1987, NEC announced the NM-5020 Japanese language dot serial printer as a personal computer peripheral. This printer was equipped with a piezoelectric printing head.
The NM-5020 was the first printer in the world to achieve practical use of a piezo head—a new type of head with superior high-speed characteristics to replace the previous electromagnetic printing heads. The printing section was made lighter by expanding the microvibration amplitude of the laminated piezoelectric actuator element and directly driving printing wires. This made it possible to achieve a speed of 110char/s (Japanese)—the highest speed for printers in this class.
The piezoelectric actuator element had high energy conversion efficiency, and thus there was little heat-up of the printing head, and power consumption was low.
| Printing system | Dot impact |
|---|---|
| Character types | Alphanumeric/kana,Kanji (Chinese characters) JIS Level 1 and 2 |
| Printing head | 24-pin(24×2 zig-zag alignment) |
| Dot pitch | 1/180inch, both vertical and horizontal |
| Line spacing | 1/6 and 1/8 inch. Variable in 1/120 and 1/180 inch units |
| Copy capability | 3sheets including original |
| Printing speed(char/s) |
|
| Paper width | 4.5–15.5inch With cut paper 110-364mm(B4) |
| External dimensions(mm) | 585(W)×375(D)×163(H) |
| Weight(kg) | 18 |
