This Arduino-Controlled Plasma Printer Burns Art Into Paper

There have been many printing technologies introduced over the last several hundred years, from Gutenberg’s printing press to modern inkjet printing. If it can leave a mark on paper, someone has probably given it a try. One method we haven’t seen is using a plasma arc to print like an incendiary dot matrix printer. But that’s exactly what Norbert Heinz (AKA HomoFaciens) has done with this Arduino-controlled plasma printer that can burn art into paper.

The key to this printing process is that plasma arc, which comes from a repurposed specialty lighter that works like a miniature plasma cutter. That lighter creates a short arc of plasma between the two electrodes, and that plasma is very hot. If you put a piece of paper between the electrodes, the plasma arc will instantly burn a tiny dot through the paper. If you precisely control the positions of many of those burned dots, you can produce artwork.

This machine controls the position of those burned holes by using a 3D-printed mechanism to move the sheet of paper in one axis and the plasma electrodes in the other axis. The axes are moved by stepper motors and those are controlled by an Arduino Uno board. The Arduino also controls when the plasma arc is active. The machine just needs to briefly send current to the electrodes in order to burn a series of holes that eventually form an image. The quality of that image isn’t exactly groundbreaking, but this plasma printer is certainly unique.