Everything You Need to Know About Printer Toner Cartridge
What is Printer Toner Cartridge? A Toner cartridge is a fine, powdery substance that sticks to the page by a drum while printing. It results in fast printing
Every curious mind who uses a laser printer must’ve at least once tried to understand what exactly the printer toner is made of. Why? Because we are simply curious. And we just want to know what is that powdery thing and how it makes such smooth prints.
Well, here we are. And in this article, we will learn about printer toner cartridge.
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So, what is printer toner?
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Printer toner is a very fine powder-like substance that contains mostly polyester and pigments. Earlier, toner consisted of iron oxide and carbon powder. You can get monochrome toner or color toner for your printer as per your preferences.
The color toner provides four colors: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black, all these colors give a vast range of color gamut as needed.
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How does a printer toner cartridge work?
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As we know, inkjet printers use ink directly to print on papers, fabrics, etc. However, printer toners are just powder, so the contents cannot stick to the paper themselves. So, the electrically charged substance sticks to the paper with the help of a drum roller and heating system.
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Printer Toner cartridge components
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Although not all toners are the same because different manufacturers build these toners differently to fit the individual model of printers, there are some key components that almost all toner cartridges have.
Tonner Hopper: Toner hopper is a small container that contains toner.
Doctor Blade: Doctor Blade controls the amount of toner is being transferred to the developer roller.
Developer Roller: With the developer roller, the printer transfers the toner to the OPC (Organic Photo Conductor) drum.
PCR: PCR (Primary Charge Roller) applies a negative charge to the OPC drum.
OPC: The Organic Photo Conductor contains an electrostatic image, and transfers the toner to the paper.
Waste Bin: The printer toner cartridge also has a waste bin that collects the extra toner from the OPC drum.
Wiper Blade: As the name suggests, the wiper blade wipes away extra toner from the printed page.
Drum Shutter: Since the drums are sensitive to the light and can be damaged easily, manufacturers attach a drum shutter to keep the drums away from the light and to replace the shutter inside the printer.
Seal: The seal prevents the toner from spilling out before installation.
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There was mostly no problem with ink printing, then why use toner? Well, a laser printer works with a laser focus, so, the print quality is obviously far superior to inkjet printers. Not to forget, with laser printers, printing is mess-free, and dry,
unlike, inkjet, where there is a good possibility of spilling ink and ruining more than a few pages.
Laser printers also work faster than inkjet printers. And to some extent, the former can cover more pages than inkjets can do.
That’s why, even though laser printing is a bit more expensive than ink printing, printer toner cartridge is everyone’s favorite when it comes to precise and bright printing.
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Monochrome vs. Color
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You can get yourself a monochrome printer cartridge if you only need to print for general documents. And if you want to print colorful documents, arts, etc. then you can buy the color toner cartridge.
The printer toner cartridge has become popular due to its advanced technology and printing advantages. We are hoping that in the future, the manufacturers will make it more efficient for general usage and affordable for the masses.
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