Disposable Toner Cartridges: Is it ‘Planned Obsolescence’ all the way?

  Photo by kluen

Is the manufacture of disposable toner cartridges classified as ‘Planned Obsolescence’? Most likely! Right from the start, cartridge units are produced with an fixed time line or a serviceable life. This means, that the product easily becomes out of date or obsolete up to a prescribed time – similar in concept to the expiration date for processed foods and medicines. In essence, the production theory behind consumables rests on enticing consumers towards multiple purchases - over a one-time purchase, until the product deteriorates and a replacement becomes mandatory. 

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Plug & Print Technology - HP's New Printing Window

Photo by msuvaydas

Is your laser printer consumer friendly? What makes a laser printer a consumer friendly unit? By definition, the term consumer friendly in the world of printers denotes an out of the box printer that hardly poses too much hassle to the user. Now that involves an easy installation and instruction sequence that won't make the head spin. Just like when dining out, diners sit down and heartily eat without undergoing any form of instruction from the dining facility. Without any fuzz at all, the diner simply pays after dining is consummated. This is the basic tenet employed in the design of Hewlett Packard laser printers that has now been integrated into the new Plug and Print Technology. Said technology was developed primarily to to help users follow through what used to be an intricate printing process.

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Smart Toner Cartridges: The Product of Smart Engineering

When the factory installed OEM starter toner cartridges that come with a new laser printer dries out, users will always want a perfect replacement. But how do we define a perfect toner cartridge replacement? Well, the best gauge is likely print quality, which could be rated to either match or exceed the print performance of the OEM cartridge. Second on the list is print yield coverage where cartridge is expected to deliver the same volume of prints as the OEM cartridge is rated; based on the industry mandated page coverage of 5%. Furthermore, the replacement cartridge should not succumb to toner leaks or else it would put in too much strain on printer components. Nonetheless, the most important consideration is the pricing of the cartridge which ought to be affordable to a wide range of laser printer users with differing budgets and buying preferences. All of these cartridge features can only come from products of fine technology because smart engineering will naturally produce smart, if not perfect toner cartridges.

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Fastest Laser Printer: Can Compatible Toner keep up with its speed?

From its particle size, formulation and fusing temperature, compatible toner has been expertly engineered and laboratory tested to replicate the physical properties of the OEM toner. Moreover, compatible toners undergo the same manufacturing processes guaranteed to deliver basically the same print quality and yield expected from the OEM toner. So how does the third party invention fare with the fastest laser printer in the market today? Can toner refill kits also be used on the cartridges of the IBM Infoprint 4100?

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LED Printer Versus the Laser Printer

Laser light pulses travel really fast at the rate of nanoseconds but the pulse-flashes emitted by the Light Emitting Diode (LED) bar surpasses its speed. Consequently, LED printers can produce printed pages much faster than laser printers. So what then is behind the speed advantage of LED over laser technology in the context of printing? The design of the LED printer's scanner accounts for the variance in speed.A single laser device is employed to scan laser printer images while over a thousand diodes emitted by the LED printer performs the scanning function. It is now a case of 1 versus several thousands and by sheer numbers alone, LED will outmaneuver laser printers in any given instance.

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Brother HL 3040cn Laser Printer: Speed and Connectivity at a Modest Price

Printer manufacturers often highlight the physical design and footprint of the equipment released to the printing market. While aesthetics and space saving features are fine attributes that add value to the investment, this is only good for stand-alone PC and printer configurations as workplaces nowadays require connectivity and just can't rely on printers that would perform haplessly when networked with several other PC and printer peripherals. Not the Brother HL 3040cn LED (Light Emitting Diode) laser printer. The innovative unit peer-to-peer bridges both worlds of aesthetics and sensible network connectivity. When connected via configuration, the printer can be used directly over the network or as a shared printer where printing jobs are first directed towards a central server.

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Of Toner Powder, Laser Printer Emissions and the Ideal Location for Laser Printers

Photo by The Artifex

Toner powder per se is non-toxic. Therefore, the material is deemed non-hazardous to laser printer users who come in closer contact with it. However in the process of laser printing, as the fuser melts toner at 200 degrees Celsius, fumes and gases are emitted. Experts claim that the inhalation of these gases can cause minor inconvenience to the person operating the laser printer. Therefore it is in the best interest of all users for laser printers to be located in an area where gases and fumes can be contained.

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Lexmark C770 Toner Refill Kit: Cuts Network Color Printing Expenses by 70%!

Depending on workforce size, a typical office layout might just need only a single network laser printer to serve intermittent color printing requirements. The Lexmark C770 is one such printer. Designed with a powerful 800 MHZ processor that directs the series of information coming from networked PCs, the printer is also supplied with onboard RAM of 256 MB. Should network complications transpire in line with limited memory status, RAM can be expanded up to 768 MB. And since a network of this magnitude regularly handles severe traffic information streams, the manufacturer included a 40GB hard disk as an option to increase capacity of its storage bank.

Nevertheless, the most important consideration in the aspect of network color processing is the maintenance of the color laser printer, particularly that of its consumables. The bundled toner cartridges designed for the Lexmark C770 laser printer is retailed at $1400. Each cartridge comes with a rating of 6,500 pages at the standard page coverage of 5%. Therefore, an office that requires monthly cartridge replacement would have an annual toner consumable expenditure of as much as $16,800. Despite the exorbitant pricing, one positive aspect would be the minimal Cost Per Page (CPP). CPP for OEM color cartridges is pegged at 12 cents and 2.6 cents for the monochrome cartridge. By industry standards, said CPP readings are already tolerable and much cheaper when compared to the charge of offset printers if print jobs are outsourced.

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Color Printing FAQs for the Xerox 7760dn Laser Printer

Although most color laser printers are now retailed around lower cost parameters, the price can still be restrictive that buying a unit actually requires careful assessment. If a color laser printer is intended for office use, a network printer with sufficient onboard memory and designed for easy connectivity, efficient paper handling and reliable print speeds will prove to be ideal. The mentioned bundle of features will be useful to a workplace environment where the laser printer unit is typically shared by departments and among employees. A color laser printer that would not be able to accommodate the expected information streams will practically contribute to reduced workplace efficiency and productivity.

Let us look into the capabilities of the Xerox 7760dn color printer if its features are well suited to an office environment through a set of FAQs or frequently asked questions.

Does unit cost commensurate to its features and functionality? The Xerox 7760dn currently retails for around $4,500 and based on its design and performance specifications, the printer could perfectly fit any office environment. The only drawback to this unit is the cost of its consumables, particularly the 4 color toner cartridges that load the printer. Given its bundle price $730, getting a replacement for 4 empty toner cartridges can really be budget restrictive.

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Top 3 Considerations When Buying a Laser Printer

What do users look for in laser printers? Interested buyers of color laser printers ought to consider the unit’s TCO (Total Cost of Ownership), the prevailing cost of OEM consumables and if its toner cartridge can be refilled with compatible toner. Now in case the printer unit satisfactorily meets the buyer’s TCO preferences along with consumable and refill considerations, then a sale will likely proceed.

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Understanding the Laser Printer’s Print Engine

The print engine of the laser printer is the mechanical part composed of different moving components. It is responsible for moving paper (medium) from one component to the next in the process of printing. However to print accurately, the print engine is aided by devices like the controller boards, RAM and several software integrated into the unit by the its manufacturer. It is no longer an Industry secret that different printer brands actually run on the same print engine as manufacturers now utilize the technology and expertise of other companies to supply the printer unit's print engine. A perfect example would be HP and Canon laser printers. The laser printer lines of both OEMs are outfitted with a similar print engine which renders its toner cartridges interchangeable.

Think of your laser printer the same way you look at your car. Just like any other vehicle, the laser printer also comes with a print engine that dictates its capacity in terms of speed and performance. For instance, Toyota Motors USA developed several car models that run on a particular engine design under the hood. The same way with laser printers, over 500 models have been devised in the last decade using just 10 or so print engine designs. This information is relevant to the user on the lookout for a laser printer. Different printer brands may run on the same print engine but then again, the cost of its replacement OEM toner consumables significantly vary e.g. Canon toner cartridges retail at a much lower price than HP cartridge units.

In terms of engine performance, consider how a small four-cylinder gas engine works inside a sports car and what it does when placed under the hood of a mid-sized car. Naturally the sports car will accelerate and deliver higher speeds - being small, lightweight and not to mention the unique transmission and gear ratio plus several other features engineered for the sports car. On one side, the mid-sized car will be able to carry more passengers and may even be packed with luxury features but will not perform at par with the sports car. This will prove that two laser printers using the same print engine will also perform differently.

The same can be observed from the supply of OEM toner consumables as one brand may be more pricey than the other. Although the 2 printers have an identical toner cartridge design, quality of toner supplied with the cartridge varies. If Hewlett Packard thinks that supplied toner with its cartridges is superior, nobody can question the pricing of their OEM toner cartridges. But the barometer for toner cost is the compatible toner supplied with toner refill kits. The HP CP3525 compatible toner refill kit (black) is retailed for only $40.95 and delivers the same print quality and yield of 10,500 pages as the OEM toner. Again this will show that toner cost is really low considering that both toner products pass the same stringent production processes and laboratory tests.

In the end, the balance between consumable cost and printer performance still determines the true worth of a printer - not just the print engine.

How toner cartridge components operate to produce a laser print on paper?

The process by which laser printers affix the printed image on media (paper) can be a bit fuzzy; though it’s clear that the machine relies on static electricity to run the entire printing cycle. Unlike inkjet printers that literally spray ink through micron size nozzles, laser printers use the negatively charged OPC drum to attract the positively charged toner particles into the image set over the drum surface by the laser scanning assembly. Simply put, charged toner particles freely jump into the rotating photoreceptor drum.

The host computer and printer work in tandem to generate and process the image on the printed document. Data is supplied by the host computer and received by the printer control board which deals with all the incoming signals and places the deciphered information on the page as directed. Since the information has been converted into a serial bit stream it is forwarded to the laser scanning assembly that emits it as multiple dots on the photoreceptor drum.

The photosensitive drum revolves as the laser scanning assembly transfers the stream of information across the surface of the drum. The process is referred to as registration. But before the action of the laser assembly commences, the drum is first exposed to a set of erase lamps that will clear the component from residual traces of the previous image. As the drum is now left with a neutral electrical charge and as high voltage is applied to the corona wire it creates a charged negative field. This conditions the drum to accept a uniform negative charge (-1000V) applied across it. As the images is being made by the laser scanning assembly, the toner cartridge works to apply toner on the negatively charged dots.

The toner cartridge is outfitted with a developer roller that turns simultaneously with the photosensitive drum, and expels a measured amount of toner through a restricting blade. A regulated AC voltage is applied to assist toner particles as it leaves the cartridge and literally jumps into the negatively charged dots on the drum’s surface. But toner cartridges like the Brother TN-350 are programmed to gather toner excesses from the drum and recycle it back to the cartridge. Prior to reuse, the recycled toner is first subjected to an additional positive charge before it enters the toner chamber. Once the image formed on the drum has been transferred to paper, the whole ensemble (paper and toner) moves to the fuser assembly that binds toner to paper permanently.

Toner refill kits when used in the laser printing process must be of similar formulation to the OEM toner; not only in terms of substances and grain size but also in the aspect of melting point to meet the equipment specification. Thus laser printer manufacturers insist that toner must be of high quality and similar to the original toner to avoid inconsistencies in the printouts.

Understanding the Laser Printer's Specified Duty Cycle

More than anything, a laser printers ‘maximum duty cycle’ is likely considered as a mere marketing ploy used by printer manufacturers to sell the product. But in reality, duty cycle refers to the workload (in terms of maximum number of pages) the equipment can handle before unit servicing is required. In analogy, this works like the average car that needs an ‘oil change’ every 1,000 or so miles to protect the moving gears from damage due to the already used and dirty oil. In effect, the car's maintenance will be dictated by the number of miles traveled and not by time – as the car could have been left unused in the garage for specific periods. Laser printers follow the same maintenance frequency - just like the HP 1100 that has a specified duty cycle of 3,000 pages, to therefore need a new maintenance kit - not monthly, but after the rated capacity is breached.


The average maintenance servicing required for a laser printer is typically at least every 3 months; whether the the printed capacity has been reached or not. So in the case of the HP 1100 and its duty cycle of 3,000 pages, maintenance is required after the unit is subjected to a workload of 45 pages (daily printout) or 1,000 pages (printed monthly) for offices operating a 22 working day month. However if the printing load is really low, it may take a year to breach the 3,000 print mark. In this case, maintenance can be performed annually.

Based on the facts supplied, it is therefore advisable to acquire a laser printer that suits your printing frequency and volume. Remember that printers have only a 5 year life cycle in line with the sensitive components that decline in function following the mandated period; particularly the OPC Drum’s photosensitive properties or the mechanical rollers that deteriorate even when not in use. Therefore, for a printer rated 10,000 pages monthly for its ‘duty cycle’ where the user can only print say 1,000 pages monthly, the printer's capacity is obviously underutilized as well as too large and expensive for the need. Know that the printer's ‘duty cycle’ is commensurate to its cost. That is just like buying an ice machine with a 200 kg capacity for a 20 kg ice requirement. In the end, the user loses the laser printer's competitive edge as parts deteriorate due to age (not because of use) and actual replacement of the printer's sensitive component must be implemented to sustain the printer.

In the case of the HP 1100 toner cartridge (C4092A), the rated capacity is only 2,500 pages at 5% coverage and is 20% less than the printers ‘duty cycle.’ Refills using a compatible toner refill kit can be administered on an empty OEM cartridge that delivers similar print quality and yield, but is awfully low at only $6.95 compared to the OEM at $65. The cost difference is substantial enough at around $58 and this could pay part for the maintenance kit needed by the printer.

Lesson learned: pick the laser printer with a ‘duty cycle’ commensurate to the user's printing requirement.

Optical Sensor + Reset Gear: The Safety Devices of the Brother TN 350 Toner Cartridge

The optical sensor built into the Brother MFC 7220 laser printer prompts the user when toner supply is really low. The sensor monitors toner supply levels by shining a light beam across a toner cartridge window. If no toner is detected, the ‘low toner’ light consequently blinks. The optical sensor works like the photo switch outfitted with streetlamps that switches on automatically during late afternoons (when the surroundings are dim) and turns the light off on early mornings when there is already sufficient natural light. Only that in the case of the toner cartridge, the amount of toner filling the chamber is employed to block the light beam delivered by the sensor; thus, the printer continues to operate. But once toner is depleted, the light beam connects, completes the circuit and the ‘low toner’ prompt appears.

Another safety feature of the Brother TN 350 toner cartridge is the reset gear that accurately monitors the number of pages printed by the printer. This counting device is activated depending on the number of revolutions made by the cartridge developer roller. Once the rated capacity is reached, the device turns off the printer automatically. It takes 18.5 revolutions of the developer roller to print a single page where a cartridge rated 2,500 pages (like the TN 350) actually makes 46,250 turns to complete the rated capacity. Once the developer roller reaches its revolution capacity, printing operations desists regardless of the amount of toner still left in the cartridge.

The mentioned safety features are integrated into the laser printer and toner cartridge combo to reduce the likelihood of damage to sensitive imaging components of the toner cartridge. These may all sound like a plus factor to printer manufacturers, but on the contrary these are integrated into the design to help sustain the cartridge's functional life cycle and on the aftermarket side, allow 3 or more toner refills on the cartridge. Without such devices, the cartridge will go on printing even when empty of toner, to eventually bring damage to the cartridge.

Printer manufacturers put in an extra 20% to total toner supply, precisely to bar the cartridge from printing when the toner chamber is empty. In case toner left in the cartridge is still more than half its capacity, then something must have triggered the cartridge to stop working. To override cartridge safety devices, the user will simply have to shake the cartridge vigorously to free clumped toner inside and so that printing could continue. In case the culprit is the developer roller, adjusting the reset gear would resolve the issue. However, if the cause of the stoppage is the optical sensor, placing a black electrical tape right across the cartridge window will solve the problem. But if printouts are diagnosed with fading prints, the primary cause therefore is low toner supply which can only be solved by replenishing the cartridge's toner supply with a compatible Brother toner refill kit.

Fact: Only About 52% of Laser Printer Users know that Toner Refill Kits Exist!

This is the sad state of our printing industry since nobody really cares about the plight of empty toner cartridges. Research points out that around 165 million toner cartridges were saved from landfills, but still the bulk of 700 million cartridges end up ditched into dumpsites and landfills worldwide, and the figure is to likely increase by12% annually. With each cartridge weighing around 1.5 kilograms on the average, this translates to e-garbage equivalent to around 825,000 F430 GT3 Ferrari Sports Cars in weight alone. Incessant dumping proliferated because not all laser printer users have been duly informed about the availability of compatibles in the aftermarket or the operation of recycling centers in our country.

Konica Minolta is aware of its social responsibility and thus designed its replacement cartridges to be refill friendly; thereby extending the lifecycle of each cartridge to at least 3 refills. At the end of the serviceable life of each cartridge, Konica Minolta’s ‘Clean Planet’ program entices its customer base to return used toner cartridges for recycling through parcel services, free of charge. Programs such as ‘Clean Planet” will help decongest our dumpsites, landfills and incinerators from tons and tons of e-garbage.

Recycling not only involves the return of empty toner cartridges to printer manufacturers. The use of toner refill kits to refill used or empty toner cartridges is one form of recycling. Refills can be administered over empty Konica Minolta toner cartridges such as the 1710517-005; allowing the user to save in the process. An OEM toner cartridge for the QMS 2300DL laser printer retails at around $120 and yields some 4,500 pages at 5% coverage, while the equivalent Konica Minolta 2300 toner refill kit is sold online for only $22.00. Since both toner products exhibit similar characteristics, expect print quality and yield performance for both OEM and compatible toner to be similar as well. Most likely, the only factor making customers hesitant from using toner refill kits is the perception that the refill process is difficult. Well, browsing the illustrated instructional material would tell you that refilling an empty cartridge is so easy that it can be completed from between 5 to 10 minutes.

Even though only 52% of laser printer users are aware of the presence of toner refill kits as an aftermarket replacement consumable, this figure will surely continue to rise as consumers will begin to appreciate its benefits.

Your Wish Items for the New Year

Do you have a new year’s wish list? If you are a laser printer user, then a toner refill kit is one item that should form part of the things you’d want to get for the upcoming year. Not that you won’t be able to afford it, but a steady supply of monochrome or color refill kits on hand should give you a year of uninterrupted, quality printing without putting a dent in your pockets.

So now that you’ve registered a toner refill kit for say your Brother HL-4040 laser printer, just where should your family and friends secure this consumable? Well, they can easily purchase it online and have it delivered to your home in time for the New Year’s celebration. Laser Tek Services, Inc. offers a wide array of third party consumables, from compatible toner cartridges, reset chips, OPC drum kits, reset gears and of course toner refill kits.

For the HL-4040 laser printer, the Brother TN-115/TN-110 toner refill kit 4 Pack can be used to refill both the high yield (TN-115) standard yield (TN-110) cartridge at the low price of $154.95. Package includes 4 bottles of compatible black, cyan, magenta and yellow toner. Materials necessary to conduct the refill are likewise supplied such as toner wipes, 4 funnel caps, a pair of latex gloves and an illustrated instructional material. See what’s up for grabs with every purchase of a Brother TN-115/TN-110 toner refill kit.

LTS toner is 100% compatible with your toner cartridge and laser printer. Compatible toner has been engineered to match the particle specifications of the OEM toner. Therefore, expect the TN-115/TN-110 compatible toner to work seamlessly with cartridge and printer components as well as fuse properly with paper, without causing any damage to your equipment. Also get crisp, clear and professional prints as if you are using an OEM toner cartridge to produce those print jobs.

LTS toner produces similar yield at 5% page coverage. Every bottle of toner is supplied with the same gram load as the OEM toner cartridge. This way, refilled cartridges get the same rating with every printing cycle.

LTS offers free shipping. Orders transacted online and exceeding $50 are shipped for free to any location in the United States and Canada. Items are also shipped the next working day so definitely there won’t be any delay in the receipt of your wish item. For any inquiries, aftersales and troubleshooting concerns, you can easily get in touch with LTS representatives during working hours at its toll free number 1-877-945-2737.

HP 2600n Color Laser Printer: Why use only specified print media?

Although laser printers can print text and images on almost any type of print media, it is still requires good judgment on the part of the user to follow the guidelines set forth by the printer manufacturer in terms of substrate use. Paper fibers react under varying conditions of temperature, humidity and handling which could result in chronic paper jams; necessitate frequent unit servicing or even trigger printer damage. These are conditions and variables that manufacturer Hewlett Packard has no control of.

Buying the specified print media is like looking for a needle over a pile of haystack, as there are hundreds of transparencies available in the market. Therefore make it a habit to perform test prints over particular print media just to make sure that the substrate conforms to the requirements specified in the user guide and with the HP LaserJet Printer Family Print Media Guide. This is necessary especially when purchasing paper in volume.

Caution is expressed by HP, particularly when using print media that do not meet printer specifications. Use of incompatible substrates can trigger serious printer operation problems and may even lead to the early replacement of printer parts and components. Be aware that printer repairs ensuing from the improper use and handling of print media is not covered by Hewlett-Packard's warranty service agreement.

Print media properties such as weight, composition, grain and moisture content are important factors that would dictate printer performance (print quality) and output yield in pages. Always remember that use of paper other than those specified could result in poor print quality, frequent paper jams and premature wear of printer components. Find a list of OEM specified print media for the HP 2600n laser printer from this link.

Setting aside print media requirements, laser printer users should also be attentive to the printer unit's toner requirements. Like paper, low quality toner will also adversely affect print quality. In the event that the HP toner cartridge dries up, a user can refill its toner supply using compatible toner packaged with a toner refill kit. Toner refill kits have been engineered to produce optimum prints and yield similar to that of the OEM toner.

HP Toolbox - Activate to clean the HP 2600n Color Laser Printer

Print troubles and print quality irregularities are seldom encountered in the first few months run of a laser printer unit. Over time, toner and paper dust will accumulate over printer components such as the OPC drum, fuser assembly and even the mechanical rollers that come in contact with paper. This consequently affects component performance and produce print quality defects (like toner smears) over printouts. The only option therefore is to clean or perform maintenance work over affected components; which is tedious since that would involve dismantling pertinent printer panels to reach the inner cavities of the laser printer.

Maintenance work must be concentrated on the fuser assembly since the component does not have an automatic toner cleaning system. As the fuser generates a lot of heat, some of the toner particles tend to adhere to the fuser rollers and stick permanently, even if the cylindrical surface is coated with Teflon (a non-stick material usually coating frying pans). Consequently, a sizeable mass of toner particles sticking to the rollers can produce toner smears over printouts. Fuser rollers therefore need to be cleaned periodically to sustain acceptable print quality; unlike OPC drums that come outfitted with a cleaning device called the doctor blade. The doctor blade is made of thin and soft polymers that collect excess toner from the drum's surface and deposits it to the waste toner chamber of the toner cartridge.

Users of the HP 2600n color laser printer are fortunate because the printer unit comes with a built-in cleaning system that can be activated right on the printer's control panel. The cleaning procedure is outlined as follows:

1. Turn on the laser printer and be sure that it is set to ready mode.
2. Open the HP Toolbox from the printer's control panel
3. When the troubleshooting tab appears, click maintenance and follow it up by pushing the cleaning page icon. The printer will then print a document with printed pattern.
4. Remove all loaded print media in tray 2 and from the optional tray 3.
5. Take out the printed media with pattern and position it face down into the paper tray 2 or the optional paper tray 3.
6. Lastly, press clean on the printer panel
   

The whole sequence should clear the fuser assembly of baked toner and paper dust, and produce smear free printouts.

Print defects are the fare of laser printers and they are numerous. But when print irregularities are due to a low toner supply or an empty OEM toner cartridge, replenish the cartridge's supply with a compatible toner refill kit and extend its print capacity for up to 3 print cycles.

Look up our previous posts on the HP 2600n laser printer.

Toner Cartridge Expenditure in the Entire Lifespan of the Laser Printer

The laser printer can be thought of as the other half of the printer-computer duo. Simply stated, these two always come in tandem. Although toner consumption is dependent on the frequency of printer use and the volume of print jobs, laser printing still boils down to a several hundred dollars expenditure at the end of the year.

Industry estimates put the effective life cycle of the laser printer to 5 years on the average and consumers spend at least 6 to 7 times the cost of the printer for the purchase of consumables. Therefore for the $200 Brother HL-1240 laser printer which loads with an $80 TN-460 toner cartridge, consumable expense for the 5 year period will amount to around $1,760 or roughly 22 toner cartridges in the entire lifespan of the laser printer or a total of 5 toner cartridges consumed annually.


However in the aftermarket for printer consumables, the toner refill kit comes as the perfect antidote to empty OEM toner cartridges and the burgeoning business printing expenses. Not only can the Brother TN-460 toner refill kit duplicate the print and yield performance of the OEM toner but it also comes cheaper by as much as 80% than the retailed OEM toner cartridge. Thus in the serviceable life of a laser printer, the user will only spend around $775 or 60% less than the total expenditure on OEM toner cartridges. As per computation, a user will only have to buy 5 Brother TN-460 toner cartridges and 15 toner refill kits based on the set average consumption levels. The cost difference on toner expenses would allow the purchase of 5 more laser printers at the end of the 5-year period.

If your laser printer outlasts the 5-year industry projection, then a user will most likely be spending more dollars to sustain its consumable requirements. This would further broaden the gap between laser printer acquisition cost and unit lifetime consumable expenses. This only proves that the use of toner refill kits is the best possible option to reduce business printing expenses. Also please remember that when we recycle empty toner cartridges, we are not only easing our printing budgets but unconsciously helping in global environmental conversation efforts. Read more about the benefits of toner cartridge recycling using toner refill kits from our previous post.

Always explore all possible recycling options before dumping empty toner cartridges to the trash bin and help free our dumpsites and landfills of e-garbage.

Paper Moisture Content: How it affects the integrity of printouts?

How does the moisture content of paper affect the quality of printouts? There's more to the use of transparencies in printing than getting them stocked for the next print job. In this regard, laser printers ought to dig this info.

Moisture content is a determining factor of print quality. Media with low moisture content has the tendency to curl and create paper handling troubles. On the other hand, high moisture content affects the adhesion of toner particles on paper that would likely result to poor quality printouts with smudges appearing on the printed page. There has got to be a reasonable balance between room temperature and humidity in order to obtain the type of prints desired.

What therefore is the ideal printing environment? A fully air-conditioned facility with room temperature that hovers from around 70 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit and humidity content that ranges from 35% to 55% is considered highly conducive to laser printing. Packed reams of paper pulled out straight from the factory have a set moisture content of about 5%, which happens to be ideal for use on the laser printer. However, paper could either lose or gain moisture content when stored in a less favorable environment for several months. The manner by which paper is stored contributes much to the print quality of outputs. Therefore when stocking media, make sure that the reams of paper in inventory is consumed within a 3 month period.

Find below some helpful tips relevant to the handling and storing of laser printer media which consequently affects the upkeep of ideal moisture content and the sustained quality of printed output.

1. Conduct print jobs with locations exhibiting comfort zone ranges in terms of temperature, humidity and air movement because excessive heat causes paper to lose its moisture content through evaporation; or gain moisture if room humidity is a bit too high.
2. Store paper in a dry (average temperature) bin; preferably its original packaging since manufacturers designed those to be moisture-proof.
3. Avoid storing paper in damp environments so as to prevent paper from absorbing too much moisture. In time, this could render the paper soggy and no longer fit for use on laser printers.
4. Open only reams that could possibly be used for the whole day. Never leave stocks of paper bare. As much as possible, insert stacks of unused paper back to its packaging and seal it, particularly during weekends.
5. Before committing to the purchase of reams of paper for a 3-month period, always conduct a test print to ensure that paper is suited for the laser printer.

The American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM) is working with paper manufacturers to set the groundwork for an acceptable paper standard. Until then, laser printer users are left to fend for themselves.

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Print defects do not always result from the use of an unspecified paper type, low toner supply can sometimes contribute to defects. In this case, refilling an empty cartridge with compatible toner supplied by a toner refill kit can resolve the issue.