If you’re thinking about buying a laser printer for home usage or for office usage, then you’ve most likely heard that laser printers use toner. And if you are anything like me you would want to know as much about the consumables needed for the performance of a piece of equipment as much as the machinery itself. The consumables after all are the products which you will be buying on a regular basis, so you ought to know what you’re dealing with. Outlined in this article I will be giving you the fundamentals of what toner is and how to insert a toner cartridge into your laser printer or photocopier.
Exactly what is toner?
Toner is the compound that makes it practical for you to view the text and images printed onto paper. Essentially it is a carbon powder which is blended with another material called polymer. Both these ingredients are mixed in a melting process and then fused onto the paper. There are various types of mixtures of toner and polymer which can be used, with respect to the formulas created by the producer.
Toner can either be black, employed for printing text in black or black and white pictures, or they could be a mixture of 4 shades (cyan, yellow, magenta and black), to make coloured text and graphics and pictures.
Toner is contained in a toner cartridge. Toner cartridges are made of hard plastic they have tiny slits that enables for the ink to come through. This cartridge is then fitted into the laser printers or the photocopiers. The best way to swap a toner cartridge Swapping a toner cartridge is a simple process. Yet never force the toner cartridge into place.
o Open the front side part of the printer more often called the hatch. o Remove the used toner cartridge by unclipping it from the rail casing o Take the new toner cartridge from the packaging and shake it a bit from side to side o Then remove the foil strip (the protection which prevents the toner from leaking) o Place the fresh cartridge in much the same that you took the previous one out. o When it is fitted in properly, close the hatch.
The way to store your unused toner cartridges
Depending on whether you are utilizing your laser printer on a regular basis or not, you may want to clear out your toner cartridge and store it. The main reason for this is that when you don’t use your printer on a regular basis, the toner if left within your printer will dry out.
Remove toner cartridge from printer as before and place inside a re-sealable plastic packet. Prior to sealing you can place a small piece of wet sponge inside the packaging and after that close the seal. Store this sealed cartridge in a place which is cool, avoid sunlight or any other kinds of heat.
In this way you would ensure that you get the utmost use from your toner cartridge. However if you utilize your printer on a weekly basis then this is not needed.
