Which Laser Printer Component Is Not Part Of The Cartridge? The Toner Cartridge And Laser Printer Components

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Laser printers combine mechanical and technical components for them to operate effectively. Even though knowing the inner parts might not be of great importance, it does not harm to know them. Understanding the laser printers components will help you to have a smooth operation.

When you know the laser printer components, you should also learn about what they do. The toner cartridge is a separate component of the laser printer responsible for image creation printed on paper. The toner cartridge also has its parts. When you finish reading this article, you will know more about laser printers and toner cartridges.

Which Laser Component Is Not Part Of The Cartridge?

The toner cartridge has components that make it more effective. The erase lamp is a laser printer component, but it is not part of the cartridge. The erase lamp bathes the drum in light to neutralize the drum’s electrical charge. It, therefore, allows any remaining particles to get removed before the next print.

The Laser Printer Components

The laser printer is one of the best printers you can choose for your printing operations. Do you want to print large documents over a short time? If you do, then a laser printer is one of the most efficient and cost-effective printers to get the job done. Here are the components you can find in a laser printer.

The Toner Cartridge

laser printers use disposable toner cartridges to lower the maintenance cost. It contains a substance called toner made of a positively charged colored iron oxide powder. The powder will become ink when it gets heated. The printer cartridge is the one that holds the toner cylinder and often the photosensitive drum.

In most cases, you will find that a substance called the developer gets incorporated into the cartridge. The developer is a finely ground metallic chemical that can get electrically charged. The developer’s role is to attract the drum when the electrically charged drum passes the toner cartridge. If the toner level becomes too low that you cannot produce a uniform dark print, you will have to replace it.

Photosensitive Drum

another crucial component of the laser printer is the photosensitive drum. Usually, it is part of the cartridge components. You can see it on your printer as a green cylinder. The drum is an aluminum cylinder with coatings of photosensitive compounds and electrically charged.

The photosensitive compounds create images on the drum by reacting to the light bounced from the mirrors. The light intensity is the one that dictates the amount of color used on the original document. The photosensitive drum also has a component called the Charge Corona.

It is a thin wire producing an electrical charge on the drum. The role of the Charged Corona is to create copies of the original documents. It makes these copies by attracting the positively charged toner onto the drum.

The Fuser Unit

The fuser unit is another component you can find on your Laser printer. It is also part of the cartridge that ensures the toner gets attached to the paper, thus making the image permanent. The fusing unit consists of the upper fusing rollers and the lower rollers.

The upper roller enables the ink to get transferred to the paper as it passes between the rollers. For the upper roller to carry out this role, it gets heated and designed to melt the thin film of the toner plastic. When it gets heated by a temperature control lamp, it gets coated with a non-stick silicone coating.

The lower rollers are made from soft silicon rubber and do not need heating. The work of the lower roller is to hold the paper and assists in ensuring smooth passage between the rollers. The occasional cycling sounds from your printer get generated when the rollers are advanced a quarter turn.

Laser

The work of the laser part of your printer is to transmit light from the diode across series of mirrors. Therefore, it paints the printed page’s image on the drum by reflecting the laser onto the drum unit. Before the laser firing, the whole of the photosensitive drum’s surface and the paper get electrically charged.

Power Supply

Due to the intensive work that the laser printers do, they use a lot of power. Therefore you should ensure you connect them to an uninterruptible power supply. The laser printer contains a power package responsible for powering the motherboard and display panels. The power package includes the laser print heads, motors, and low DC voltage converter.

Drivers And Software

Drivers and software are also part of the laser printer components. Most of the laser printers come with their software. Some of the software varieties that come with the laser printers include drivers communicating with the OS and diagnostic programs.

Moreover, it also has advanced programs allowing complete control of all options and real-time status reporting. You can find new network laser printing trends that will enable internet use in print-management tools and printing.

The Toner Cartridge Components

You have seen that a toner cartridge is a key laser component that facilitates the printing process. Like the laser printer, the cartridge also has parts that help it to function effectively. The following are some of the main components that you will find on a toner cartridge.

The Organic Photoconductor Drum

The drum is an aluminum cylinder coated with a layer of OPC material. When the OPC material gets exposed to light, its electrical properties change, becoming a conductor of electricity. The laser beam travels through the OPC drum surface and selectively discharges some drum areas during the printing process. Therefore making the drum have a latent electrostatic image.

The latent image becomes visible when the negatively charged toner particles get deposited on the drum’s exposed areas. One thing to note is that if the drum’s surface quality is low, it will result in low printing quality. If you want to re-use the cartridge for a complete cycle, you must first replace the drum.

The Organic Photoconductor Cleaning Blade

Another component of the toner cartridge is the cleaning blade that sits in contact with the OPC drum. The role of the cleaning blade is to clean the OPC drum surface by scraping off excess toner into the cartridge waste hoper. The removal of the excess toner from the drum surface happens during printing as the drum rotates.

It would be best to empty the waste toner receptacle inside the toner cartridge where the excess toner gets stored. Emptying the toner receptacle prevents the waste toner from leaking into the printer. Moreover, replacing the cleaning blade will help in ensuring its surface seals well against the drum.

The Magnetic Developer Roller

Another cartridge component that plays a crucial role is the cylindrical sleeve called the developer roller. The developer roller transfers image-forming toner particles from the reservoir onto the OPC drum selected areas. It has a non-magnetic hollow cylinder that has a textured exterior surface.

On the other hand, its interior has a magnet that produces magnetic fields. The magnetic fields hold the toner particles on the developer roller’s textured exterior surface. It is crucial to examine the developer roller and replace them during the cartridge remanufacturing process.

Doctor And Sealing Blade

Doctor and sealing blades are also part of the components of the cartridge. You can find them on the toner hopper part of the cartridge. The doctor blade is a precise leveling blade that ensures the toners on the magnetic developer roller are in a single layer. The doctor blade is a critical component in having high-quality printing. Without it, or if it gets damaged, there will be a noticeable effect on the image quality.

Primary Charge Roller

You can find the primary charge roller beside the OPC drum. The work of the printer charger roller is placing an electrical charge on the OPC drum. Moreover, after the print cycle ends, it erases the residual charge.

The OPC drum surface and the rubber charge roller surface rotate in contact with each other. Therefore, if the primary charge roller gets damaged, the OPC drum surface will also get damaged in the process.

What Is A Laser Printer Maintenance Kit?

The Printer maintenance kit is a kit containing all the tools and supplies necessary for performing preventative maintenance. The components of the maintenance kit will vary since printers come in different models. The replacement parts that you will most likely find in the maintenance kit are fuser assembly, separation pads, and fan assembly.

How Does A Paper Jam Occur In A Laser Printer?

When a sheet of paper enters into the laser printer, it gets turned into tiny particles of paper. When many paper sheets get into the Laser printer, paper dust settles on the printer’s mechanical parts after some time. A paper jam will occur when one of the mechanical parts slightly operates differently, leading to a printer malfunction.

Conclusion

all the laser printer components are vital to the printer’s operations. If there is a problem with one part, then the printer cannot operate as it should. Therefore you should ensure that you always have your printer maintenance kit in place at all times. You have seen how crucial the cartridge is to the laser printer. Despite being part of the laser printer components, it also has its features, and erase lamp is not one of them.