Everything You Need to Know about Laser Printer

A laser printer goes beyond traditional printing and uses the laser and the electrical charge model. This helps in offering neatness and better quality. In addition, laser printers use toner and laser light to print documents. Choosing a laser printer that perfectly suits you can be challenging. Thus, we provide complete details about different laser printers’ types, working, and benefits.

Also Read, best printer between 5000 and 10000 in India 2023.

1. Working of Laser Printers 

Wondering how the laser printers work? Let us now explore their work and do it through some simple steps. This might help you if you are planning to buy a printer.

1.1 Sending

This is the first step to begin the process of laser printer. First, the required document is transferred into digital data and then sent to the particular printer from the computer. Next, the printer reassembles this data from the computer into a printed image within a few seconds. Laser printers thus capture the data and then process the digital document.

1.2 Cleaning

Laser printers in their printer drum have a residue. Therefore, cleaning is a second step and involves a physical and electrical process that is carried out to remove the earlier print work. This assists in preparing the photosensitive drum to get ready for the next print. During this process, toner remnants on the drum get scraped away into a debris cavity via a rubber-cleaning blade. 

Electrical charges that remain on the drum from the previous print work are defused inside the laser printer with the help of electrostatic erase lamps. Then, the lubrication is applied to the heat roller. This ensures that sufficient heat is applied to transfer the image.

1.3 Conditioning

Conditioning is the next step, and it is a process that requires charging the drum unit and the paper that passes via the corona wire. Applying a static charge to a particular paper helps an image transfer electrostatically to the specific laser printer page.

1.4 Exposing

The next step of laser printers is exposing. The photosensitive drum at this stage gets exposed to a laser beam. The surface charge of all the drum areas exposed to the laser is reduced to around 100 volts DC.

As the printer’s drum turns, an invisible latent print is produced. The image that will be printed appears as a thin layer of electrons for the first time. The laser’s glow thus breaks the darkness within the printer’s cartridge.

1.5 Developing

In the developing stage of the laser printer, the latent image on the drum is applied with the toner. Toner is made up of powdered plastics that are negatively charged. The toner ingredients used in printers are coloured pigments and fumed silica.

Silica protects the toner particles from sticking together. It also facilitates the smooth flow of the toner from the cartridge to the printer. Zinc, iron, and chromium are also controlling agents to retain the toner particle’s negative electrostatic charge. Also, different pigments are used to produce coloured printer toner cartridges. 

1.6 Transferring

The next step is transferring. The transfer roller applies a positive charge to the paper. The toner thus starts to heat up. Next, the toner adder spins and pulls the toner inside and gathers the dust of the toner on its surface. 

The magenta toner particles then get pulled onto the drum from the developer. A few magenta toner particles here and there then blend with blue, black, and yellow and form a rainbow of amazing colours. The paper then passes over each cartridge, and the image gets transferred to the paper. 

1.7 Fusing

The final step is fusing. The toner is applied with the heat and pressure by the fuser unit. The toner creates a bond as it gets pressed and melted into the paper. The fuser unit is covered with Teflon as light silicone oil removes any possibility of the paper sticking to them.

The fuser unit melts the toner powder and creates the image. Excess toner that is not transferred to the drum is returned to the hopper to be used again in future print work. 

Types of Laser Printer

Laser printers fall into various categories. These are determined by the size and output of the printers. Let us now explore the main categories of laser printers. They are Personal, Workgroup, Colour, Production, and Office.

2.1 Personal Laser Printer

These types of laser printers come in very small sizes. Therefore, they can easily be kept on a single desk. This means they do not require more space and are useful for individual users. This type of printer is designed with simplex as well as duplex mechanisms. Also, it is less expensive and best for personal use.

2.2 Office Laser Printer

Office printers are usually simple, but now some models are available with duplex mechanisms. A small group can use these printers to print 8-12 pages within a minute. Thus, its speed is quite good. At once, it is capable of holding around 250 paper sheets. The best part is that it can be easily connected to multiple PCs.

2.3 Workgroup Laser Printer

These printers are introduced for large and small networks which multiple users can share. This type of printer is also available in both mechanisms like simplex and duplex. It also helps in increasing productivity. It can hold a good amount of paper, like 1500-25 sheets at a time. Also, it works without any operator intervention for a long time.

Workgroup printers are designed to share multiple users on a network. Therefore, most of the workgroup printers are designed to be floor-standing. Although, some of them are small in size and can be easily placed on a desk or pedestal. As shared devices, workgroup printers run unsupervised. Therefore, it can run without any operator intervention for a long period.

2.4 Production Laser Printer

These printers are high-speed printers. It can operate for a full day continuously. It can print 50-135 PPM at once. It can also hold many sheets, like 2500 paper sheets. It requires continuous fanfold stationery. 

Although it is more expensive than other printers, they are worth investing in. Also, it has a variety of disk storage fonts and forms. Production printers are used in many areas with high speed and high volume printing.

2.5 Colour Laser Printers

These printers are available in four colours. They are yellow, Cyan, magenta, and black. It operates with a little less speed, around 2-8 PPM. It is used for only coloured documents. You can easily share it with various users for colour printing. It is more expensive.

3. What are the benefits of Laser Printers?

Let us now look at some of the benefits of using laser printers.

3.1 Perfect for Large Printing Requirements

Laser printers are considered perfect and ideal for office usage because they can fulfil large printing needs. The users can very easily print in bulk volume without facing any issue. 

3.2 High-Speed

Due to the usage of laser technology, these printers generally provide the best printing speed. This means that, by their speedy and efficient job, laser printers help in saving a significant amount of the user’s time. Besides being ideal for large printing requirements, their greater speed makes it perfect for use in the office. 

3.3 Excellent Text Quality

Laser printers are quite suitable as they print the best quality text. No other type of printer can produce such crisp and high-quality prints. Due to this reason, laser printers are always chosen to print important official documents.

3.4 Low-Cost

It may sound surprising that even though laser printers have so many unique features, the overall cost is comparatively cheaper. Although its initial purchasing cost is generally high, the low running cost of this printer compensates for it. 

The main reason is that the toners are not used in the ink cartridges but in the laser itself. This means that you are not required to refill and replace costly ink cartridges. 

3.5 Reliability

The best part about laser printers is that they are long-lasting and, thus, reliable. This is because the toner used in laser printers cannot evaporate, so it doesn’t dry out. The toner’s yield may differ from 1500 to 60000 pages. It depends upon the printer and the way it is taken care of.

Conclusion

Suppose you plan to buy a laser printer for any use like personal or office. In that case, you must consider all the points mentioned above before investing your money. This helps in making a well-thought-of decision.

Boobalan
Boobalan
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