Thursday, 8 December 2022

What is a toner - and what you should know before you buy it

 

What is toner or a toner cartridge? Are there really differences to the ink cartridge? If yes, which ones are they? After all, a toner, like an ink cartridge, belongs to the consumables of a printer and has the sole task of putting the printed image on the paper. Especially if you work in this area like we do, this question is still asked in our environment. That's why we've written a small article that answers these questions.

What is toner or a toner cartridge?

A toner or a toner cartridge belongs to the consumables of a laser printer and is used for every printout. But how does a toner differ from an ink cartridge, for example? Ink cartridges are small containers that are filled with ink and are used in an inkjet printer. The toner cartridges, on the other hand, are filled with toner powder and only supply colorants for the laser printer or copier to create professional print images. The powder is very fine so that it can flow and so resembles a liquid. With toner, the toner particles are transferred from the powder to the passing paper by electrical forces and melted with a heating roller.

What is mono-component toner?

One-component toner is a combination of toner and fixer that makes it easy to use. The one-component toner has a built -in developer , which is necessary if the laser printer works with a developer roller. Here the toner powder is charged by a tube that rotates around a magnet, the particles are attracted and melted by heat and transferred to the paper. Only a compact toner cartridge is required, which is more expensive to buy. Since the single-component toner already has a developer and this would falsify the colors, it is usually delivered in black.

What is a two-component toner?

The real feature of the two-component toner is that the developer and the actual toner are separate. The finest iron filings serve as a developer, which is only used to transport the toner to the photoconductor and is not transferred to the paper. The developer is wiped off and, depending on the printer design, falls either into a waste toner container or it is transported back into the toner cartridge to pick up toner powder again. Due to the cheap iron filings, which serves as a developer, the two-component toners are considerably cheaper than one-component toners.

What is liquid toner?

With this method, a photo drum is exposed during the printing process. As soon as this has been exposed, the drum can accept the toner. The special feature of this process is that the toner is not toner powder, as is the case with the other two processes, but is liquid. This variant was developed by the Indigo company, which was taken over by the market-leading company Hewlett Packard and is now operating on the market as HP-Indigo. This company exclusively produces the required digital printing machines. This application with the use of liquid toner is also known as photo ink. The photo ink is heated during application and transferred to the printing paper with the help of the transfer rollers, where it cools down and hardens suddenly. This method is best for paper since the printing paper is hardly heated and does not give off moisture. This avoids the paper becoming wavy and is in perfect condition. Machines currently exist that support up to six colors simultaneously. With these machines, printing with special colors is no longer a problem. With this method, it is also possible to print with light cyan or light yellow. This made the goal of photorealistic printing possible. With this method, it is also possible to print with light cyan or light yellow. This made the goal of photorealistic printing possible. With this method, it is also possible to print with light cyan or light yellow. This made the goal of photorealistic printing possible.

Buy original toner or alternative toner cartridges?

The question keeps coming up: "Should I buy original or alternative toners?" If you want your printer or copier to provide you with reliable, brilliant print results for many years to come, we recommend that you only use original products. Buying original toners is usually the slightly more expensive option, but they are of better quality than when buying alternative toner cartridges. Original toners are 100% matched to your printer and have excellent materials and achieve brilliant and professional quality, maintain the printing performance specified by the manufacturer, are very reliable and ensure a long service life of your printer. Original toners give you the confidence you need to achieve perfect prints for a long time. Original consumables do not have to be expensive. In our shop you can buy printer cartridges and toner cheaply.

Rebuild toner

Rebuild toner is used toner cartridges from well-known manufacturers, which are collected by dealers as empties and then sold to recycling companies. The empties are processed and refilled with the appropriate powder. During processing, defective parts are replaced so that the toner can once again fulfill its purpose and can be sold and put into operation without any problems. Since the toner is recycled using this method, this process is very environmentally friendly. The filled toners can be offered on the market much more cheaply than originally packaged new goods. Unfortunately, toners that have just appeared on the market cannot yet be offered as rebuild toners, since empties must first be produced in order to be able to use this recycling method.

Health & Environment

Before processing, toner is not a harmless material and one should avoid direct contact with the toner powder for health reasons. When you replace a toner or clean your printer, it doesn't matter if you touch the toner powder. However, permanent contact with toner can be very harmful and carcinogenic. Therefore, please work carefully and cleanly if you want to replace a toner or clean your printer. We therefore recommend that you always use disposable gloves when carrying out maintenance work on the laser printer. It is now known that when printing with a laser printer or photocopier, fine toner particles are emitted and these can be distributed via the air flowing out of the printer and inhaled. These emissions are caused by the high heat exposure during the printing process. Again, it is advisable to install a fine dust filter on the printer to filter the air and, accordingly, the fine dust particles that are blown out of the printer.

Consumables - imaging drum

An important topic with regard to toner as a consumable is also the image drum (drum kit) of a laser printer, because this is just as important for brilliant print quality as the toner or ink cartridge (e.g. HP, Brother, Canon, Epson, Lexmark, Kyocera, Samsung) responsible. The image drum is also one of the wearing parts in a laser printer and must therefore be serviced and replaced if necessary after prolonged use and heavy wear of your printer. Image drums are produced by the manufacturers just like toner and ink cartridges and are optionally offered as spare parts or consumables. Image drums are used for every print, so it is important to ensure that you use good material again. When replacing your image drums on the printer, do not do without an original. Your printer will thank you with reliability, full confidence and professional print results.

Do you own a laser printer and need cheap printer cartridges or toner for it? Then you are exactly right with us. Once the toner on the printer has been used up, a new one has to be found as soon as possible. You can get inexpensive original toner for your printer in our online shop. There you can, for example, order toner for laser printers from well-known manufacturers such as: Lexmark, HP, Brother, Epson, Canon, Dell, Oki, IBM, Samsung, Kyocera, Panasonic, Xerox and many other brands.

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