Laser printer and a drum?

After some thought, I've realized that inkjet printing is
incredibly complicated and sophisticated. Laser printers don't
have to fine-tune for such things as ink drying time and paper type.

I'm enthralled with color printing with inkjets, but the
technology, while excellent in some respects, is so Mickey-Mouse
in others.

Flasherly wrote: "Drum is part of the toner."
It's important to note that this is only true of _some_ printers.
It's standard with HP.

A friend recently discovered that his Epson inkjet cartridges
were leaking and Epson allowed that there's no cure. He put the
Epson in his mountain cabin (around 6,000 feet). The printer is
back at sea level in San Jose, and, well, no more Epsons for him.
I told him to check into Kodak.

"Check into," because we don't have quite enough feedback on
their new line yet. And I suspect that while ink is much more
affordable than with the rip-off champs, I suspect that home
refilling may be an issue (the black cartridges appear to lay
down a fixatif, which would logically come from a second tank).

Richard

Arthur Entlich wrote:
How long the drums last is very much dependent on how will they are
manufactured. Some, especially older ones, were very durable and could
survive dozens of toner refills. Some were designed as separate
consumables relative to the toner cartridge. Some can be refinished to
make them light sensitive and to evenly distribute the surface again.

However, toner/drum cartridges today often get only one refill from them
before the surface fails, so yes, it is yet another bit of planned
obsolescence. Since the consumables are now the major revenue source for
the manufacturers and retailers, remember to consider the cost of
replacement consumables in your purchasing decisions.

Yes. Always good advice.

I've had Okidata LED printers from two different generations. An
LED printer is a great idea: it's a laser printer except that the
image is formed on the drum from a set of teentsy fixed LEDs
instead of a laser engine with its moving parts. However,
implementing the LED technology appears to have been a slog.

I also had an HP III. This early laser printer was a true
workhorse, but it also spewed massive amounts of sickening ozone
into the air, used toner that required high fusing temperature
(read high electric bills, warmup time, and heat output). Ozone
filters failed, and third-party ozone filters were worthless.

Oki's second-generation LED printers tried to address the "green"
problems. They were successful for the environment, a disaster
for printing. Re-formulating the toner to melt at lower
temperature wasn't difficult. But reformulating the drum coating
to go with the toner was a disaster: the expensive drums
self-destructed; the drums were so touchy that their shelf life
was a year at best; much shorter after being unpacked.

At $160 per drum, Oki didn't retain a lot of customers. In my
case, after a scathing letter from me, Oki actually replaced my
printer at their expense seven years later with one that was
straightened out. It's a nicely-built printer; print quality is
OK for text, not so good for half-tone. Inkjets are more fun.

Yes?

Richard

I also had an HP III. This early laser printer was a true
workhorse,

No problems here with an elderly Canon SX engine
flatbed Apple Laserwriter II for the odd letter, nice
sharp, print.

On Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:24:52 +0000, Ato_Zee wrote:

I also had an HP III. This early laser printer was a true workhorse,

No problems here with an elderly Canon SX engine flatbed Apple
Laserwriter II for the odd letter, nice sharp, print.

We had one at work for year. OK as long as you didn't alter the
configuration more than about 4000 times - the 'memory' element wore out.
But a nice printer - PostScript too, with a price (in those days) to
match.



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Richard Steinfeld wrote:

After some thought, I've realized that inkjet printing is
incredibly complicated and sophisticated. Laser printers don't
have to fine-tune for such things as ink drying time and paper type.

Well, I do know of one $10K or $20K corporate laser printer/copier that if you tell
the printer that the current paper is heavy cardstock it moves through the printer at
about one third speed.

Tony
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Ato_Zee wrote:

Two immediate advantages of a laser, sharper, crisper,
and darker print on plain bond paper, the ink doesn't
wick into the fibres, plus it's waterproof.

Also in my experience mono lasers print straight text pages _much_
faster than an inkjet in higher quality mode. However complex graphics
can take much longer to up-load to the printer before printing actually
starts.

Brian Rumary, England

www.rumary.co.uk

On Sep 8, 10:07 am, Anthona wrote:
I was browsing Staples yesterday and a woman approached
me and warned me not to consider any Brother laser printers, cause not
only one has to replace a color toner when it runs out, but something
about a drum. She said once the drum goes, it gets pretty expensive to
replace...Does anyone know the truth about drums in printers? Do they
all have them? Are they that sensitive and expensive to replace? Who
can recommend such a printer without a drum? This was the first time I
ever heard of a drum in a printer.

Samsung - tho guess Brother might be the same. I checked it out first
- to disassemble the drum for refilling, paper count fuses, and
whatever curves might be thrown in. Costs $6 for a bottle of toner
from Singapore, shipped USPS. Color I don't need, though. For a $40
laser, shipped, marked up aftermarket or factory toner/drum assemblies
become less a concern.

I bought a Brother HL-5040 laser printer for high-volume black and white
printing, not realizing the difference between a laser and laserjet.
Once I realized the difference, I thought the separate toner and drum
replacement would be a problem, but it is easy to do.

So far, in six years I have replaced the toner cartridge once (Yes I
use it all the time!), and the drum is supposed to last for three toner
cartridges. I priced the drum at around $90 back then -- almost as much
as the cost of the new printer, and more than the cost of the toner
cartridge (around $65). It is a good, cheap solution to high-volume b/w
printing requirements at less than 1 cent per page.

I bought a second laser (HL-2080) for my son to take to college. If he
needs color he can use the inkjet.

I do not know if laserjets get the same print volume per cartridge as a
laser, but I suspect they probably come close.

On Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:34:58 -0500, Joel wrote:

Flasherly wrote:

On Sep 8, 10:07 am, Anthona wrote:
I was browsing Staples yesterday and a woman approached me and warned
me not to consider any Brother laser printers, cause not only one has
to replace a color toner when it runs out, but something about a
drum. She said once the drum goes, it gets pretty expensive to
replace...Does anyone know the truth about drums in printers? Do they
all have them? Are they that sensitive and expensive to replace? Who
can recommend such a printer without a drum? This was the first time
I ever heard of a drum in a printer.

Samsung - tho guess Brother might be the same. I checked it out first
- to disassemble the drum for refilling, paper count fuses, and
whatever curves might be thrown in. Costs $6 for a bottle of toner
from Singapore, shipped USPS. Color I don't need, though. For a $40
laser, shipped, marked up aftermarket or factory toner/drum assemblies
become less a concern.

There should be no toner in the Drum to refill, or it seems like
you
are
talking about the Toner Cartridge *not* the DRUM

Unless you're specifically talking about this particular model, remember
that in some cases the toner cartridge *includes* the drum.



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On Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:11:18 -0500, Joel wrote:

Bob Eager wrote:

On Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:34:58 -0500, Joel wrote:

Flasherly wrote:

On Sep 8, 10:07 am, Anthona wrote:
I was browsing Staples yesterday and a woman approached me and
warned me not to consider any Brother laser printers, cause not
only one has to replace a color toner when it runs out, but
something about a drum. She said once the drum goes, it gets
pretty expensive to replace...Does anyone know the truth about
drums in printers? Do they all have them? Are they that sensitive
and expensive to replace? Who can recommend such a printer without
a drum? This was the first time I ever heard of a drum in a
printer.

Samsung - tho guess Brother might be the same. I checked it out
first - to disassemble the drum for refilling, paper count fuses,
and whatever curves might be thrown in. Costs $6 for a bottle of
toner from Singapore, shipped USPS. Color I don't need, though.
For a $40 laser, shipped, marked up aftermarket or factory
toner/drum assemblies become less a concern.

There should be no toner in the Drum to refill, or it seems like
you
are
talking about the Toner Cartridge *not* the DRUM

Unless you're specifically talking about this particular model,
remember that in some cases the toner cartridge *includes* the drum.

Yes, ALL laser printers have Toner Cartridge *inside* the Drum as
this
is
where the Drum get the toner print on paper.

Wrong.



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