What is meant by "Duty Cycle" when referring to laser printers?

On Sunday, March 15, 1998 at 4:00:00 AM UTC-4, Tyler Melanson wrote:
I know the Duty Cycle is the max number of pages that a
laser printer can handle per month, but I don't understand
why a limit is set on the monthly print capacity allowable by
a laser printer. Does this max page capacity set reffering
to the max # of pages it can handle before it needs maintanance
or something?

Duty cycle for printers is the number of prints that a printer/copier can produce in one month without a component failure or non customer replaceable units like toner or imaging kits. All manufacturers calculate this differently as there is no industry standard. This is not a figure that a home device or even typically office mfp's are going to be printing (other than perhaps a print shop or service bureau). Duty cycles can be anywhere from 7-10 times the recommended monthly maximum impressions. This figure should be used rather than Duty cycle as it is a realistic monthly average and may also factor in TCO