For official-looking communication, legal papers, reports, and marketing materials, businesses depend on laser printers. The toner cartridge and drum of a heavily used printer must be replaced on a regular basis. You may increase printer uptime and reduce maintenance costs by being aware of the differences between these components.
- Purpose of Cartridge
A laser printer’s cartridge contains toner powder, which is finely ground substance that is applied to the page to create text and images. Like ink cartridges for an inkjet printer, toner is a consumable material; the more you print, the more toner the printer requires. You swap out the cartridge for a fresh one when the toner runs out. Seals on the cartridge stop toner dust from entering the printing system and degrading the result.
- Purpose of Drum
A metal cylinder coated with selenium or another photosensitive substance serves as the drum of a laser printer. A device within the printer charges the drum with static electricity, which is then removed from the surface of the drum by a laser beam except where text is to be printed. The pattern of charge still persists even if there is no visible picture on the drum. The toner powder sticks to the drum because to static electricity. A page of text is created when the printer rolls a piece of paper up against the drum and deposits toner on it.
- Maintenance Frequency
Toner cartridge capacity varies depending on how much toner is stored within and the sort of printing you perform; for example, text papers use less toner per page than marketing brochures with plenty of images. A standard cartridge has enough toner to print roughly 2,000 pages of documents; high-capacity desktop printer cartridges can print about 6,000 pages; and high-output workgroup printers may print over 15,000 pages from a single cartridge. The type of printer and the documents it prints also affect the drum’s lifespan; a colour graphics printer may print 20,000 pages of text before a drum wears out, but only 5,000 for colour graphics. These are often two different maintenance items as drums need to be replaced less frequently than toner cartridges.
- Number Used
Laser printers may use more than one toner cartridge, but only one drum. Color laser printers feature four toner cartridges: black, cyan, magenta, and yellow. Monochrome machines only utilise black toner. The printer can create all shades of grey when used in conjunction. Once for each hue, the paper makes four rounds around the drum. This is why printing in colour causes the drum to wear down four times more quickly than printing plain text.
