Is It Okay to Not Use My Laser Printer Often?

With the increased use of the Internet as a business medium, many companies’ printing requirements have shrunk to monthly invoices or the occasional formal correspondence. If your company only requires occasional printing, a laser printer may be the best option. A laser printer’s method of producing a printed page makes it a dependable occasional-use printer.

Inkjet
The issue with using inkjet printers for occasional printing stems from the ink’s composition. Anyone who has attempted to write with an uncapped ball-point pen will understand the difficulties associated with unused, dried-out ink cartridges. Inkjet printer cartridges contain an oil-ink mixture that lubricates the printing mechanism during the printing process. Long periods of inactivity cause the oil in the mixture to evaporate, and the exposed print heads can develop a film of dried ink that must be cleaned before the printer will produce presentable output.

Expiring Cartridges
At least one printer manufacturer, HP, extends the useful life of inkjet cartridges by embedding an expiration date into each cartridge. Once the cartridge’s expiration date has passed, the printer no longer recognises its presence and will not operate. According to HP, the expiration date protects customers by preventing old or possibly congealed ink from damaging the printer’s mechanism.

Laser Printing
When a document is sent to a laser printer, a copy of the document is “drawn” with a laser on an electrostatic imaging drum. The toner cartridge contains carbon powder, which adheres to the charged areas of the imaging drum as the drum rotates. As the drum rotates through the paper feed path, the carbon powder is transferred to a blank piece of paper. Finally, an intensely hot fusing element melts the powder onto the paper, permanently bonding the image to the paper before it is ejected from the printer.

Powder’s Advantage
The powdered toner in a laser printer is stored in an airtight dispenser, which protects the toner from excessive humidity or other conditions that can reduce toner longevity. When used infrequently over the course of several years, a laser printer requires no additional maintenance and suffers no degradation in performance.