Since the advent of the laser printer, lots of other machines have been left to languish in store rooms, cupboards, attics and other forgotten places. From the early offerings from manufacturers like Canon, Quadram Corp. and others, these machines have advanced enormously. We have in our workshop at least one laser printer from each generation of the Hewlett Packard range except for the very latest high-speed and colour offerings.
Early laser printers were constructed to last, and if you have ever tried to lift one you will understand. By the standards of today, these printers were heavy, slow and had poor graphics resolution (but still miles ahead of the competition). By the standards of the day in the early '80's, these printers were really "gee whiz" machines, with fully formed text characters and dazzling graphics performance, with text which looked as good as that from an IBM "golf ball" electric typewriter (and you could have it in a range of sizes and typefaces). At 300 dots per inch (DPI), to the naked eye, outlines were smooth and everything was so crisp after the old dot matrix machines. Now the office printer was something more than a curiosity, the managing directors report could be printed on it and it looked professional. Suddenly, many tasks which had previously been sent out to printing professionals could be done "in house". The printing revolution had begun.
It is often said that there is nothing new under the sun, and in a sense this holds true for the laser printer. The process is the same old "xerographic" process which had been in use for many decades - that is, a light sensitive surface is electrically charged, exposed to light to create a "latent image" and then developed to be turned into hard copy. The xerographic process had been used in that office beast - the photocopier - for some time before the laser printer came along. In the laser printer, a photosensitive device (belt or drum) is charged electrically, it is exposed or "written on" by a beam of laser light (relatively new invention) to produce a latent image, developed using toner powder, transferred on to paper by an electric charge and melted onto the paper by a "fusing" unit. Because toner powder is "plastic", it melts under high temperature and sticks to the paper - the fusing unit is very hot - typically around the 185 degrees celsius. Of necessity this is a very basic explanation of how it operates. Want to know more? - call us.
We will service most (but not all) makes and models of laser printer. We will repair many makes and models, but again, not all. Call us if you have a problem or send us an email. We even have cartridges for some of the more ancient machines, and we stock a range of parts (but not accessories) for many of the more common HP and Canon laser printers.
For domestic users we offer service and repair facilities with the machine brought to us. For business, commercial and government clients we offer on-site service and repair. In the event that repairs cannot be carried out in-situ, we may opt to remove your machine to our workshop and offer you a loan machine to cover the repair time. We are not able to cover all makes and models with this offer so you may suffer a speed penalty in some cases.
We do not sell new printers but will occasionally have a used, refurbished machine for sale.
#Care of your laser printer. See our "tips" page.
#Buying a printer. (It is a minefield out there)
Before you buy your first laser printer, or replace that old clunker, think about your real needs. What are you presently printing with? An older laser, an inkjet printer, a dot matrix printer. If you presently have a printer, what is it that makes you dissatisfied with it. Too slow, presentation not up to scratch, insufficient paper capacity, wasting paper because it wont duplex (print on both sides), not enough memory to cope with the newer operating environments. Whatever your reason for looking for a new printer, let the buyer beware for all that glitters is definitely not gold. Salesmen like to sell printers, that is what they are paid (or on commission) to do and of course, their printer will be exactly what you need. WRONG. View all salesmen with the same jaundiced eye as you would a used car salesman. Some of the things to be wary of.
#Speed. "Yes, this printer will do 24 pages per minute no problem". Take a long hard look at the machine specification to determine under just what conditions it will do this speed. It is unlikely to do the same in your operating environment. Will you be connecting it to your network or will it be attached to a stand-alone computer. See how fast it is when processing graphics or a complex spreadsheet with many typefaces, shaded cells and embedded graphs, such as when you are trying to get the annual reports printed. Ask the salesman for a demonstration using some of the same software and operating conditions that you have to operate in. Take the printer specification sheet away with you and study it carefully - don't be pressured into taking the printer now because "it won't be at this special price tomorrow".
#Consumables. Oh yes, this printer is very cheap to run. IS IT? Don't be taken in by the story that the toner only costs $x to replace and it does so many thousands of pages. Be wary. There are two basically different systems employed in laser printers. There is the self contained cartridge which has the photoconductor drum and the toner supply within it. Replacing the "toner cartridge" gives you a new photoconductor drum as well as new toner. The other type employs a "drum unit" which has the photoconductor drum in it and perhaps a waste toner collection system, and a separate "toner" kit. These toner kits are cheap when compared to the single unit cartridge, but when you buy it, you don't get a new photoconductor drum. To find out the real cost of consumables, work out how many toner kits and drum units you will need to print 200,000 pages and then compare that to the single unit types. Don't be fooled. You will not get the number of pages per toner kit or drum unit or print cartridge that the glossies say. It depends totally on what you are printing. A cartridge rated at 10,000 pages at 5% coverage may yield 4000 pages in your usage pattern. A drum unit specified to last 20,000 pages will probably last half that if you are sending the printer single page jobs to do. They last better on long runs and if you want an explanation of why that is, please call us. Then there are other things which are frequently overlooked - like the replacement intervals for certain components in the printer itself, like paper pickup and feed rollers, transfer rollers, fusing assemblies, and in colour printers, drum unit and intermediate transfer belts. The long term cost of ownership often bears little resemblance to the glowing story the salesman has for you.
But..... the laser printer is cheaper to run than an inkjet printer. However, the capital outlay is higher initially.
If all this sounds cynical - it is - because we have spent many years seeing clients with totally unsuitable machines because of unscrupulous dealers.
#Service. Is the machine backed up by a realistic warranty - can it be serviced by local professionals or does it have to be sent interstate. Also, beware of the long-term extended warranty running into many years - they may not be able to honour it because the manufacturer may not offer replacement parts support that long.
The Colour Laser printer
So you think you would like a colour laser printer. STOP! Go and make a coffee and have a very careful think about your reasons for this thought. Are you a business or a "domestic" user? How much printing do you think you will do with it? What sort of printing will you be doing? e.g. Business graphics (graphs, histograms, pie charts etc), a nice colour logo on your letterhead, the occasional photograph, mostly black text, colour dense printing as in advertising or some medical applications?
Many folks have been very disappointed with their purchase when they discover the real cost of ownership and the problems they have encountered when the printer is not "intelligently" used.
If you are wanting to do mostly black text printing - dont buy a colour laser printer - buy a monochrome laser printer instead and either a good inkjet printer for the few colour jobs you have to do, or send these out to someone else to print for you.
In the colour laser printer, when you send a print job to it, ALL the colour cartridges are being driven, whether you will be using colour or not. If you do not use the colour cartridges, they will simply wear out anyway as all the internal components are turning and the cleaning and toner metering blades, photoconductor drums, charging rollers, developing rollers, gears etc are wearing. In addition to this, the toner, which is chemically produced loses its capacity to accept and hold charge as it is stirred. Eventually one of two things will happen: either you will start to get unwanted lines of colour on your pages, poor quality (streaky or blotchy print) or spots and specks of colour randomly distributed across your pages as the waste bin of the cartridge fills up and overflows - and makes the inside of your printer look pretty disgusting.
The cartridges are rated to deliver a certain number of pages at 5% cover and if you use less than this on each page, your page yield will increase. However, there comes a point at which the wear on the cartridge makes it unserviceable while indicating that it still has much toner left in it.
The primary rule is:- USE IT OR LOSE IT!
As soon as your print quality starts to deteriorate, change the print cartridge which is giving you trouble, regardless of what the toner status page or display tells you. Your status page may tell you that you have printed 700pages with this cartridge and there are 1300 pages left in the cartridge - but if it has been in the printer while it has printed 7000 black pages and had three changes of black print cartridge - change your colour cartridge and accept that you are not using the machine "intelligently". Put a significant amount of colour on every page that you print if you wish to get "value for money" from your colour laser printer.
Another warning is about printing labels. If you read your user manual (now there is a novel thought), most printer manufacturers will have a notice telling you not to put labels in your colour laser. If you feel that you must do this, make sure that you understand the path that the paper takes as it transits through the printer. If you find that it will bend the sheet of labels so that the labels bow outwards, away from the backing sheet at any point in their journey - dont try it. Sticky labels can end up in some difficult places and may be costly to remove. Also, definitely DO NOT put a partly used sheet of labels in any laser printer - colour or monochrome - once a label has been removed from the backing sheet, there is a raw glue edge exposed which may adhere to parts of the printer in the paper path, and particularly in the fusing assembly (the bit with the "High Temperature" warning on it) which may necessitate a costly maintenance visit.
#The recycled laser toner cartridge
There are more stories about these than you can shake a stick at, e.g. They will void your warranty, they can only be recycled once, they don't perform as well as new cartridges, they are not good value for money and on and on it goes. Most of these stories are just that, stories. For the most part, a cartridge recycled by a reputable firm will be just as good as a new one. They will not void your warranty, in spite of what the service rep. or salesman says (read what the manufacturer of your printer really says in the manual which came with your printer), and they can be recycled many times. Generally, they will perform as well and in some cases better than the new product, and they are good value for money. Many of the cartridges sold by large stationers are not new but are remanufactured. New cartridges will come in a box plastered with the printer manufacturers logos, trade marks and certainly their name, e.g. Canon, HP, Lexmark. If it comes in a brown box, or a pretty, shiny laminated box without all the manufacturers marks, it is a fair bet that it is a remanufactured or "compatible" cartridge.
However,
be aware that there are some unscrupulous characters out there, many of them
"Telemarketing" with all sorts of "great deals".
Don't be in it. Most of these come from interstate, have not been rebuilt
by Australians - or even in
Recycling makes very good sense. All the internal parts of a laser cartridge can be replaced when they are worn. If you break pieces off the cartridge case it will not be able to be re-used and will have to be broken down for recycling the plastic. A lot of energy goes into the manufacture of these cartridges and it is incredibly wasteful for them to end up in landfill. Cartridge recyclers attempt to ensure that there is a zero waste stream from their operation, all components being either re-used, refurbished and then re-used, or converted to another use e.g metal recyclers for aluminium and steel components. Our environment benefits from this saving, and you benefit from the lower cost of the cartridges. Cartridge recyclers who are members of the Australasian Cartridge Remanufacturers Association offer guaranteed products and service and can be found in all areas of the State.
Be wise, economise, with good quality remanufactured toner cartridges.
We have been in business for 21 years and in all that time we have found only one printer which had been damaged by a failed toner cartridge, and that one had NOT been refilled or remanufactured. Yes, a bad cartridge might spill toner into your printer but that is not a catastrophe, it can be easily cleaned up - and new cartridges can do this too.
Obviously, we would like to have your recycling custom, but here are a few other names you might like to consider.
In the city:
Australian Laser Charge 223 Harrington Street Hobart, Phone 6231 3171(Michael, or Michael- yes, there are two of them - and sometimes, Rob or Ben)
Tecnomics 216 Liverpoool Street Hobart, Phone 6231 1831(Richard or Kim)
Northern Suburbs:
Cartridge
World, 50a
Launceston:
Tasmanian Printer Cartridge Co. 119 York Street, Launceston, Phone 6334 2999 (Paul or Andreina)
#Transporting your printer:
If you need to move your printer to another room, another building, or another State.....or perhaps to take it to a repair shop for service/repair, there are a couple of precautions you should observe.
1. REMOVE the toner cartridge, pack it separately for shipping with the printer. Leaving the toner cartridge in the machine is inviting disaster if the machine is roughly handled, it may spill toner through the print engine.
2. Empty out the paper trays. The machine will be much lighter (if it has deep trays) without the paper and if the machine is subjected to sudden shock there is less likelihood of damage.
3. Pack it carefully for shipping. Ensure that it is well padded and that it is kept "right way up" during transit. The original box it came in is great for shipping, but few people keep them. Strong boxes can be obtained easily from removal firms.
Got a question or two - give us a call on 03 6229 8511 or email us at lorraine@printertech.com.au or lloyd@printertech.com.au
This page last updated November 19th, 2010