How Does a Laser Printer Work? All Your Questions WERE ANSWERED.

If you're in the market for a printer for your office, you'll no doubt want to get the one best suited for your needs. In business and industry, getting a wide-format printer that uses laser technology is common. If you need clarification on what a laser printer is or how laser printer technology works, we'll explain it all below.

1. What Is a Laser Printer?
2. Parts of a Laser Printer
3. Stages of Laser Printing
4. Advantages of Laser Printers 
3. Learn More from the Metro Repro Pros

What Is a Laser Printer?

You may be more familiar with the inkjet printer that most people have in their homes. These use a traditional method to print ink onto paper. A laser printer uses a laser and electrical charge to get images and text onto paper. These printers typically have a resolution of 600 dots per inch or more, allowing for neater, more sophisticated print jobs. 

Parts of a Laser Printer 

How does a laser printer work? Before we discuss the laser printing process, we need to learn about the parts of a laser printer. Modern laser printers have some key elements that work together to produce the high-quality documents they've become known for:

Photosensitive Drum

The drum attracts positively charged toner particles to its surface. Once it is adequately charged using a corona wire, mirrors scan the images and guide laser beams onto the surface of the drum.

Power Supply

The power supply converts AC currents into the high voltages needed to charge the drum and facilitate the transfer process.

Toner Cartridges

Toner is essentially ink in a powdered form. When the fuser unit heats the powder, it melts and fuses the paper under pressure.

Corona Wires

A laser printer has two corona wires which are charged by the high-voltage power supply. The primary corona wire positively charges the drum unit to draw the toner particles onto its surface. Meanwhile, the transfer corona wire negatively charges the paper and draws the toner from the surface of the drum onto the sheet.

Fuser Unit

As the name suggests, the fuser unit is made of two heated rollers, which fuse the toner particles onto the paper. It uses high levels of pressure and heat to melt the particles and permanently bond them to paper.

Waste Toner Bottle

This component collects excess toner from the photosensitive drum that goes unused during printing. The excess is sent to a reservoir, and once the waste toner bottle is full, it needs to be replaced.

Stages of Laser Printing

How does a color laser printer work? First, let's have a look at the steps of laser printing.

Sending Document Data to a Printer

When you click the print command, the laser printing process starts with the document being broken down into digital data. Next, it is sent from the computer to the printer, which reassembles the data into a printed image. Finally, the laser printer captures this data and processes the document. 

Corona Wire and Laser Activation

The next step in the laser printing process is called conditioning. First, the corona wire heats up and prepares to transfer a positive static charge to the metal cylinder drum. As the drum rotates, it will receive a charge. Some laser printers have four drums: one each for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. Next, a laser is activated; it's beamed to a series of mirrors and then reflected throughout the surface of the drum. The reflected beam creates an outline of the text and images, which are printed through a negative electrical charge.

Development

In this stage of the laser printer process, positively charged toner powder is released from the cartridge to the rolling drum. The powder sticks to the negatively charged areas of the drum and leaves the positively charged areas clear. 

Transferring Data to Paper

The paper slides across the printer in the next step and gets a positive charge from the transfer belt. As the negatively charged toner moves through the drum, it is drawn to the paper's surface and takes the shape of the outlined print.

The Fusing Process

The final step in the laser printing process is fusing. The fusing unit applies heat and pressure to the toner and melts it onto the paper. Finally, the text and images are imprinted onto the page and ejected from the printer.

Advantages of Laser Printers 

You should consider getting a laser printer if you need fast, highly efficient printing. The cost per page will be lower than if you purchase an inkjet printer. A laser printer used to be much more costly than an inkjet printer, but that's no longer true. And while toner cartridges cost more than ink, you can print thousands of pages per cartridge. In addition, laser printers are quiet, produce high-quality text, and the toners will never dry out like ink can.

Learn More from the Metro Repro Pros 

Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of laser printer technology. At Metro Repro, we know all about printers. We don't do laser printers, but we offer a variety of wide-format inkjet printers, copiers, plotters, scanners, and supplies. 

Contact us today to discuss your needs with one of our knowledgeable team members.