Posts Tagged ‘toner cartridge’

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Easter Time

Tuesday, March 5th, 2013

It’s nearing Easter and this is when everyone’s printing the most for the little ones.

Why don’t you hop on over to our website and have a look at the wide range of deals we have available on our entire ink/toner cartridges ready for the Easter Rush.

Also why don’t you sign up for our mailing list? This entitles you to our discount codes which we sometimes offer and if you’re lucky sign up now and you never know there may be an Easter one available in the next couple of weeks. You’ll find this situated half way down our page on the right hand side.

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2012 Olympics are over

Monday, August 13th, 2012

The London 2012 Olympics came to a final close last night with all the fantastic athletes being awarded with medals, the games played throughout to the closing of it by a great range of music artists, the amazing dancing from ballet to disco to carnival style from Rio, from Rolls Royce cars to flashing taxis for the Spice Girls, the magnificent lighting from the effects of the audience chairs and the amazing fire work displays, do you not want to get your pictures printed?

Get on down to Cartridge Discount and look at our incredible offers for ink/toner cartridges and the glossy and matt photo paper that we supply. Also sign up to our mailing list as you will receive all our latest discount codes which range from £2.50 off orders to 5% possibly even 10%, until you sign up, who knows!

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Remanufactured Toner Cartridges Myths

Wednesday, January 5th, 2011

Remanufactured Toner Cartridges Myths

Many people believe that using a remanufactured cartridge will damage their printer, this isn’t true. Printer manufacturers would like you to believe this is the case so you will continue buying their expensive OEM cartridges. A toner cartridge rarely makes any contact with any part of your printer; the ink does not touch the printer or the internal parts other than the print head and outer cartridge casing. The ink is applied to the paper as it is fed through the printer. The only problem with a toner cartridge is leaking ink, all toner cartridges lose some ink inside the printer, this is why you need a waste toner box, these come as standard on most modern printers. If a cartridge has been poorly remanufactured there is a risk of excess leaked ink accumulating in the printer, so ensure you buy from a reputable supplier.

It is also a common misconception that remanufactured cartridges produce grainy inferior copies compared to OEM products. Almost all of OEM cartridges contain chemical toners, these produce high quality print outs due to finer ink particles. A good ink cartridge remanufacturing company will also use chemical based toner when they refill the cartridges. It has been proven that OEM cartridges contain slightly more chemicals than remanufactured alternatives but the difference would only be noticeable on very high resolution images whilst using the OEM recommended paper.

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Costs and benefits of remanufactured cartridges

Thursday, December 9th, 2010

Costs and benefits of using remanufactured cartridges

Research has shown that if local councils and large companies/organisations switched to using remanufactured cartridges instead of original branded cartridges they could save over £1.5 million a year and reduce their carbon footprint by up to 355 tonnes CO2.

The average cost of an original branded toner cartridge is roughly £50; where as the average cost of the remanufactured version would be around £25, half the price! Remanufactured cartridges often contain more ink than their original counterparts meaning the cost per page could be less than 5p!

Another big advantage of using remanufactured ink cartridges is their low carbon footprint. An original branded cartridge produces approximately 7kg CO2 as opposed to the mere 1.6kg CO2 used to produce a remanufactured cartridge. When a toner cartridge is recycled it means it will not end up in landfill, it can take 100 years for a toner cartridge to fully decompose.

When you think about the massive cost savings, higher page yields and green credentials, it makes sense to switch to using remanufactured cartridges from now on!

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Differences in Ink Cartridge, Cartridge and Printhead?

Wednesday, December 1st, 2010

Difference between Ink Cartridge, Toner Cartridge and Printhead?

Ink cartridges, toner cartridges and printheads are all important parts of printer. A printer is would not function without any one of these parts. There are differences between all three. We have listed some of them below:

1: Printheads and Cartridges

Cartridges and printheads are two very different parts. Printheads contain the nozzle of the printer. This nozzle squirts the ink from the cartridge onto the paper.

2: What is a Cartridge?

An ink cartridges contains ink, while a laser toner cartridges contains a toner. The toner is dry ink and looks like a powder. Both kinds of ink find their way to the paper through the printhead.

3: Price

Ink cartridges are cheaper than laser toner cartridges. But, laser toner cartridges are capable of printing thousands of pages where as ink cartridges can only print hundreds.

4: Print Speed

When it comes to the speed of the printing , laser toner cartridges are faster than ink cartridges.

5: Print Quality

Another difference between ink cartridges and laser toner cartridges is the difference in print quality. Laser printer cartridges produce better image quality than ink cartridges, but the difference is quite small.

Neither cartridges are better, the choice depends on your own personal needs.

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Ink Cartridge Recycling Methods

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

Ink Cartridge Recycling Methods

You may be wondering what to do with your empty ink cartridges?

There are two main methods of recycling ink cartridges and they are direct recycling and remanufacturing/refilling the cartridge.

Direct recycling is where the cartridge is broken down and reconstructed into a brand new cartridge as efficiently as possible.

You will need to do your research though to make sure you don’t end up doing more damage than good when you send off a cartridge for recycling.

Direct Recycling

The major printer manufacturers have all been undertaking environmentally friendly schemes and activities for years now. HP began their first recycling scheme back in 1991 and has since recycled over 265 million ink cartridges. Canon began their toner recycling scheme in 1990 which was a world first. Lexmark also has a well documented cartridge return programme doing both recycling and refilling, Brother also runs very similar operations … the list is endless!

The main intention of printer manufacturers appears to be limiting the amount of cartridges that end up in landfill. But direct recycling consumes a massive amount of energy and some people think it could be doing more damage in the long run.

Canon says that they reuse 75% of every toner cartridge returned to them, and of the remaining 25% all of it is recycled to other products such as roof tiles! HP aims to be able to reuse all of the plastic in its cartridges, but how much energy does this use? If you have ever seen a HP 78 or HP 17 cartridge, you will notice they are very sturdy and contain a lot of plastic, the energy needed to break down this cartridge must be huge. These cartridges can fit into over 50 different models of HP printers, that is over 50 consumer demands for 1 cartridge. Would it not be better to refill these cartridges, as the cleaning and refilling process is energy efficient, rather then break up the entire cartridge and rebuild it from scratch?

Companies like HP claim that this process affects quality to such an extent that they won’t consider it. Whilst they do have a point, I’m sure not all HP users will be aiming for Van Gogh clarity; they just want something cheap that does the job. It is here that remanufactured cartridges come into their all. When you take a look at an Epson compatible TO711 black ink cartridge, you realise how simple a cartridge is, it is essentially just a tank full of ink.

Epson Ink Cartridges

Epson have all the important technology such as the print heads, permanently fitted inside the printer, therefore the cartridges have no value. Essentially they are just a plastic housing for the ink you are using to print. Due to this, there really is nothing to recycle. Epson have said they incinerate all the returned ink cartridges in the most environmentally friendly process. It is much better to take your empty Epson cartridges to your local plastic recycling centre!

What is the future for cartridge recycling?

The majority of major printer manufacturers have seen their shortcomings and are trying to improve the situation in their new printer models. Although HP still design uneconomical printers, as soon as one colour runs out in the colour cartridge then the printer will refuse the print. Their solution is that as soon as one colour runs out all the remaining inks will blend together to produce the empty ink colour until the cartridge runs out. But you would think this would use more ink and drain the cartridge faster!? But it is advertised as a ‘green scheme’.

Carbon Footprint

You need to be careful of some major printer manufacturer recycling schemes, as some of them will transport the cartridge literally around the world. See an example below:

1. Cartridges for recycling arrive in the South Coast of America

2. Plastic is then shipped to North America

3. Refined cartridges are sent to China for packaging

4. The cartridges are then returned to America for sale

The best way to recycle your empty ink cartridges is through UK cartridge recycling envelopes, who donate a small amount of money to charity for each cartridge received. This way the cartridge is sent direct to an ink cartridge remanufacturing company, fully tested and cleaned out and then refilled with ink and sent straight on to another customer, whilst helping a charitable cause in the process. So think twice before you send off your empty cartridges for recycling … you may be doing more harm then good!!

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Understanding Page Yields

Monday, March 29th, 2010

Understanding Page Yields

When you come to buy a new ink or toner cartridge, one of the most common questions is “How long will it last?” or “How many pages will I be able to print before the ink runs out?”

If you are new to the ink cartridge scene, you will probably be unaware of the phrase ‘Cartridge Yield’.

A page yield is the number of pages that you can print with a single printer cartridge. It is sometimes also known as ink/toner cartridge page yield. The page yield is one of the most important factors you should consider when purchasing a new ink cartridge. Some printer manufacturers will use a general term such as ‘standard yield’ or ‘high yield’ to describe their cartridges. Each printer cartridge model should have a page yield (the number of sheets it can print under standard conditions). It gives the customer an estimate of the cost per page on each of their print outs. Other than page yield you should also consider factors such as price, print quality, reliability and warranty.

Manufacturers list the yield of their cartridges on their websites to help the customer judge before purchasing a cartridge. Yield is generally expressed as a certain number of pages based on a certain amount of text coverage per page. For example, “1000 pages at 5% coverage”. The coverage figures are generally 3% to 5% for normal text documents. You must remember that printing a text page is very different from printing an image. A 5% yield might work for a text page but not for a graphic heavy page. When you print out a photograph, the ink will cover almost all or almost all of the paper. Whereas, a page of text is mostly white space with a very small area covered in ink.

How do I find the page yield of my cartridge?

It is very simple to find the page yield of an ink cartridge, see below.

  • Go to the website of the ink cartridge manufacturer
  • Go to the description page for your printer
  • Look for and click on the printer specifications
  • There should be a category called Yield or Cartridge Life, click on it.

Page yield can be affected by many things such as the content or the size and colour of the image you print, your printer settings, the type of paper, size of paper and frequency of use.  So how exactly is page yield tested?

Traditionally different manufacturers use different tests to measure page yield, so it can be difficult for customers to compare the page yield of two different brand cartridges. Nowadays, most printer manufacturers use the same standard established by ISO (International Organization for Standardization) to evaluate the page yield of a given cartridge.

ISO has established two standard testing methods, ISO/IEC 24711 and ISO/IEC 19752 for measuring ink cartridge yield and monochrome toner cartridge yield respectively.

ISO standard for testing inkjet cartridge yield (ISO/IEC 24711)

  • The tests are all conducted using default setting on plain white paper.
  • A suite of 5 ink cartridges are printed consecutively until the ink cartridges reaches the end of its life.
  • A cartridge is considered at the end of its life when the printer shows a signal that the ink has been depleted or the test page shows discoloration or a significant increase in lightness.
  • A total of 9 cartridges should be tested on 3 different printers (i.e. 3 cartridges on each printer) not including the 1st set of installed cartridges and the average result is taken.
  • The tests are conducted under controlled conditions (temperature and humidity) similar to home and office conditions.

ISO standard for monochrome toner cartridge yield (ISO/IEC 19752)

  • The tests are conducted with printer default settings on plain paper.
  • A standard text page is used (represents approximately 5% coverage)
  • A total of 9 cartridges are tested, 3 cartridges on each of 3 different printers, and the average yield is measured.
  • Almost continuous printing with normal breaks for changing or adding paper.
  • Printing stops when the cartridge reaches the end of its life, which is determined, based on the manufacturers recommendations in handling the toner cartridge (e.g. how many times the toner cartridge should be shaken.)
  • End of the cartridge life is defined as the printer reports “replace toner” or “replace supply”.
  • The tests are conducted under controlled conditions (temperature and humidity).

As you can see, page yield or cartridge yield is measured by vigorous testing. This information is very useful to determine the value of different types of ink cartridge (OEM vs. remanufactured vs. compatible, standard yield vs. high yield) Next time when you shop for a replacement ink cartridge, remember to compare the page yield and cost per page.

The ink cartridge with a higher page yield will be more expensive but in the long run it will be cost effective because of the lower cost per page!

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How to clean the inside of your printer

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

How to clean the inside of your printer

It’s a well know fact that if you take good care of your printer it will last longer. Nothing will keep your printer running forever; but by following our simple cleaning tips below you can ensure it lasts as long as it’s supposed to.

The inside of your printer gets dirty thanks to all the ink, dust, lint and pet hair floating around. You should try to give your printer a good clean every couple of months. It’s not difficult, all you need are some clean clothes, a few minutes and a step by step guide which shows you which parts need to be cleaned and how!

Cleaning an inkjet printer

Before you begin cleaning your printer, make sure it is unplugged from the mains!

Firstly, wipe any ink marks or blobs from the outside casing of the printer with a clean slightly damp cloth and a small amount of alcohol or purpose made cleaning fluid. When you have finished doing this wipe the outside casing dry.

Now open the lid on the printer, you can clean the inside of the printer using a can of compressed air. Never use a vacuum cleaner to clean the inside of the printer, this could cause permanent damage.

Finally, using a soft cotton cloth, you may also clean the ink cartridges. Gently rub the circuitry and the print head of the cartridge with a damp cloth or a cloth soaked in some alcohol, carefully dry the cartridges down and then re-insert them back into the printer.

Cleaning a laser printer

Before you begin cleaning your printer, make sure it is unplugged from the mains!

Remove the toner cartridge from the printer.

A toner vacuum will help to clean the inner parts of the laser printer. These can cost as much as £200 but can be much better for cleaning the inner machine when compared to regular vacuum cleaner.

For cleaning the actual toner cartridge you should use a special toner cleaning cloth. A toner cloth should be used when dusting off the laser toner cartridge from toner particles. The toner cartridge takes charge of cleaning particles that the toner vacuum may leave behind.

Remove any crevices from the toner and vacuum areas where needed.

Never clean the corona wire (this is a thin wire that can be seen hanging inside your printer) with a vacuum or brush as this will cause damage. Instead, use a cotton swab dipped in alcohol when cleaning the corona wire and be very gentle.

You can now insert the toner cartridge back in to the printer, do a test print to make sure everything is in working order!

Each printer type requires different cleaning tips. Make sure you know what your printer requires to avoid any trouble while undertaking the procedure. Check your printer manual as some special cleaning tips are provided in there as well.

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How do wireless printers work?

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

How do wireless printers work?

When the time comes to choose a new printer you may find yourself swamped with options. One of the newest types of printer on the scene is the wireless printer. But you might be asking yourself, how exactly can a printer produce documents without cables?

The process is remarkably simple! Wireless printers work in the same way as Wi-Fi internet. The message is passed between the computer or source device to the printer through transmitted signals. This of course means you could encounter some of the same issues you have with your Wi-Fi at home or in your workplace, which includes going out of range and service outages. However, this should certainly not put you off considering purchasing a wireless printer.

One of the main benefits to having a wireless printer is not having cables trailing across your floor space. The more cables you have clogging up your office, the more potential hazards there will be. Not only can people trip and hurt themselves, the cables can also become damaged and rendered unusable over time.

Wireless printers are much the same as a wired printer. There only real difference apart from their cost is the lack or trailing cables. Most wireless models available are standard colour or mono laser printers, although multifunction variants are becoming more popular.

Your computer will need to connect to the printer remotely and will require the downloaded driver that you use for standard printer models. Once the connection is made the computer will be able to send documents remotely to the printer where the documents are completed.

There will be no loss of quality in the print out and the initial installation is no more difficult than a standard wired printer. The majority of wireless printers are laser printers which use a toner cartridge filled with powdered toner.

In short, a wireless printer works in a very similar fashion to a cabled printer, only using a Wi-Fi internet signal to communicate between computer and printer.

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Toner cartridge troubleshooting guide

Friday, February 26th, 2010

Toner Cartridge Troubleshooting Guide

Don’t get frustrated by laser printer problems! Use our troubleshooting guide below for helpful tips and techniques to solve the most common laser printer problems.

Cleaning

Cleaning can go a long way towards keeping your laser printer running smoothly. The exterior of your printer can be cleaned with a damp cloth or a cleaner specially designed to clean electronics. The interior of the printer can be cleaned with compressed air or a small purpose built vacuum cleaner. If you are using compressed air, you must remove the fuser assembly to allow a path for dirt and debris to exit the printer. The interior can further be cleaned with a dry, lint free cloth.

Troubleshooting

The first step to troubleshooting is determining the nature of the problem and then concentrating on a specific area. Most laser printers contain a status message area which displays the printer’s current state.  If an error occurs, the printer will almost always display a message or error code. Errors are often also written into a status log. The status log can be viewed by printing a self test/configuration page. If the problem is keeping the printer from printing, the configuration page will not be available. If this is the case, the troubleshooting can be performed by connecting the printer to a PC via a parallel network cable or a network connection and running diagnostic tests. All laser printers generate very high internal temperatures and have the potential to overheat. To avoid this, a thermal fuse is incorporated in these printers to prevent this. If this fuse is faulty, the printer may overheat and become damaged or the fuse may signal the printer to stop printing, even if the printer has not yet overheated.

The most common problems with laser printer are paper jams and image problems.

Paper Jams

The most common printer problem is a paper jam. Moving a very thin piece of paper through a mechanical device requires great precision. If you encounter a paper jam, you will need to firstly determine where the jam is and examine the area. Most jams occur due to a paper blockage or a worn roller. Many times, the paper itself is the cause of the jam. Poorly installed paper or paper that has not been stored correctly and allowed to curl prior to installing it into the paper tray can lead to paper jams. If the paper jam is in the paper tray, you should suspect the pick up roller. A worn pick up roller will not grab the paper correctly and will result in the paper being partially removed from the tray. If the printer is pulling out multiple sheets of paper at a time, it could be the separation pad at the front of the tray. You should replace the separation pad and pick up roller as a set. If one is worn, the other will probably need to be replaced too.

Image Problems

Any deterioration in the quality of the image is directly related to one of the components in the image substation. Firstly, you should examine the toner cartridge. Your toner cartridge contains a drum and developing rollers. If either of these components is damaged it will result in poor image quality. You should inspect the drum unit for marks or debris; the drum can be inspected by pulling back the plaster shutter which protects it when it is removed from the printer. Remember, the drum is very sensitive to light, so do not expose it to bright light for a long period of time.

Printing dark spots

If your printer is printing dark spots, the cartridge may have excess toner. You will need to run blank pages through the printer to absorb the extra toner.

Blank pages

If your printer is printing out blank pages, the toner may have either dried up or is almost empty in the cartridge. Shake the cartridge to free any dried toner inside. If there is no toner, replace the cartridge. Ensure that the sealant tape has been removed from the cartridge before placing it in the printer.

Error Message

Most toners are provided with a removable strip to protect the drum during shipping, make sure that this strip has been fully removed by pulling out the tab on one end (usually the right side) of the cartridge then insert the cartridge into the printer.

Streaky prints

Any cartridge, new or remanufactured, can streak if the toner inside is not evenly distributed. To fix, remove the cartridge from the printer, rock the cartridge back and forth, and then gently shake it to evenly distribute the toner powder. If rocking the cartridge doesn’t make any difference it’s possible that the drum unit is faulty.

Cartridge won’t fit

You need to make sure all of the packaging has been removed and the cartridge is being inserted into the printer the correct way around. If it still doesn’t work then check the cartridge you have purchased is the correct one for your printer model.

Poor print quality

Firstly, try to clean the cartridge drum with some dry tissue paper, ensure you rotate the drum whilst cleaning to ensure you clean all sides of the drum. If this doesn’t work then perform a clean function through the printer software.

Ghosting

Sometimes ghosting can appear at regular intervals on the printed page. This is because either the imaging drum hasn’t fully discharged and is picking up from a previous image, or a previous image has used up so much toner that the supply of charged toner is insufficient or the toner hasn’t been adequately charged.

Creased pages

Laser printers have up to four rollers. In addition to the heat and pressure rollers of the fusing assembly, rollers are designed to move the paper from the source tray to the output tray. These rollers crease the paper to avoid curling, which would cause paper jams in the printer. If the creases are noticeable, try using a different paper type. Cotton bond paper is usually more susceptible to noticeable creasing than other bonds. You might also try setting the output to the face up tray, which eliminates one roller. No hardware solution exists to this problem. This is simply a side effect of the process.

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