Lexmark Laser Technology Presentation

Learn how Lexmark laser printer technology works in this video from n-tara interactive. The complexities of laser printing are simplified using highly informative 3D animation.

[@damian0126]

Beautifully illustrated video on how laser printers work.

[@Lubusl]

Anyone taking the A+ exam can appreciate this video. This just illustrated what I've been trying to visualize in my tiny head for the past 30 minutes.

[@tonechild2000]

Very informative video. I'm currently taking a course about laser printers and primarily it's 6 steps. This video goes over the steps in detail and that really helped me. The only thing that threw me off is that my course says the cleaning step is the 1st step, charging second... Fusing last.

[@lbeck37]

I found this link from Jim Hall's article on the early days of the HP LaserJet in the HP Memories archive. He pointed out that since Lexmark and HP were using the same Canon patents for their all-in-one toner cartridge that this excellent video is directly applicable to the HP LaserJet printers This video looks like it was originally made for black and white products and updated later by marketing to show color output without mentioning that color laser printers have four toner cartridges for each of the toners Cyan, Yellow, Magenta and blacK (CYMK). The black is used is used for that part of the "dot" that is equal parts of the other colors and saves on usage of those colors and makes the black text look much better than if it was made from equal parts of cyan, yellow and magenta ("process" black).

[@JasperJanssen]

Well, you can go two ways. Most laserprinters have replaceable drums and corona wires/charge rollers and fusers, since even if you try hard you're still going to have a fairly limited lifespan of those things. Basically the stuff might last you ten to thirty toner cartridges. If you design it to last for just one cartridge, you can make them cheaper, and over the life of the printer you can come out roughly equal with the all-in-one replace-everything method, or the everything-separate method.

[@KGB95140]

No comment about the black toner and the colored paper come out of the printer.

[@longvt07]

1:08

[@TriKyTriXx]

Great video. I'm studying for the A+ exam.

[@JasperJanssen]

Although I should probably note that the All-in-One cartridge is fairly old-fashioned and was mostly used because making that stuff durable back in the eighties and early nineties was *really hard*.

[@passionfly1]

how hi-tech can the printer be when the guy who designs them in the intro of this video is sitting in front of an old outdated square CRT monitor LOL

[@prajwalrai683]

How does a laser printer print colorful images if it only uses a toner?

[@joannemark6643]

The video states at 1:24 that the process begins with a "charge roller". Well, it does not mentioned how the information arrives on the charge roller. It later mentions that a laser strikes a photo-conductor drum, but again, how does the information get from the PC to the laser? I know the answers to these questions, but if you're educating people on how a laser printer works, you should, at minimum, mention how the laser obtains the information.

[@foxman105]

Most color printers have separate cartridges for every color. Also the drums get used up over time which eventually leads to printing toner leakage. Word of advice: buy re-manufactured cartridges.

[@CandyArachnid]

I know inkjets do not really pick up neon colors because they are limited to such color based on the gamma (not really sure what's it called but a triangle with an exclaimation mark with some gamma notification thing pops up when I'm trying to print out my photoshop images). Will laser printers be able to pick that up?

[@dhansel4835]

I have a Lexmark E320 printer that was donated to our computer ministry at our church. It looked like a fairly new printer. The toner cartridge that was in it was the "sample" cartridge so it it didn't have much usage. The toner/fuser unit is an all in one unit. When I printed a page it was really smudged with toner. I ordered a new genuine Lexmark E 320 toner/fuser unit and installed it thinking it would fix the problem. The output was not smudged as much as the original toner cartridge, but still had bad smudges on the paper. I pulled the toner out, looked at all the rollers and could not see anything that could be causing the problem. Any suggestions? I have scanned the printout page so I can e-mail it to you for your help. Thanks for your and others time reading this.

[@EurekaRecycler]

how long does it take to install a Acm Autocompensator Mechanism on a MX611dn & where can i find install instructions?. Thank you

[@derekkchung]

At 3:20... So stray particles of toner removed by cleaning blade goes to a compartment (waste bottle?). Looks like 90% of toner is gone to waste if your pages are,say, 5% printed. Can this "waste" go back to use? Or its chemical has been altered by the laser beam?

[@TheTundraTerror]

Toner is only attracted onto the parts of the drum that have been hit with the laser. It does not coat the whole drum.

[@lumburgapalooza]

@shaygahweh That's what brother does, separate drum and cartridge unit. You only need to replace the drum every 3 cartridges or so. In terms of cost per page it doesn't do as much as you'd think. HP could make perfectly cost-effective cartridges if they wanted to. It's all calculated, down to specifically engineered failure rates. Trust me; the problem isn't technology, it's business.

[@asmartbajan]

Very informative. I now have a better idea of how laser printers work. However, unless the printouts from this model are significantly better than my Brother HL-4040CN, I'll stick with mine. Why? Well, the video clearly shows the drum as part of the cartridge whereas the HL-4040CN has a separate drum unit containing four replaceable cartridges. Why have the expense of replacing a drum every time a cartridge runs out of toner? That makes no sense to me.

[@sansioricardo8640]

Video very good!

[@EdwardLaiPY]

Awesome.....

[@Nismo11]

Just To Let Everyone Know 15μm (Microns/ Micrometers) Is Very Small. An Average Human Hair Is 100μm and 15μm Wavelength Is In The Middle Infrared Light Range.

[@TheJediSlayer7]

Yeah, it might be expensive, but many of those parts inside are prone to failure. Would you rather have a broken laser printer that you either have to toss or get repaired, or simply spend a hundred whenever your toner runs out and replace other prone-to-failure equipment, too?

[@Felyrion]

It does that by repeating the steps in the movie for each color. In a laser printer each color has its own toner unit. After all the color "dots" are applied it wil be fused together forming an image. This video shows how: hEj0SsCstIM

[@opmike343]

@Silverchair84 Care to elaborate?

[@shaygahweh]

no wonder cartridges cost so damn much. why can't the toner reservoir be separate from the drums? so that you may refill the reservoir without having to replace the whole assembly? i'll tell you why; because if that were the case, HP wouldn't be able to charge you $100.00 a pop for cartridges.

[@carnage2211]

wooo.

[@sheilaople8943]

nice . !! ;D

[@kadec100]

that big cartridge must contain few kilograms of toner

[@عبدالفتاحفوده-ش6ج]

انا غلبت من بتوع الصيانه والطابعه كل ساعه بحال يعنى مره تطبع وش وظهر ومره لا ومره تسحب ورفه فاضيه بعد طبع الورقه المطلوبه مباشرةً (ممكن انا مش عارف اسجل الأوامر صح )فهل ممكن حد يساعدنى بس بايضاح تام ويبقى ليه الشكر

[@InformaticashopBr]

Lexmark is ok, but we suffer from low supplies distribution... sadly.

[@MrNbond]

and so do they empty your pockets

[@user-t8gxkfin7n]

Yeah, then they encourage you to return the cartridge but they don't even offer cash back for them...

[@jjepsuomi]

Amen to that dude x) business is business :( See the venus project dude if you're for technology and against business ;) Might give you ideas to think about :)

[@homystargunner]

BUT WHAT ABOUT COLOR!?

[@ayoslabat]

the unit itself were so bulky..