How Laser Printers Work – Ultimate Guide

Many workplaces in various industries use printers daily, and laser printers are more common than inkjet printers.

Most people don’t know how a laser printer works, so we’ll explain how documents go from a computer screen to a printed page using a laser printer.

How laser printers work

They work by using a heated wire to positively charge a drum. Which is then passed over by a laser that reverses the charge where it hits. 

The image or text to be printed is shown by the parts of the drum that are now negatively charged.

When a toner roller is moved over the drum, particles of toner stick to the areas that are negatively charged. 

Then, a piece of paper is put under the toner-coated drum, and the toner is moved across the paper to make a copy of a digital document or image.

Since 1976, when the first laser printers went on sale, laser printing has shown to be a reliable and effective way to print.

Laser printers are perfect for offices and other busy places of work because they use laser beam technology to print with high accuracy.

Step By Step Process 

• When you press the print button on your computer, tablet, or phone, the information is sent to the printer’s memory, where it is temporarily stored.

• The printer starts to get ready. At this point, you usually have to wait because the corona wire is heating up and getting ready to send its positive static charge to the drum.

• As the drum (a metal cylinder with a coating) starts to roll, it gets a positive charge. Some printers have four drums, one for each colour: black, cyan, magenta, and yellow.

• The laser is turned on, and its beam hits a series of mirrors. The mirrors reflect the beam across the surface of the drum(s), leaving a negative electrical charge in the shape of your print.

• As the drum(s) turn, positively charged carbon toner particles are slowly released from the toner cartridge and hopper next to the drum(s). The toner is drawn to areas of the drum with a negative charge. Areas of the drum with a positive charge are left alone.

• The paper gets charged when the transfer belt moves it through the printer. The negatively charged toner is drawn to the page in the shape of your print as it moves past the drum.

• The fuser unit’s hot rollers then melt the toner onto the paper, and your page is printed.

Components Of Laser Printer

A modern laser printer in Qatar has eight main parts, each important for making the high-quality prints we expect today. The parts that make up a printer are:

• Getting power

To charge the drum, which needs a high voltage, the power supply changes the AC into the higher voltages needed for the transfer process.

• Drums that light up

The drum unit’s job is to get toner particles with a positive charge to stick to its surface. To do this, laser printers usually use a high-voltage wire called a corona wire. 

Once the drum is fully charged, mirrors direct the laser beam onto the surface of the drum, where it scans the images with great accuracy.

• Toners

Laser printers use toner, a powder made of tiny bits of ink. When the fuser unit heats the toner, it melts, making it possible to press it onto the paper fibres.

Like inkjet cartridges, the most common colours for toner are CMYK. When you put these colours together, you can make any colour palette.

• Corona wire

The primary corona wire gives the drum unit a positive charge to attract the toner particles to its surface.

The transfer corona wire gets a negative charge so that the paper also gets a negative charge, and the toner particles move from the drum’s surface to the sheet.

Both wires need high voltages to charge sufficiently, which is what the high-voltage power supply gives them.

• Fuser unit

The fuser comprises two hot rollers that press the toner particles onto the paper.

With a lot of heat and pressure, the powdered toner particles melt and stick firmly to the paper’s fibres.

Due to the high speed at which the fuser unit works, the sheet comes into contact with the paper as little as possible. This keeps a fire from starting.

• Waste Toner Bottle

After printing, the waste toner bottle collects any extra toner left on the photosensitive drum. 

The extra toner goes into a reservoir, and the waste toner bottle needs to be changed when it’s complete.

We hope you’ve enjoyed reading about how laser printers work. Laser printers have been around for some time and have been valuable tools in the office. 

As technology advances and the world becomes more tech-savvy, you can find various industries that use laser printers in Qatar.