Compatible Toner

The fax machine has become the ubiquitous part of the office stationery for the last few years. It combines the facility of the phone and printing message anywhere across the world. Till emails became popular fax machines were the best option to receive information without the trouble of courier and hard copies. The fax copy is as good as original and is a good substitute. It works with the same formula as the printer does. The fax machine works o similar lines where a black toner cartridge is the main mechanism with which the print out is taken out. A fax roll is a special paper that is able to print the message or series of sheets. One can use the ink cartridge, fax ribbon or refill as the ink dries up.

There are many companies that are producing good quality fax toner cartridges and also refills for regular use. Since cost wise the refills are cheaper, they are in frequent use after the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) toner needs refilling. Bottled toner kits are available in the market at lower rates. Normally they are used to bring down the cost. Just as one time ink and ball point pens were refilled so do the fax machine toners can be refilled. The process is more advanced and the quality of printing is also better. One can also get remanufactured copier toners that also do a great job. These refilled toners are also environmentally friendly when they have to be disposed.

Compatible means that the toner cartridge can be used in your specific equipment and also that it is not the Genuine Brand. Refilling toner cartridges is big business in the US and the world. Many companies choose to purchase the compatible version instead of the Original Equipment Manufacturer, OEM. Compatible can also mean completely brand new but generic.

In the beginning of refill cartridges there were not many options. Toner and internal replacement parts were not readily available, so the quality was not as high as one would like. In the recent years all that has changed. One of the most important components that should be replaced is the drum and the drum blade. These were designed to only last the life of the toner being used from the cartridge. If you were to reuse the original drum it would cause many print defects such as light print, marks and several other image defects. The drum blade would also create streaking and line type image defects. Think of the drum blade as a windshield wiper. When it wears out certain areas are not being cleaned and it makes it hard to see through the window! In the same way certain areas are not being wiped off and you then have lines on the printed pages. We now have access to not only drums and blades but many other components that wear out and need to be replaced inside the toner cartridge. When selecting a company that refills or sells compatible toner cartridges, I would make sure that they do in fact replace the drum and drum blade, or it will not last and you will have wasted your time and money on something that was supposed to save you money in the first place.

False assumptions: OEMs never fail

Having been in this business for over twenty years it seems that most people believe that if it is the original (OEM) toner cartridge that it will never fail. This is just not true. I have seen many OEM cartridges fail. Some from defect and some from customer induced causes. Here is a list of causes induced by customer neglect or error. Staples paper clips, paper dust, stickyback labels and placing the cartridge down on an unsafe position causing damage to drum.

False Assumptions: Refills always leak

Here again we have an assumption that is just not true. In my experience, the number one cause for a leaking cartridge is paper or labels stuck up inside the drum area. This is caused by using inferior labels or dog-eared paper. There are some refilled cartridges that have not been refurbished in a correct manner. Inside the cartridge is a part that is called a recovery blade. It is a thin Mylar that does exactly what it is named for. It recovers the excess toner and keeps it in the waste toner tank. If the recovery blade is old and warped, toner will fall down into the paper path and some how end up on your brand new shirt. Ever since then you swore to never use these darn refills any more!

If you run across a toner cartridge and the price is unbelievably low it may be because the company that refilled it didn’t replace all of the components that we mentioned earlier. Try and stay away from these kind of deals if you can help it. In this industry there are standards. One question to ask is if they are an ISO 9001 facility. An ISO 9001 facility has the highest standards and you can trust that they install all major components and are put together the right way. This is important, next time you are purchasing toner cartridges just ask them if they are. If they look at you kind of strange or if there is a long pause and they don’t know what you are talking about, stay away from buying from them. There may be some good rechargers out there that are not ISO 9001 but for the most part this will help weed out the bad ones.

Pros and Cons of Compatible and Genuine Toner Cartridges

Compatible Pros: Cost, the average savings can be 50% to 70% from OEM retail prices. If you make several thousand prints, this can really add up. Recycling benefits our world because it reduces the amount that we put in our landfills.

Compatible Cons: You will have to make sure you buy quality compatibles or you may get a bad cartridge.

OEM Pros: Consistency, toner yields, new parts, knowing were it came from and that it was created by the OEM.

OEM Cons: Cost, toner cartridges can be much more expensive.

Has anyone seen a photocopier being opened and ink poured in – they all used to be refilled like this – businesses used to buy big bottles of toner ink and simply top up their cartridges. Laser printers where exactly the same – you’d buy a big bottle of ink powder and top up the cartridge when needed. All the laser toner cartridges had little screw openers so you could refill them easily from ink bought from any printer supplier.

Alas those days are gone – the printer manufacturers realized that it was much more profitable to keep reselling you a new cartridge rather than allowing you to easily refill the laser toner cartridges. Gone went the removable stoppers as they sealed the unit and many manufacturers even started adding a small chip disabling the toner cartridge when it had printed so many pages. They are in fact actively artificially reducing the life of the cartridges in order to sell more replacements.

We have all have been brought up with capitalism so we know how the markets work and the profit motives of these companies. The environmental effect of this is less apparent though.

To produce a new toner cartridge from scratch takes approximately 1-2 liters of oil – so if we you refill a toner cartridge you are instantly saving nearly 2 liters of a limited resource.

Two Liters Doesn’t sound too much ?

Well possibly it isn’t but there are approximately 44 million new laser toner cartridges used every year in Europe – the majority of these can be refilled and used again. Over 73% of these cartridges are used once only ! The environmental impact of this is huge especially as we are discarding cartridges that are easily reused – every time we refill a cartridge we save the environmental impact of producing another one and also save ourselves the cost of buying it!

So how to refill a toner cartridge ?

Well its extremely easy – it varies from cartridge to toner cartridge but generally takes no more than a few minutes and certainly doesn’t require any special skills. It’s important to get the right instructions for a specific printer as this makes it refilling the toner extremely straightforward.

Go to an expert who can sell you the exact kit for your printer and also who will answer any queries you may have about How to refill a toner cartridge.

Apart from the environmental impact – refilling your toner cartridge yourself also save a lot of money – sometimes up to 87% of the cost of a brand new cartridge. The beauty of refilling as opposed to re-manufacturing is you’re actually not physically tampering with the working parts in the cartridge – all you’re doing is pouring in new ink toner into the cartridge.