Sat Apr 05, 2003 4:11 pm
Well, a fuser is usually made for around 200 000(depending on paper quality etc, different for scandinavia and the US) pages in a row, at which it should be replaced, if you are lucky it can certainly function for another 100 000 pages, although warranty is out, even if you get the occasional dud, usually, you only need to replace them if you burn something stuck in them, like a inkjet overhead film(not made to withstand the heat) or something else. If you know what to do you can actually take a away a burnt overhead by disassembling the fuser into parts, as the rolls is often made of a non stick plastic as teflon, the OH film usually melts onto it self, and you can gently cut it away without damaging the fuser roll.
But as Steel said, they usually dont die on their own, except after they are worn down, but as most companies usually dont use their printers as much as they should(way to many printers on to few people) the dead ones is often HP3s and 2s and some 4s. Except for faulty handling of course.
How does a laserprinter work in short.
You have a toner container, which contains ..... yepp, toner. The toner is often made up of hybrid particles with one magnetic part and one pigment part. Then you have a roller, picking the toner up, and another roller most often called a drum, or photodrum. The Laser "prints" the letters on the photodrum, in which the parts where the laser went over, gets statically charged, and from the toner roller, those spots draws the toner to themselves(toner having one magnetic part). Then rolls them down to the paper where they deposit the toner particles(in older hp colour laserjets you also have a transfer belt in between the drum and the paper), the paper with the toner then goes through the fuser, which melts the toner onto the paper through heat. After that it rolls out and you have your finished printing.
HP's toners(for their black and medium printers, not the colour or bigger models) have the drum and toner roller inside the toner cartridge, and is often made for short usage and are the drum is light sensitive, while kyocera have all parts separate, and makes a non light sensitive and more durable drum, that more seldom needs replacing, although kyocera require a lot more service in that they you have to change 3-5 parts for every one cartridge for the HP. But each part is way cheaper. Two different philosofies which also goes again in how the different ink cartridges for inkjets is. Canon vs HP vs Epson.