Re: Toner constituents

Fenrir Enterprises wrote:

PCB = Printed Circuit Board?
Do you mean that the circuit boards are failing? How are they failing?
(I'm asking because of my interest in audio.)


Yes, circuit boards. Not that the boards are failing, but that the
toner is failing to transfer to the metal. Basically, you print a
mirror image onto the stock you've chosen (commercial transfer sheets,
glossy magazine paper, or inkjet photo paper, which may or may not
horribly damage your laser printer), iron it onto the board, and
either peel it off, or soak it in water until it seperates from the
toner (scrubbing may be necessary). The biggest part of the discussion
tends to be which papers have the best transfer percentage (I get over
95% with HP Glossy Photo Laser Paper and a Xerox DocuColor 12).
Staples Inkjet Photo Paper is often brought up as a good transfer
paper. Some of the new Brother lasers won't work with papers that were
proven to work well with older laser printers. You can iron or run it
through a laminator 'till the cows come home and the toner just won't
stick to the metal at all.


Enough that
some printers will destroy commercial toner transfer sheets or simply
not transfer at all at the usual temperatures (many people use inkjet
photo papers, which I think is probably a bad idea). This can be a
problem for people who have a dedicated laminator system with a fixed
temperature.


I wonder if there's any such thing as "usual temperatures" for most or all contemporary electrostatic printers. If so, what?



I don't think there was a 'usual temperature', but I think there is a
temperature that most lasers, at least older ones, did not exceed.
Office Depot had a sale on Brother lasers for $50 or so, and a whole
bunch of people bought them and found out the toner simply will not
transfer - it won't re-melt. I have also heard that newer Lexmark
lasers may also be a problem. A modified laminator, usually with the
temperature raised, or a laser fuser assembly out of a broken printer,
seem to be the best to use to transfer (though I use a laminator
without modification). If the melting point of the toner is far higher
than it was before, you can be stuck with an expensive laminator that
won't work any longer. If you iron it on, you can still raise the heat
on the iron (though this will often scorch the transfer *** long
before the toner remelts, and ironing often results in bad transfers
do to the uneven pressure). Of course, the easiest solution is to
return the printer that won't work and buy one that does. I don't even
have a laser, the commercial Xerox DocuColor 12 that every Staples in
the area has provides nearly 100% perfect transfers for me. At
$.06/copy, I'd have to make thousands of prints before it would be
worth buying a laser for it.


This begins to sound like a chemical reaction to me, and a clever way to ensure that it'll be damn hard for anyone in the aftermarket toner business to brew up a batch of compatible toner, and especially to sell such compatible toner at a competitive price! A nifty way to have a captive market.

I've noticed that aftermarket toner, for example, exists for my Okidata 12i printer. However, the cost of reloaded cartridges is so close to the OEMs that there's no point in buying it. I don't know the specifics, but it does seem that not everyone has been running to buy Okidata LED printers, so it's not like there's a huge market for the stuff. It's doubtful that I'll buy another one.

Richard
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