The Hows and Whys Printers do What They do
While most of us use a printer on a weekly, if not daily, basis, most people do not know how printers are able to create images on paper. Perhaps most people believe that the images are created by ink, however this is not entirely true. Printers use a powder-like substance called toner (that consists of plastic and pigment) to accomplish all of the images printers produce.
The toner is delivered to the printer through a disposable cartridge. Plastic is combined with pigment so that when the substance is runs through the printer and is heated, the plastic bonds to a sheet of paper to create a near permanent image. However, the pigment can be a nuisance to clean up and remove.
The tiny particles are not only easily airborne, but also build-up static electricity. It is because of this property, that the pigment should never be vacuumed in a conventional vacuum cleaner. A build-up static electricity can ignite and create a fire with the machine. In addition, the particles are quite small and often times and can pass right through the filters of conventional vacuum cleaner.It is also essential that you find the right type of cartridge for your printer to work properly. Often times there are compatible cartridges made by other manufactures that may work for your printer and can often time same you a great deal of money.
These other cartridges can be just as effective and are often manufactured and tested in the exact same way as your manufactures cartridge. Just make sure you check to see if the cartridge will work in the make and model of the printer you have.So the next time that someone makes a comment about the ink in the printer, you can inform them that it isnt really ink at all, but rather tiny microscopic particles that bond with the paper using plastic or you can just install a new cartridge.