How Do Laser Printers Work?

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Laser printers are known for their clear sharp images at super high speeds. For years, laser printers were typically large, free-standing pieces of equipment seen in the corners of offices of large scale companies. The price tags of laser printers were definitely out of range for the typical small business and home office user, costing thousands of dollars. Recent innovations, however, have dramatically changed both the size and the cost of laser printers so they are now an affordable, smart choice for all sorts of consumers.

Laser printing technology is a bit of an unknown for many home office users. While the idea of inkjet cartridges forcing ink onto a page is relatively simple to understand, laser printing is completely different process. Laser printers use toner cartridges, rather than ink cartridges, which allow them to produce extremely clean copy on documents, with precision that inkjet cartridges cannot always match.

Laser printers use a laser beam technology that produces a light image of the page to be printed onto a rotating drum, known as a photoreceptor, with an electrical charge. The drum is typically ...
... positively charged through the use of an electrical wire running through it. The light from the laser discharges the areas of the drum that the image is projected onto. In other words, where ever the image is projected through the laser beam, the charge on the drum is changed from positive to negative, creating an electrostatic image. Once the image is displayed on the drum, the printer coats the drum with the ink toner- which is powdered ink that carries a positive electrical charge. Using the principles of static electricity, which causes oppositely charged items to be magnetically attracted to each other, the printer draws the toner power only to the areas that have been discharged by the laser light.

Using the same electrical wire that charges the drum with a positive charge, called a corona wire, the printer gives the paper a negative charge that is even stronger than the negative charge on the drum. The drum rolls over the fresh sheet of paper, which is pulled through the printer on a belt, distributing the toner powder onto the blank paper in the exact pattern created by the laser beam of light.

In the final step of the laser printer process, the paper is sent through a pair of heated rollers, called the fuser. The heat melts the toner powder so it sticks to the page, actually fusing with the fibers of the paper. The page is deposited onto the output tray, still warm from the fusing process. The internal drum is then exposed to the discharge lamp, removing the electrical image, before it is recharged by the corona wire and ready for the next page.

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