Distinguishing laser from LED printers
A piece of advice for printer shoppers out there. Have a good
look at the spec of the one you are choosing. You do not know it
but you may be buying a LED printer instead of a laser one.
Laser and LED (Light Emitting Diode) printers have co-existed
for some time now. In fact, most users are not able to
distinguish between the print qualities of these two. Because of
the closeness, stores and even web sites are categorizing LED
printers as laser printers.
However, there are some inherent differences between the two.
When using a laser printer. Laser printers have a revolving
cylinder, called a drum that is given a positive electrical
charge. When you send an image of a document or a picture to the
printer from your computer, the printer uses a low level laser
beam to "draw" the image on the drum using a negative electrical
charge.
As the drum revolves, it passes the toner cartridge. The toner
consists of fine black powder, which clings to the electrostatic
image created by the laser on the drum. It then rolls over the
paper, which has been given an even stronger electrostatic
charge. The pattern then transfers to the paper.
LED printers work the same way. But instead of a laser, a LED
printer uses a group of LEDs built over the width of the drum.
These are selectively beamed onto the drum in the form of tiny
dots, or pixels.
If you are still not sure how to tell the difference between LED
and laser printers by simply looking at them, here are some
things that might help you distinguish them beyond their
mechanics.
LED printers tend to be less expensive than equivalent laser
printers. This is because LED printers have less moving parts.
Instead of a laser printing bouncing off a mirror and moving
over the drum, LED printers have stationary LEDs clicking on and
off.
This is the same reason why LED printers will also tend to be
longer-lasting than laser printers. Although at the moment,
there are no actual studies to prove this point.
On the other hand, there is some evidence that LED printers will
work best and last longer if you are doing print jobs involving
very high volumes of paper. This is simply because when the LEDs
are clicking on and off with each job, the more they switch, the
shorter their life span.
For comments and inquiries about the article visit
http://www.uprinting.com