What is Printer Drum? Here’s the Difference Between Printer Drum and Toner!!

All machines in this world have parts that make them work effectively. Laser printers also have many parts that make them work properly. One of them is the printer drum. This is a crucial part of a laser printer. To see how crucial this part is, check out all details about this drum on this page.

What Is This Printer Drum?

Under the printer’s hood, there is a combination of lasers, photosensitive parts, heating units, and electrically charged ink. Those parts are working together and produce a warm and crisp print in just a few seconds. Now, you’ll learn about the drum, something that transfers an image to the paper.

A drum is like a soul and the heart of laser printers. To start printing any document, you must transfer the toner to a piece of paper. A laser printer drum will make sure that a toner hits the right spots. This way, the toner will be able to create the image you want on the paper.

Another name for this drum is the imaging drum. When you install a new toner cartridge inside the laser printer, you will see the drum unit. This drum unit has a cylinder shape. Usually, it has a maroon, green, or teal color. The position of the drum unit is super close to the toner cartridge.

Differences Between a Printer Drum and Toner

Some people believe that a toner is a drum unit. But both are two different things. However, they must work together in synergy. The two parts are only available inside laser printers. No inkjet printers are using the technology of a drum unit and a toner cartridge. Check out their differences below.

• Toner cartridges

Toner cartridges are a part of laser printers you can replace easily. This part of laser printers is holding powdered toner or ink. Owners of laser printers usually can replace toner cartridges very easily. Inside the toner cartridges is powdered toner that will be sprayed during the printing process.

Inside the cartridges, there is printer toner. It is a dry powder that is made of ground plastic. The powder is holding a negative charge. And the drum unit will draw the particles of the toner to the image with a positive charge to print the image.

During the printing process, the imaging drum will transfer the particles of toner to a paper via the electric charge change. The electric charges are the center of the printing process on laser printers. Toner and its cartridge will not work without the presence of a drum unit.

• Drum units

The position of a drum unit usually is next to the toner cartridges. This drum unit has an essential job. it must transfer the ink from the toner cartridges to the paper during the printing process. Usually, manufacturers place the drum unit and the toner cartridges in the plastic shell.

When you install the new toner, you are going to see that it is easy to pull out the plastic shell to disassemble the unit and the cartridge. The original toner is going to snap right into its place. This is going to ease you in maintaining the printer.

How Does a Printer Drum Work?

It is crucial to learn how a drum unit or an imaging drum work. Below, you are going to see some steps that your laser printer needs to take just to print a document. Understanding the process will make you appreciate your printer more than ever. And then you’ll know how important regular maintenance is.

• When you are clicking the print button on the computer, the laser printer is going to uses the laser. The laser will draw the document you want to print on the drum unit or the imaging drum. And then the laser beam will touch the drum unit’s surface.
• This will give the exposed parts of the drum unit a neutral electric charge. The rest of the imaging drum will be left untouched. The untouched parts will be the whites on the paper. The drum’s neutral charge is going to attract the toner particles’ negative charge.
• The drum unit’s unexposed parts will repel toner. This will make the toner powder sticks only to the drum unit’s parts that are exposed to the laser. When the drum unit rotates, it will carry the ink particles and transfer the particles to the paper.
• And then your paper will go over a fuser unit. This fuser unit is going to warm up your paper. This process will make the ink stick to your paper and also give you fresh prints that are crisp and warm.
• When your document is going out of your laser printer, the machine will refresh the imaging drum. This drum unit will be ready for the next printing task. The printer will also cycle back the leftover toner particles to the printer’s toner cartridge.

From the steps above, you can see why the toner of a laser printer can last longer than the ink or inkjet printer. Laser printers don’t waste toner particles. They cycle the leftover particles so that you can use them again. Inkjet printers cannot do the same thing.

Laser Drum Printer Advantages

An imaging drum has so many advantages. It is a special part that makes a laser printer much better than an inkjet printer. But the main advantage of this drum unit is it helps you save more money. Inkjet printers will require you to replace the ink cartridges more often than replace the toner cartridges.

This is because inkjet printers don’t have a super useful drum unit. The drum unit in laser printers is going to gather all particles of toner that are left by the printing process. This means the waste of the toner particles will be less than the waste from the inkjet printer’s printing process.

With regular maintenance, you can use a laser printer for a longer time than an inkjet printer. This is because of the printer drum. The imaging drum doesn’t require a replacement if you clean it regularly. Follow the instructions from the manufacturer to clean the imaging drum properly.

How Long Does an Imaging Drum Last?

It depends on how many times you print and how often you will use the printer to print. The imaging drum of a laser printer can last three times to four times longer than the toner cartridges of the printer. This means you better get a laser printer that has separate toner cartridges and a drum unit.

A printer drum is a super essential part of a laser printer. It is a part that makes a laser printer much more special than an inkjet printer. The imaging drum is the one that makes the toner cartridges draw the image on the paper. Make sure that you learn everything about this drum unit from this page.