I am told that if you take a piece of paper that you printed on, putit back in the printer, and prin

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Enda80

I am told that if you take a piece of paper that you printed on, put
it back in the printer, and print on it again, that this will hurt the
printer. Is this true?
 
Enda80 said:
I am told that if you take a piece of paper that you printed on, put
it back in the printer, and print on it again, that this will hurt
the
printer. Is this true?
Click to expand...

I did it once and the printer was so hurt it bawled like a baby for 15
minutes!
 
Not if you turn it around and print on the other side.
Click to expand...

There's a tiny element of truth here. If you print on a laser printer,
then use the same paper again, its moisture content has sometimes
reduced to the point where it jams. And some jams are always bad!

Also, reprinting partial sheets of labels is a big no-no.
 
Thats why all my printers are duplex printers... lasers and inkjets...
No need to put the paper back through the printer...
Click to expand...

Um...with most of the duplex printers I've seen, the paper DOES go
through twice...
 
I do that all the time with no real problems. If you don't do that when you
only need one or two address labels, it will cost you a small fortune in
wasted label sheets, which can be VERY expensive, especially for the "clear"
label sheets.

The trick is to print the bottom rows first, even only 1 label sometimes.
The top of the label sheet will then stay rigid enough to accurately pull
into your printer, provided you don't otherwise bend or mangle the label
sheet between uses.
Click to expand...

As noted by Tony, it's dangerous with laser printers (probably more with
older ones, which seem to run hotter). And I guess I was really thinking
of that....
 
yes, but it doesn't go through the entire feeding process from tray to
exit.... a lot of times the paper wont feed properly when you attempt to run
them through again.... but newer lasers do not have this problem....
except for labels... I wouldnt trust running labels through a laser twice.
Click to expand...

Agreed. However, they usually go through the fuser twice...which is the
hot bit! On my LJ4+, the paper goes from the input tray, drum,
fuser...then into the duplexer holding area which is BELOW the input
tray. Then it feeds up as if it had come from the input tray, drum,
fuser....exit. That last bit of the paper path is quite curved and
happens only once.
 
Someone has mentioned labels. The issue with labels is if you reprint on a
partially used label sheet using a laser printer, the glue on the labels gets
heated a second time and some label stock does not survive that well resulting
in labels coming off in the printer and sticking to rollers (usually an
expensive fuser). The question of paper drying out and sometimes curling when
printed on a laser printer is also real.
Generally reprinting on an inkjet is fine but on laser printers is not the best
practice.
Click to expand...

I have printed individual labels from a 6x3 sheet for many years first
on a HP Laserjet III and now on a 5L. Not one problem that I can
recall.

Maybe just lucky with the label stock I use.
 
It depends upon the type of printer, inks and if the print is fully
fused/dry or not.

In terms of most cases, if the print is dry or otherwise fused onto the
paper properly, the risk of damage is very unlikely.

Paper which is used several times through a printer may become rippled,
the edges may become frayed, etc, and this may cause problems with paper
transport (jamming)

In most of my laser printers, I use paper which has already been printed
on on one side, with negligible negatives. Sometime there may be a
paper jam, or the feed rollers may get a bit glazed with toner from the
already one side used pages, but the ability to use previously used
paper, make sit good value.


Art

If you are interested in issues surrounding e-waste,
I invite you to enter the discussion at my blog:

http://e-trashtalk.spaces.live.com/
 
Enda80 said:
I am told that if you take a piece of paper that you printed on, put
it back in the printer, and print on it again, that this will hurt the
printer. Is this true?
Click to expand...

Hi!
I read 13 replies now and I think one is missing, so I add it here.
It's not really "hurting" the printer but may lead to trouble.

A Laser printer puts a small amount of silicon oil on its rubber coated
roller to prevent the (still hot) toner to stick on the rubber.
If you put the paper in the printer a second time, a small amount of
this silicon oil is left on the rubber rollers which feed the paper in.
This can lead to make them slippery and not able to feed paper properly.
Well, if the printer is designed for duplex printing, the rollers are
able to stand it. If it's not, you may experience this effect.

I learned about this from a photocopier service technician, and I had
experienced this myself.
I once thought it was a good idea to re-use one side printed paper from
a laser printer for draft printing in a inkjet printer.
It worked for a while but then paper feed failed.
After cleaning the rollers of the inkjet printer it worked again, and
after I learned about the silicon oil I know why.
 
Your comments are valid but less common these days.

While some higher volume photocopiers still use silicon or "fuser" oil,
most laser printers have gotten away from it with changes in the toner
formulations, better non-stick coatings on the fuser, and lower fuser
temperatures, again due to the toner chemistry.

The paper feed rollers on inkjet printers tend to be less robust, in
general, and they will often glaze just from use, picking up paper dust
and especially the coatings used on specialized inkjet papers.

Art


If you are interested in issues surrounding e-waste,
I invite you to enter the discussion at my blog:

http://e-trashtalk.spaces.live.com/
 
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