KonicaMinolta PagePro 1350W bands and toner refills

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anonymous

I bought one of these black and white laser printers a few days ago. It's my first laser printer. The reviews I read warned about the "banding" that would be visible in photos and sure enough, I see bands . Can anyone here tell me what causes this and if there is anything that can be done to cure it or minimize it.

Also, has anyone here had experience in refilling the toner cartridges yourself with less expensive materials?

Thank you.
 
I also own this printer, although, I have to admit it hasn't been taken
out of the box yet.

Banding usually is a result of uneven toner distribution on the drum,
but the causes can be numerous. It could be a mechanical issue in how
the toner is applied or made available to the drum, it could be the drum
doesn't have even sensitivity, it could be the laser power is variable,
it could be the ionic charges aren't being created evenly.

Let's just say it's bad or cheap design. Black toner laser printers
aren't really designed to make pretty photo images in most cases, and
cheap ones are, well cheaper. They generally are designed for text and
other printout that doesn't require well controlled half toning or other
gray scale rendering.

Apparently you can use 3rd party toners, but for some reason (other than
greed on K-M's part???) using anything other than K-M toner cartridges
causes the printer to run at about 1/4th the speed. A way around it is
to buy a special chip that I assume gets burned out on the original when
it runs low.

Art
 
I bought one of these black and white laser printers a few days ago. It's my first laser printer. The reviews I read warned about the "banding" that would be visible in photos and sure enough, I see bands . Can anyone here tell me what causes this and if there is anything that can be done to cure it or minimize it.

Also, has anyone here had experience in refilling the toner cartridges yourself with less expensive materials?
Click to expand...

Unless you're printing massive quantities, it's probably not worth it
to remanufacture the cartridges yourself. It's not just a matter of
refilling it with toner. Cartridges typically contain numerous other
parts, such as the drum, wiper blade, mag roller, and others
(depending on the make and model). In additio, there are problems with
seals that have to be dealt with correctly. By the time you're done,
you can get professionally remanufactured carts on eBay for less. In
fact, eBay is your friend here. I buy most of my toner carts on eBay
(and I use 8-10 per month).
 
Unless you're printing massive quantities, it's probably not worth it
to remanufacture the cartridges yourself. It's not just a matter of
refilling it with toner. Cartridges typically contain numerous other
parts, such as the drum, wiper blade, mag roller, and others
(depending on the make and model).
Click to expand...

The 1350W has a separate drum so the toner cartridge can be refilled
with new toner a few times with no need for remanufacturing and
without affecting print quality.

When the other parts in the toner cartridge wear out after a few
refills, just buy a new one, which can again be refilled with new
toner a few times.

This is probably cheaper than buying a new remanufactured cartidge
everytime it runs out of toner.

In this particular model, a chip in the cartridge also has to be
replaced if you want to print at the printer's rated speed, but this
shouldn't affect the refill/remanufacture issue.
 
I'm just wondering what excuse Konica-Minolta uses to justify the chip
being made dysfunctional when the toner runs out. How do they justify
the printer being made to run at less than half speed if you refill?

That really seems like a flagrant violation of the Magnuson-Moss Act.

Art

Rui Sá wrote:
 
I'm just wondering what excuse Konica-Minolta uses to justify the chip
being made dysfunctional when the toner runs out. How do they justify
the printer being made to run at less than half speed if you refill?
Click to expand...

The official corporate spin is that the customer is entitled to top
quality. Therefore, it is in the customer's best interest to make sure
only Konica-Minolta prodcuts are use.
 
All consumable companies, which is what most printer companies are these
days, say the same thing, but that in itself doesn't make it legal under
Magnuson-Moss Act (in the US at least).

Epson gets away with it by claiming the "features" like the chip in the
cartridge records the approximate ink levels, and this is a feature that
allows people to switch cartridges even if one is only partially full,
because the information is kept on the cartridge. At the same time, the
cartridges were redesigned to make them automatically close the ink
outlet and air inlet to keep the ink fresher if you were to hold a
partially filled one for later use. They also claim this is necessary
because it keep the head from going empty and drying out or getting an
air lock.

All of this, of course, may be true, but the real reason for the chip is
to try to prevent refilling. But, how Minolta can do what they do is
much more questionable. I suppose they could claim the toner quality
restricts the speed the engine should operate at to protect it, and
while their toner is worthy of whatever pages per minute, that inferior
ones may not be. It's pretty specious, but I would expect they think
they have it all worked out.

Art
 
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