Laser toner use - is it page coverage dependant?

[Martin]

This may seem like a dumb question to anyone in the know but I've really
not bothered too much with Laser printers and stuck with Inkjets in the
main so I have to plead ignorance... My problem is this:

I'm writing a comparison table which compares the cost per page for
inkjets using different approaches (CIS, aftermarket, OEM) and also
including stats from Laser printers as a comparison including their own
consumables (eg: toner, waste toner cart, drum replacement,
electrostatic belt, etc..).

BUT what I'm unsure of is whether or not the toner capacity is affected
by the amount of "ink" coverage required for a page or not.. and if it
does, what sort of difference does it have on the toners capacity (ie:
is there a minimum level of toner used in any page and/or a simple
calculable relationship between page coverage and toner used?

I'm particularly interested in colour lasers so any help would be much
appreciated..

Thanks

Martin

 

[Bob]

BUT what I'm unsure of is whether or not the toner capacity is affected
by the amount of "ink" coverage required for a page or not.. and if it
does, what sort of difference does it have on the toners capacity (ie:
is there a minimum level of toner used in any page and/or a simple
calculable relationship between page coverage and toner used?

I'm particularly interested in colour lasers so any help would be much
appreciated..

If you check the printer specs, or call the company in question, they
will usually tell you what their parameters are. IMHE, they all rate
the "number of pages" a cartridge will produce and it is a certain
percent of coverage (e.g. 60% of page).

 

[Arthur Entlich]

There is a pretty direct correlation, similar to inkjet, between toner
use and amount of image on the page.


Briefly, the way a laser printer works is a charge is created on the
drum that corresponds with the colored area on the final image (or one
is erased to indicate the non colored area...)) The drum than attracts
toner particles to the drum in areas where color should be. This toner
is then transferred to the paper (in come color systems there is an
intermediary belt) and then it is fused to the paper. A small amount of
the toner doesn't fully transfer, and in most cases it becomes waste.
It is usually scrapped of the drum or belt and discarded.

If a blank pages were to go through, a very minimal amount of toner
would be used as the dry toner provides part of the static cling/release
process, but it is very minimal.

Like inkjet printers, the coverage is usually measured in percent, and
typically it's 5% per color, however, some companies play with what they
consider the printable part of the page. Some have been known to use
massive 2-3" of margins on each side, leaving a very small area with
printing, and that part may only be 5% coverage.

It makes for overall unfair competition when one abides by the still
unwritten rules, and one doesn't.

Art

 

[Martin]

There is a pretty direct correlation, similar to inkjet, between toner
use and amount of image on the page.


Briefly, the way a laser printer works is a charge is created on the
drum that corresponds with the colored area on the final image (or one
is erased to indicate the non colored area...)) The drum than attracts
toner particles to the drum in areas where color should be. This toner
is then transferred to the paper (in come color systems there is an
intermediary belt) and then it is fused to the paper. A small amount of
the toner doesn't fully transfer, and in most cases it becomes waste. It
is usually scrapped of the drum or belt and discarded.

If a blank pages were to go through, a very minimal amount of toner
would be used as the dry toner provides part of the static cling/release
process, but it is very minimal.

Like inkjet printers, the coverage is usually measured in percent, and
typically it's 5% per color, however, some companies play with what they
consider the printable part of the page. Some have been known to use
massive 2-3" of margins on each side, leaving a very small area with
printing, and that part may only be 5% coverage.

It makes for overall unfair competition when one abides by the still
unwritten rules, and one doesn't.

Art

Martin wrote:

(original post snipped)

Ahah! OK thanks for that Art... as you can imagine that's had major
implications for my comparison sheet...

Call it dumb but I was assuming that the system was inefficient and
dumping a finite amount of toner for each print so that usage was
uniform. Of course with hindsight, it was a pretty daft assumption to
make so I'm glad I checked.

Re: the whole marketing ploy routine ... yes, that's a given and does
muddy the waters some but my approach has had to take it as read that
marketing types are liars across the board and so they lie more or less
the same. Inaccurate as hell but without a LOT of testing, the only way
to do it.


Thanks again for the help Art and Bob... much appreciated.

Martin

 

[Lionel]

This may seem like a dumb question to anyone in the know but I've really
not bothered too much with Laser printers and stuck with Inkjets in the
main so I have to plead ignorance... My problem is this:

I'm writing a comparison table which compares the cost per page for
inkjets using different approaches (CIS, aftermarket, OEM) and also
including stats from Laser printers as a comparison including their own
consumables (eg: toner, waste toner cart, drum replacement,
electrostatic belt, etc..).

BUT what I'm unsure of is whether or not the toner capacity is affected
by the amount of "ink" coverage required for a page or not.. and if it
does, what sort of difference does it have on the toners capacity (ie:
is there a minimum level of toner used in any page and/or a simple
calculable relationship between page coverage and toner used?

I'm particularly interested in colour lasers so any help would be much
appreciated..

Thanks

Martin

www.printware.co.uk

These have a cost per copy calculator for each of the printers listed.
I am in the process of buying a colour laser and came across this site.
Not had time to see if they explain how they get these figures. So
not sure if this of help to you.
Lionel

 

[Martin]

www.printware.co.uk

These have a cost per copy calculator for each of the printers listed.
I am in the process of buying a colour laser and came across this site.
Not had time to see if they explain how they get these figures. So
not sure if this of help to you.
Lionel

Thanks for that Lionel, as it goes the system I have only taken in a
sample selection of Laser printing figures to confirm what I'd already
suspected regarding costs compared to a CIS, but that's useful none the
less.

Be interesting to see if it takes into account the same factors my
system does (ie: consumables such as drums, etc.. that need changing
over time)

Cheers

 

[Lionel]

Thanks for that Lionel, as it goes the system I have only taken in a
sample selection of Laser printing figures to confirm what I'd already
suspected regarding costs compared to a CIS, but that's useful none the
less.

Be interesting to see if it takes into account the same factors my
system does (ie: consumables such as drums, etc.. that need changing
over time)

Cheers

They say this about their quoted figures.

''The following examples are here to give you an understanding of the coverage figures that we have used. They have been
analysed by a software application to give the area of paper that is covered with toner. The cost per copy is generated
using all consumables, not just the toners and is based on our current sell prices. In the case of colour printers we
have split the coverage equally between all colours to give a more accurate overall cost.''

5% 1.81 pence
15% 5.03 pence
20% 6.63 pence
40% 13.05 pence
90% 29.11 pence

These were sample prices for one of the listed printers.

I suppose you could ask them if prices take account of all items that have to be replaced over a period of time, and how
long the period was that the figures were quoted on.

Lionel

 

[me]

www.printware.co.uk

These have a cost per copy calculator for each of the printers listed.
I am in the process of buying a colour laser and came across this site.
Not had time to see if they explain how they get these figures. So
not sure if this of help to you.
Lionel

I bought a QMS 2200 about five years ago, and a Xerox Phaser 8200 just
over two years ago from them, no problems.

Also worth looking at itdatabases.com (from whom I've bought toner sets)
as they have a handy search facility, to recommend a printer.

 

[me]

Be interesting to see if it takes into account the same factors my
system does (ie: consumables such as drums, etc.. that need changing
over time)

I think they do try and make total cost of ownership figures over
three/five year periods based on so many thousand pages a month.

 

[Van Bain]

This may seem like a dumb question to anyone in the know but I've really
not bothered too much with Laser printers and stuck with Inkjets in the
main so I have to plead ignorance... My problem is this:
I'm particularly interested in colour lasers so any help would be much
appreciated..

Okay, so this is a great question, and asking about color is even more
complicated, but here goes:

The "standard" on a published toner cartridge is 5% coverage, but that is
per color plane. On a color laserjet, one would expect that to simply add
up to 20%, but in reality that's only for a color page, and not every page
is color. On average, 70% of pages printed are color. So this is a big
hairy word problem, but excel can tackle it pretty easy. Note: an
additional cost you may want to look into is other non-toner consumables,
for example the IO drum (sometimes a HIDDEN cost per page). These also have
a yield, but this is straight number of pages and (I believe) do not have a
5% coverage attached (no toner, no coverage!). So again, you have to be
careful. Additional considerations might be paper cost, but those would
remain the same on a regardless of printer/cartridges used.

BTW, 5% coverage is considered pretty high for black only coverage (closer
to 4.1%), and color page coverage is generally somewhat higher than 20%,
usually 21%, so you might want to compensate for that as well (that is,
normalize the published yields to those numbers to get the actual numbers
per cartridge).

Once you have all this stuff worked out and have the prices for each
consumable, you can tell what the CPP will be for a given combination of
KCMY cartridges as well as the IO drums, giving real insight into what it's
going to cost you.

Van

 

[Arthur Entlich]

We aware of one thing that can cause confusion.

The transfer belt goes through 4 cycles with the creation of one color
image. Some manufacturers do not make this clear when discussing
replacement of this consumable. For black only, it usually only goes
through one cycle.

Art

 

[HankB]

I'm particularly interested in colour lasers so any help would be much
appreciated..

Related to this I have a question. I have an HP 2550n and the
cartridges are rated for 4000 pages. When I set it up, one of the steps
is to print three status pages including a test page. The third page
indicated that each cartridge had 3997 pages left. (Only one of the
pages was color!)

I am left wondering if the printer will stop printing when the count
reaches 4000 pages or if it will print until there is insufficient
toner in the cartridges. Does anyone here know?

thanks,
hank