Reverse side laser printing

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bob

I have heard, and seen on some laser printers, where
if I print on one side of a sheet and then re-feed it
to print on the other side, it is not good because it
can "dirty" the mechanism.

Is this true? And what about printers that are duplex
printers?

TIA
 
bob said:
I have heard, and seen on some laser printers, where
if I print on one side of a sheet and then re-feed it
to print on the other side, it is not good because it
can "dirty" the mechanism.

Is this true? And what about printers that are duplex
printers?

TIA

I have never heard of that and the more I think about it the more it sounds
like nonsense. There is nothing on the paper that can "dirty" the printer. I
think you have been misinformed. The only problem I have ever heard of with
duplexing is that a few printers have difficult as a result of the paper curl
that can occur, this will not however damage the printer.
Tony
MS MVP Printing/Imaging
 
Tony said:
I have never heard of that and the more I think about it the more it sounds
like nonsense. There is nothing on the paper that can "dirty" the printer. I
think you have been misinformed. The only problem I have ever heard of with
duplexing is that a few printers have difficult as a result of the paper curl
that can occur, this will not however damage the printer.
Tony
MS MVP Printing/Imaging

I think it was that the toner from the first
printing would rub off from the heat of the
second printing onto the [drum](?). Does
that make sense?
 
I think it was that the toner from the first
printing would rub off from the heat of the
second printing onto the [drum](?). Does
that make sense?

The laser printer I have uses teflon coated rollers around the fuser
assembly so if you print on second side, the images from the first
side wouldn't transfer. Check with your printer's manual if it states
2 sided printing is allowed or not.
 
Well, in theory some toner could come off and contaminate some of the
paper path, but I haven't found it to be a major problem, and I use
almost exclusively laser and photocopy rejects in my printers for any
testing, home documents, etc.

The one area it does effect is the paper take up wheels which I find
require cleaning every so often. But considering how many thousands of
sheets of paper I dave (and the trees they come from, its a small price
to pay.
 
I'm actually surprised that more doesn't come off during the heating
process, but my experience is that it pretty much stays where it is. As
I mentioned in a previous posting, some seems to get rubbed on at the
paper transport rollers.

Art
Tony said:
I have never heard of that and the more I think about it the more it
sounds like nonsense. There is nothing on the paper that can "dirty"
the printer. I think you have been misinformed. The only problem I
have ever heard of with duplexing is that a few printers have
difficult as a result of the paper curl that can occur, this will not
however damage the printer.
Tony
MS MVP Printing/Imaging


I think it was that the toner from the first
printing would rub off from the heat of the
second printing onto the [drum](?). Does
that make sense?
 
Thanks everyone for the feedback.

Since the take up roller was brought up, I have a friend
with an HP Laserjet 2100 who prints postcards. He feeds
through the auxiliary feeder and the take up roller sometimes
does not pickup a postcard (I think it slips). He has
tried to clean it and it works temporarily.

Are there places to buy these pickup rollers for self
replacement?

TIA
 
go to
http://www.printerworks.com/Catalogs/RollerKits/2100-RK_RollerKit.html
The two parts he needs are at the top right and top left. The other three parts
will not help with this problem but may help with issues picking paper from
tray 2 or with print quality.
go to
http://www.image1products.com/techdocs/HP.htm
download the 2100 manual which will explain how to replace these parts, it is
not very hard to replace the tray 1 parts but the tray 2 parts can be tricky
even though it looks easy.
See also http://www.printertechs.com/tech/mkinst/mk-2100-1.php which has links
to instructions for replacing these parts if you don't want the whole manual.
Tray 1 instructions are items 5 and 6 on this page.
The two part numbers are RB2-2900-000CN (Roller) and RB2-6348-000CN (Pad). They
are identical parts to those used in the LJ2200 and several other models and
sometimes the part numbers change.
If you go to
http://www.jpcomputerstore.com/servlet/Categories?category=LaserJet+2100+Series
They have both of these available but you should be able to google for either
part number and get a number of hits.


bob said:
Thanks everyone for the feedback.

Since the take up roller was brought up, I have a friend
with an HP Laserjet 2100 who prints postcards. He feeds
through the auxiliary feeder and the take up roller sometimes
does not pickup a postcard (I think it slips). He has
tried to clean it and it works temporarily.

Are there places to buy these pickup rollers for self
replacement?

TIA

Tony
MS MVP Printing/Imaging
 
Way cool Tony! Thanks for all the links!!!

go to
http://www.printerworks.com/Catalogs/RollerKits/2100-RK_RollerKit.html
The two parts he needs are at the top right and top left. The other three parts
will not help with this problem but may help with issues picking paper from
tray 2 or with print quality.
go to
http://www.image1products.com/techdocs/HP.htm
download the 2100 manual which will explain how to replace these parts, it is
not very hard to replace the tray 1 parts but the tray 2 parts can be tricky
even though it looks easy.
See also http://www.printertechs.com/tech/mkinst/mk-2100-1.php which has links
to instructions for replacing these parts if you don't want the whole manual.
Tray 1 instructions are items 5 and 6 on this page.
The two part numbers are RB2-2900-000CN (Roller) and RB2-6348-000CN (Pad). They
are identical parts to those used in the LJ2200 and several other models and
sometimes the part numbers change.
If you go to
http://www.jpcomputerstore.com/servlet/Categories?category=LaserJet+2100+Series
They have both of these available but you should be able to google for either
part number and get a number of hits.




Tony
MS MVP Printing/Imaging
 
The only problem I
Hi, Tony.
I'm curious about the essence of this issue, too. My "laser" printer is
an Okidata 12i. The instructions say not to feed a previously-printed
sheet through the machine. I've assumed that the reason for this is that
the already-fused toner will melt and smear on the second pass through
the fuser, and in addition, may be deposited on the pressure rollers
opposite the fuser, to then be transfered to the next sheet of paper.

Is this the case? Can you tell me about the different fuser systems that
may cause trouble like this or allow more flexible printing?

Thanks.

Richard

PS: your reply was not carried onto my machine. I don't have you
killfiled, but I do have our newsgroup spoiler killed under his various
pseudonyms -- which makes considerably-calmer participation. But I don't
understand why your post didn't make it.
 
Richard Steinfeld said:
The only problem I

Hi, Tony.
I'm curious about the essence of this issue, too. My "laser" printer is
an Okidata 12i. The instructions say not to feed a previously-printed
sheet through the machine. I've assumed that the reason for this is that
the already-fused toner will melt and smear on the second pass through
the fuser, and in addition, may be deposited on the pressure rollers
opposite the fuser, to then be transfered to the next sheet of paper.

Is this the case? Can you tell me about the different fuser systems that
may cause trouble like this or allow more flexible printing?

Thanks.

Richard

PS: your reply was not carried onto my machine. I don't have you
killfiled, but I do have our newsgroup spoiler killed under his various
pseudonyms -- which makes considerably-calmer participation. But I don't
understand why your post didn't make it.

Richard
I'm not a chemist so cannot be absolutely sure of this but I believe that toner
that has been fused once will not melt when passed through a laser printer a
second time.
There are two scenarios that occur to me.
1. Paper that has a curl (due to heating in a laser printer) will sometimes
jam. This is worse in some printers than it is in others and is not uncommon.
2. Paper that has been previously printed on an inkjet printer can sometimes
leave ink impressions on fuser rollers. I have seen this on one occasion and am
advised that it is not uncommon. I suspect this is affected by a number of
factors such as the type of ink used during the original print, the temperature
and pressure of the fuser and whether the paper has absorbed moisture which may
assist in lifting the ink. Just about all plain paper will absorb moisture from
the atmosphere and generally the cheaper the paper the more it will tend to
absorb moisture (higher clay content). Having said that, my understanding and
my experience is that no damage is done. The marks I saw on the fuser of the
printer disappeared after a few pages and they did not affect the print quality
(the marks were noticed during inspection of the printer). There is no reason
to believe that previously printed pages will affect any other part of the
printer since the pressure and temperature that the paper experiences is not
unusual except of course in the fuser.
Overall I recommend against reusing paper in laser printers because of the
curl, this is worse in printers that contain automatic duplexers. I have seen
hundreds of fusers with toner deposit on them (which by the way does not always
cause any problems) but have never seen one with any recognisable marks such as
a printed character other than the one mentioned above which certainly
attracted my attention.
I am pleased that you have not found the need to killfile me, I would be
disappointed if I ever tempted anyone to do that. Feel free to reply so that I
know that you got this, otherwise I will e-mail you with the above information
after a reasonable period of time.
Tony
 
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