How to refill a laser. How to refill a laser cartridge correctly? What you need to know about the laser cartridge
Greetings! Today I’ll try to tell you in a nutshell how to refill a laser printer cartridge yourself. Laser printing has long ceased to be a luxury and a laser printer is in almost every home, or at least available to many for purchase. As a rule, for home use for school or household printing, a fully refilled cartridge lasts about one year. After this, it begins to streak, fade or blur.
Printing defects indicate that the cartridge requires urgent refilling. You can take it to a service center, where they will fill it up for you for 200-300 rubles, or you can do it yourself, because there is nothing tricky about it.
How to refill the cartridge yourself?
All you need is a special powder - toner and
I would like to warn you right away that if inhaled, laser printer powder can enter your lungs and settle there. It is very harmful, so be careful and attentive.
All work must be carried out in a well-ventilated area. Also, the powder consists of very small particles and if you accidentally spill it on your clothes, you will not be able to get rid of it completely quickly.
Please note that clothing stained with toner should be wash only in cold water, because when heated, the powder bakes and it is very difficult to wash it later.
To reduce contamination of your home area, we recommend covering the space allocated for refilling a laser printer cartridge with several layers of old newspapers. We will need: rags that you don't mind, narrow-nose pliers, a Phillips screwdriver, rubber gloves, a funnel (can be made of paper) and a brush.
So, after you have bought toner from a special store and prepared your workspace, we can start refilling the cartridge.
01.05.12
First, a little theory, i.e. about what a cartridge is, why it is needed and the main components of the cartridge.
The cartridge is the main unit of a laser printer or MFP, one might say the “heart” of the device. It contains printing powder - toner and auxiliary mechanisms involved in the process of transferring toner from the cartridge to paper.
To get acquainted with the device, we will take the HP Q2612A as an example - a cartridge that is refilled in a completely standard way, and which is very common. Like most HP cartridges, it consists of two halves held together by pins. One half of the cartridge contains a waste hopper, the other half contains toner. First, let's take a look at the half of the cartridge containing the waste hopper. In addition to the hopper, this half also contains a cleaning blade - a squeegee, a charge roller (corotron) and a photo roller.
Let's take a closer look at the purpose of each component. During the printing process, ideally all the toner should be transferred from the cartridge to the paper, but this is not the case. A small amount of it remains on the photo roll and here a squeegee comes to the rescue, which cleans all the toner from the photo roll into the waste bin. The charge roller serves to pre-charge and discharge the surface of the photo roll. If the photo roll is not charged, the toner particles simply will not “stick” to it. Well, the heart of the cartridge is the photo shaft - the main component that forms the image. All surface defects of the photo roll will be reflected on the sheet of paper. So treat the drum with caution and care.
Now let's briefly look at the other half. It contains a toner bottle, a dispensing blade and a magnetic roller. The toner container contains the necessary supply of printing powder - toner. A magnetic roller is used to transfer toner to the surface of the photo roller. The dispensing blade is necessary to evenly distribute the toner over the surface of the magnetic roller, so that printing is uniform over the entire area of the sheet. And so we’re done with theory, it’s time to move on to practice.
Let’s start with the most artisanal method; I’ll say right away that you don’t need to do this. The simplest thing that comes to mind is to drill holes in the cartridge in the right places. And through them, shake out the waste and add toner. The advantage of this method is that it can be done quickly, the disadvantage is that the cartridge cannot be cleaned well. This method has a right to life and sometimes it can be used when other methods are irrational or the cartridge has a completely maple design.
Let's move on to the correct method for refilling the cartridge. As you understand from the above, we need to shake out the waste toner from the waste bin and pour good toner into a specially designed container. To do this, the cartridge must be disassembled. First, carefully examine it and understand how the halves of the cartridge are connected to each other. In order to separate them, you need to pull out the pins. To do this, unscrew the side cover of the photo roll and remove it. Then we take out the photo roll. Carefully place it in an inaccessible place so as not to accidentally damage it. After that, pull out the charging roller. Please note that one end of the roller is lubricated with conductive grease; it is advisable not to remove it. At the base of the squeegee, on the left and right, you can see the tips of the pins. Using a handy tool, for example a curved awl, we squeeze these pins out, pick them up with pliers and pull them out completely. Also pay attention to the spring that tightens the halves; it will need to be put in place after refilling the cartridge. When disassembling the cartridge, it is better to keep it in a horizontal position on the table with the photoconductor facing up. This way you will protect yourself from spilled toner from the waste bin.
The next stage of our epic will be the removal of mining. To do this, we sharply turn the half with the mining hopper over and tap it lightly with a screwdriver, trying to remove everything from there. Carefully clean everything and assemble this half. It is advisable not to clean the edge of the squeegee and the photo roller, since after this the surface must be sprinkled with special talcum powder or toner, otherwise the cartridge may jam.
Then we take the other half and disassemble it. Carefully remove the magnetic shaft, clean it, you can just use a cloth. Discard the remaining toner. Under one of the side covers there is a plug through which you can later add toner. If there is no plug, then we will refill the cartridge through the slot of the magnetic shaft. Install everything in reverse order and add toner. We turn the magnetic shaft by hand to make sure that it does not jam. After this, we assemble the cartridge in the reverse order. When installing the magnetic shaft cover, you must be extremely careful so as not to damage the shaft spring.
The article, of course, is far from complete, describing everything in general terms, so if you want to refill the cartridge yourself, it is better to find it on the Internet with pictures for refilling the cartridge yourself. I wish you success!
I would like to devote the next article on my site to refilling the Canon LBP 5050 color laser printer. Moreover, its cartridges have long been “asking” to be refilled with fresh toner. And to kill two birds with one stone, I will refill the cartridges, and my son Vladislav will film the whole process with a camera.
By the way, I use this color printer for laser thermal transfer on T-shirts. So this topic is directly related to my site. Toner, unlike water-based ink, is not washed out by water during washing and the print applied this way lasts much better. It is equally important that this printer is quite affordable; it cost me only 5,500 rubles. And its print quality is very decent.
The Canon LBP 5050 color laser printer uses 716 cartridges. Cartridges with this number are also used in Canon LBP 5970, LBP 5975, MF 8030, MF 8050 printers.
To refill we need compatible toner, chips and a screwdriver. I will use HP toner. With printer Canon LBP 5050 Compatible toner for HP Color LaserJet CP 1215/1515n/1518n/CM1312. Surely there is a toner specifically for Canon, but they offered me this one and it worked perfectly.
And here is a photo of the label from the universal chip. Here the list of compatible printers is even wider.
I will show refilling using the example of a black cartridge. Colored ones are filled in the same way.
Toner is harmful, so wear gloves and use a respirator. Or at least try not to inhale toner dust. So, let's start refilling Canon 716Bk/716C/716M/716Y cartridges.
The 716 cartridge consists of two halves. To separate them you need to remove the side covers. Take the cartridge in your hand and unscrew two screws, first on one side:
Then on the other.
Now carefully remove the covers one by one. Remember that they are what hold the halves of the cartridge together, hold it firmly in your hand.
Now nothing holds the cartridge halves. Let's separate them.
First, let's take the part where the waste toner is stored. Putting the photoconductor (blue cylinder) aside, remove the shaft from the slots.
Now, after unscrewing the two screws, remove the squeegee. Below it you will see a compartment with waste toner.
The compartment needs to be cleared of waste. An old vacuum cleaner is best for this.
After cleaning, reassemble everything in reverse order and set this part of the cartridge aside. Now let's move on to the other half. Unscrew the screw securing the contact plate and remove it.
Now you can easily remove the magnetic shaft by sliding it to the side.
Under the blade you will see a fairly wide gap through which we will pour toner. But first, also using a vacuum cleaner, you need to clean out the old toner compartment. This is a must do! Never mix original and compatible toners!
After cleaning, open the bottle and pour its contents inside the cartridge. Lightly tap the cartridge on the table to distribute the toner evenly.
Bottles with color toner contained 45 grams. And all the contents filled the cartridge to capacity. For some reason, the black toner contained 55 grams and, no matter how hard I tried to fill it all at once, nothing worked. Some of the toner remained in the bottle. It looks like the cartridges are standard, designed for 45 g of toner.
After adding toner, assemble this half of the cartridge in reverse order. When installing the dispensing blade, remember that by moving it slightly forward or backward you adjust the amount of toner entering the magnetic roller.
Now, carefully supporting the drum unit, connect both halves of the cartridge. Then put on the side covers and secure them with screws.
The last thing you need to do is replace the chip. Without it, your printer will not work. Remember that each color has its own chip. Don't confuse them!
That's it, refueling is complete. We insert the cartridge into the printer and test it. I don’t know about you, but everything worked for me the first time. I only had to slightly adjust the color levels in the print settings. But this is common practice - the toner is not “native”.
Well, in conclusion, a little mathematics (oh, and I love counting everything!). Many people are afraid to buy color laser printers due to expensive maintenance. This is true. Type in Yandex the phrase “Refilling a color laser cartridge” and you will see that the cost of refilling one (!) such cartridge costs 1000 - 1200 rubles at a service center. Moreover, a cartridge from a simple monochrome printer costs 250 - 300 rubles to refill.
Therefore, before buying a color laser, I made inquiries and found toner at a price of 137 rubles for 45 grams of each color and chips for 61 rubles apiece. Total, almost 200 rubles per color. Do you feel the difference?
I admit that this is a dealer price, that is, with a good discount. But even if you multiply this amount by 2, in terms of four cartridges, the savings will be impressive!
And remember - it’s not the Gods who burn the pots! Refill your color laser printers yourself and you will have an impressive amount left over to purchase the necessary consumables.
I wish you success!
P.S. After several refills, I concluded that chip manufacturers program them for a fairly small number of prints. As a result, when the cartridge begins to “require” replacement of the toner with the chip, it is enough to replace only the chip. There is still enough toner inside for excellent printing.
As a result, it turns out that for three chip replacements, two toner replacements are enough. That is, now I buy a little more chips than bottles of toner. It is possible that your chips are programmed differently, but still take note of this information.
So this is that they need to be changed immediately after the ink runs out. If you do not refill the cartridge immediately, it will dry out quickly. At best, it will print much worse, at worst, it will not print at all. Therefore, carefully monitor the ink supply readings using special programs on your computer.
To refill a Canon cartridge you need to do the following:
Remove the cartridge from the printer. To do this, first read the instructions to find out the features of your device, and then follow it:
- Find out the model name of your printer so you know how it works. To do this, inspect the device, and there you can find the name of the printer model next to the brand name. If it's not listed there, look in the button bar. The model name can also be found on the barcode located on the back of the device. If this information is not visible, find it using your computer (in Device Manager).
- Familiarize yourself with the location of the buttons on the printer.
- Open the printer cover.
- When the containers automatically come out (all models have this function, but if necessary, it can also be pulled out using special buttons), remove the desired cartridge from them. To do this, pull on the place specially designated for this (arched protrusion). To avoid drying out of the print head, you must wait until the containers with cartridges themselves reach the desired location.
Place the cartridge on a flat surface with the label facing up
Peel off the sticker. There you will see three small indentations (there is one in a black ink cartridge, three in a color cartridge). You need to make holes in them for paint to enter (expand these recesses). We will inject paint through the holes you make using a syringe. These holes can be made using a drill or a hot needle. But be very careful not to push the drill or needle too deep, as this may damage the cartridge.
Fill the syringe with the ink you want to refill
- Paint should be injected into specially designated areas. Remember that the top hole on a color printer is for red ink. The bottom left is blue, and the bottom right is yellow. The black cartridge has one hole.
- The syringe needle should be lowered into the hole by about two-thirds (in no case deeper, so as not to damage the cartridge).
- When you see a little ink begin to flow through the holes, this means that the cartridge reservoir is already full.
- To prevent the cartridge from being overfilled, you need to pump out 0.5 ml of paint without removing the syringe.
- Once you have filled all the desired paint reservoirs, carefully remove the syringe and place the decal back. This should be done immediately after filling with paint to avoid drying out.
Place the filled cartridge back into the printer
Be sure to check that the ink matches your printer brand. If they are incompatible, the cartridge may not print and you will have to completely flush the print head.
Make sure the cartridges are well seated in their containers. This is one of the reasons why the printer may not print. Therefore, wait for the characteristic click before you start printing.
Don't forget to check the expiration date of your ink.
Many owners of laser printers refill them. Our article will tell you how to refill a laser printer.
Laser printer cartridges are specially separated into separate removable units in most models, since they contain elements that require periodic replacement. There is no need to change any other parts of the printer.
Toner
Toner is a finely dispersed mixture of different elements: graphite, resins, iron-containing powder and some other elements. For different companies and different models of laser printers, the toner composition is always different.
Toner should be stored at room temperature in an airtight container. Avoid working with toner near open flames or any heating elements. Before refilling the cartridge, the container with the required toner must be shaken several times to eliminate any lumps. You should also remember that you cannot refill toner from the old toner bin. The cartridge must be refilled with toner that is designed for a specific model. As a rule, the volume for refilling a cartridge is indicated on the toner container itself.
Refueling process
The cartridge, in most cases, consists of two halves, which are connected by locking inserts or latches, which is why these halves must be separated before refilling.
Next, you need to take half of the cartridge, which has a transparent plastic plug, and remove it with pliers. Toner is poured into the hole formed. It can also be poured into a transverse hole that will open in small portions. In the latter case, the plastic plug cannot be removed. Here's how to refill a laser printer cartridge.
But it is possible to refill the cartridge without disassembling it. To do this, you need to drill a hole 10-12 mm in diameter on the body of the toner hopper wall and pour toner into it. After this, the hole must be sealed with tape. The hopper can also be cleaned through this opening. Here's where to refill your laser printer.
Cleaning the hopper and the cartridge as a whole
To clean the hopper, it is necessary to remove the photosensitive drum by removing the fixing metal inserts. Do not damage the applied coating and do not expose the drum to bright light. Also, do not touch the working surface of the drum with your hands. It must be remembered that the life of the drum directly depends on its operating conditions. For example, when printing a series of 40-80 pages, the drum will wear out less than when printing a series of 2-4 sheets.
After you have removed the drum, you need to clean it of old toner. Cleaning should be done with a soft material and a small amount of toner. Next, you need to remove the rubber charging shaft, which is located near the drum, from the spring clips. The resource of such a shaft is approximately 32,000 pages. Now you need to remove the cleaning scraper - a squeegee (this is a metal plate with a plastic insert). Now you have access to the old toner bin.
Now all that remains is to assemble the cartridge halves in reverse order.
Now you know how to refill a laser printer!