Each component inside a laser printer has its own mission to work together and deliver various prints. You can see the whole picture from our previous article: How Does Printer Toner Work? Here, the main character in this article will be the Waste Toner Container, also called Waste Toner Box.
What is a Waste Toner Container?
Ideally, all the toner required for the image should be transferred to the printouts. However, owing to the character of the toner and how the machine reacts with the toner, there will be residual toner remaining on the OPC surface or the drum. A wiper blade will then collect the waste toner into the waste toner container. Some printers may build the container for collecting excess toner into a toner cartridge or a drum kit to collect excess toner while some design it as an individual consumable.
How does Waste Toner Container Work?
During the printing, waste toner continues to be produced and collected into the waste toner container. When the waste toner container is full, a printer panel will show the signal of replacement. Then, how does the printer know when the waste toner container is full?
For the waste toner container built in a toner cartridge or a drum kit, since the whole set will be replaced simultaneously while the consumable life is out, there’s no special mechanism to detect the level of waste toner. However, regarding the individual waste toner box, since the container will have to keep the waste toner of more than one cartridge, a laser sensor is utilized to detect the remaining capacity of the container. Here is one of the common designs:
There is a laser sensor on the machine. The waste toner container is equipped with a transparent detecting window. The convex part of the window is placed in the middle between the laser and the sensor of the machine. When the laser passes through the window successfully, it means there is still space for more waste toner. When the laser is stemmed by the stacked waste toner, the machine will show a signal to replace the waste toner container.
For all the waste toner containers that go with Cartridge Web’s toner cartridges, their performance, IP, and quality are qualified under strict standards. Our goal is to provide consistent products with the best service to all our customers. Cartridge Web is always the best alternative to OEM toner when it comes to compatible toner cartridges.