In the not-so-distant year of 2009, one of the fastest office color printers was the Dell 5130cdn laser printer, costing $1500. The printing speed of this unit was 37 pages per minute for duplex printing, and 47 for simplex.
The very first commercial printer was made in 1975 for printing invoices and postage stamps. In those years, the price of such a printer was $17,000. Only in 1984, HP released a printer for the market; it cost $3,500 and is still known under the LaserJet brand.
In the fuser unit of the printer, the temperature reaches 200 degrees Celsius. To prevent the paper from starting to smolder, rollers move it at a frantic speed. The rollers themselves are made of special heat-resistant rubber and Teflon. They are called Teflon rollers.
The cartridge is filled with toner, not ink. Toner consists of tiny plastic spheres. Under the influence of heat, printer toner begins to melt. If toner accidentally spills on a table, it can be easily removed with an ordinary dry cloth or brush, in extreme cases with cold water. Warm water, on the other hand, promotes rapid absorption into the surface.
Laser printers are more durable than inkjet printers, and also give images greater photorealism, thanks to a resolution of 2400 dpi. All parts of such a printer's cartridge are reusable; it can be refilled many times.
During active printing, the printer consumes three times more electricity than an office worker's computer in the same time.
But its idle costs are minimal. Some brands of color printers can print an almost invisible color code on each sheet, containing the model, serial number, and date of release.
A laser printer is much more expensive than an inkjet, but believe me, the difference quickly pays off, because it is more durable and easy to maintain. For example, cartridge refilling is quite affordable and, most importantly, cost-effective.
PR