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Last updated: 8 November 2022

Best Laser Printers

The Best Laser Printer for Your Office

Investing in a laser printer for your office will support your business in its daily activities by providing you with the ability to print high quality text and graphics. A laser printer will make processing your documents a quick and effortless process while, depending on your choice in printer, complementing the needs of your employees. There are essentially two main types of laser printer: monochrome and colour laser printers.

Laser Printed Data

Laser printers tend to print faster than inkjet printers at a higher text quality and with larger paper capacity. Businesses that only need to print basic text and graphics as well as photographs with an adequate quality will find laser printers to be an ideal addition to the workplace.

Which Laser Printer is Best for Business Use?

The laser printer that is best for business use is ultimately the one that is most reliable and consistent in its printing results. The cost of the machine, matching its capacity with the projected usage and a supplementary service agreement can all affect a printer’s dependability as well as its efficiency.

Depending on the model, a laser printer for business use will be able to print in colour or monochrome, process hundreds of documents a minute, and apply a variety of post printing finishes, such as punched holes, duplex printing, staples, or folds.

Paper Tray On Multifunction Printer

Most printer suppliers can customise machines with any of the pre-mentioned features. Variables such as high speed and quality can be expected from all mid-to-high range units. Furthermore, all suppliers of printers for business printers will be able to supply wireless printers that can meet todays need for effortless connectivity.

Maximising the return on your investment in a laser printer for office use can be achieved by choosing a purchasing or leasing solution that includes a comprehensive service agreement. This will ensure that the machine is professionally maintained and that any printer downtime is minimised.

Laser Printer Repair

Finally, being conscious about your expected printing capacity and which features are essential for your business will make sure that your chosen machine will not be overwhelmed and need servicing.

How Do Laser Printers Work?

Laser printers simply work by fusing printer toner together with a surface by shining a laser on an imaging drum and applying charged ink particles to a surface.

Technically, the process is called xerography and the laser shines a beam over an electron-charged imaging drum, fusing electronically-charged ink together with heated paper to create the text and imagery. This is illustrated in the model below.

How A Laser Printer Works
Desk Printer

There are usually seven steps in the laser printing process:

  1. Raster Image Processing (RIP) is the process where the document that will be printed is encoded in a page description language so the laser will understand where to shine its beam.

  2. Charging the imaging drum is a critical step in the process as this is where the electrostatic charge is applied to the imaging drum so it can react to the laser beam and define the charged image.

  3. Exposing is the most important stage as this is where the laser, through a series of lenses and mirrors, is directed onto the charged imaging drum to form the image.

  4. Developing the image occurs when the surface of the imaging drum with the image is exposed to electro-statically charged ink powder, which attracts the ink to the area that has been exposed to the laser.

  5. Transferring happens once the imaging drum rolls the attracted ink onto the paper, creating an effect that pulls the toner from the photoreceptor onto the paper.

  6. Fusing the ink to the paper surface through a combination of pressure and heat of up to 200°C. This permanently bonds the ink powder to the paper.

  7. Cleaning excess toner from the imaging drum is important and requires the machine to wipe away excess toner and remove the remaining charge from the drum.

Is Using a Laser Printer Hazardous?

At this point in time there are no conclusive negative health effects of laser printing. A study conducted by an Australian university in 2007 caused panic by claiming that ultra-fine particles in printer toner were detrimental to the health of those exposed to them.

However, the Berkeley Lab from the University of California has concluded that the results from the Australian study are inconclusive and that inadequate research techniques were used, stating that “showing that printers produce pollutants is not the same thing as knowing that it causes certain health effects”.

Laser Printer Toner

There is no need to be concerned about the negative health effects of laser printing at this time and nor does there seem to be in the foreseeable future.

The History of the Laser Printer

Xerographic print processing (originally called electro-photography), the integral technology in laser printers, was invented in 1938 and in 1976 IBM released the first commercial laser printer which was used for high-volume printing in data centres.

The first laser printer for business use was released by Xerox in 1981 but, due to its expensive price (roughly £10,000), it was only affordable to a small segment of its target market.

Together with Canon, HP released the first mass-market laser printer in 1984 and at this point the laser printers available were large and the supporting software that was used was complex and expensive as each manufacturer had developed their own version.

Laser Printer Magnified

Once the PostScript standard was implemented into laser printers from 1985, users could print using text, font graphics and images that were independent of the printer brand.

Laser printers have come a long way since then and, in addition to being affordable, today laser printers have a variety of advanced features and can be customised in a variety of ways that make them an ideal addition to a fast paced office environment.

What to Expect From a Laser Printer

Wireless Printing Mobile

Todays business laser printers are, for the most part multifunctional printers that can connect wirelessly with an array of devices and print in both monochrome and colour. Businesses need to provide tools for their employees that meet their growing need for flexibility.

Commercial printers will typically include a photocopier, scanner and various features such as post printing finishing (staples, folding, duplex printing and hole punching) as well as a variety of means to communicate with the printer (cloud printing, USB printing, wireless printing, etc.).

When it comes to financing your printer investment, you can usually select a printer hire option, rather than buying it in full.

If your business is in need of a laser printing solution then complete a quote request form today, for free and our dedicated sales personnel will contact you and connect you with qualified suppliers of high quality laser printers and services.

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