Toner vs. Toner The Same But Different

Business users rely primarily on electrophotographic (EP) technology regardless if they use a printer, multifunction unit, or copier, regardless of what you hear about the growing popularity of ink in the office. Toner was, is, and—for the foreseeable future—will be the preferred method that office users employ to put marks on paper. Although digital copiers and printers are based on EP technology, the consumables used in the competing machines vary greatly in the way they are designed, deployed, and distributed.

As I detailed in my article last month on hardware, copiers, MFPs, and printers often perform many of the same functions but the machines themselves are very different in terms of the channels they are sold through, the customers they are targeted at, and the value propositions they provide. The supplies for these competing machines and how they are sold and delivered are also very different. In fact, many of the characteristics associated with the different types of devices such as total cost of ownership, print speed, image quality, duty cycle, and, of course, intervention rates are all functions of the toner-based consumables the machines employ.

In this article, I’ll detail some of the basics about toner and how it is deployed in different types of cartridges and containers designed specifically for certain machines. I’ll also drill in a little on how consumables support the business models embraced by competing copier and printer OEMs.

Xerox Cartridges
Like most OEMs, Xerox offers a variety of toner cartridges and containers with different designs to meet the different market demands of its printers and copiers

Toner 101

While it all may look pretty much the same, toner is distinct to each vendor and often to individual families of machines. With the exception of the paper delivery system and the power supply unit, toner has an impact on virtually every internal printer or copier system including the charge unit, imaging drum, fuser, and other sub-assemblies. Toner design is critical to a machine’s performance and functionality. As a result, the toner used in a small $100 personal printer is substantially different than the toner found in a Segment 6 copier.

The majority of a toner particle consists of a polyester- or acrylic-based resin and a pigmented colorant. During the fusing process, the resin melts and fuses the pigment to the substrate. Toner also contains small amounts of additives to make sure it moves through the machine correctly and, in the end, accurately adheres to the substrate. Depending on the machine and the application, toner may also require a lubricant to enhance its flow and to ease in the removal of waste toner from the imaging drum. Some machines employ a carrier to aid in toner delivery and facilitate higher speeds.

For years, toner was manufactured by combining the constituent components and exposing them to heat and pressure. Most toner today continues to be produced through this method. Using an extruding process, toner ingots are formed after the components are combined. The finger-sized ingots are ground down to powder using various mechanical devices. The proper performance of a toner within an EP device requires precision milling. In the final phase of grinding, each particle must meet exacting standards and can vary in size by at most a few microns. The toner particles that are outside of the tolerances are usually collected, sent back through the extruding process, and reground.

HP cartridges : The integrated color toner cartridges used in the HP Color LaserJet CP1215 have per-page costs of over 17 cents when used to print color documents

Since the 1990s, certain toners have been manufactured using chemical processes. Most chemically-produced toners (CPT) are formed using polymerization techniques. The resins and colorants are combined differently and no mechanical grinding is required. Rather than mixing ingredients and extruding ingots, a chemical reaction is used to combine the base compounds and particles are formed in a solution, which can be either water- or solvent-based depending on the ingredients. As the particles are formed, heat and pressure is used to control for size and shape. Because they are essentially “grown” from the molecular level, CPT particles can be made much more uniform than mechanically ground toners.

Each type of toner offers its own unique set of advantages. Polyester toners provide lower melting points, which allow for lower fusing temperatures. Consequently, styrene acrylic resins are now formulated to support faster speeds and also require less energy to fuse. Polyester-based toners seem to be growing in popularity and are used frequently in color applications. I hasten to add that toners made with styrene acrylic resins are not disappearing any time soon. Advocates of CPT claim that it supports better image quality than ground toners. Mechanically ground toners, however, are promoted as being more robust. Ground toners are used by most big iron machines while CPT is more poplar in desktop units. I should add that the situation is in flux, and since 2005 I’ve seen CPT deployed in more big iron machines.

Cartridges vs. Containers
Toner ships in a wide range of cartridges and containers. One of the biggest differentiators between copiers and printers (and MFPs based on printer engines) is the design of the vessel the toner comes in. Typically, lower-end printers and MFPs use integrated cartridges. These cartridges contain much of the machine’s printing technology including the imaging drum and other parts in one unit along with the toner. Moving up market, toner comes in less high-tech packages. Higher-end machines feature toner and drums in separate units. Big iron devices that occupy the very top of the market employ fairly simple toner bottles and the toner is transferred to highly complex imaging stations using various means.

Kyocera Mita TASKalfa 250ci : At almost $9,000, Kyocera Mita's new TASKalfa 250ci is more expensive than a color desktop MFP but it is much less expensive to operate.

Although there are many considerations that go into the design of consumables, one of the key factors is what impact they will have on the hardware’s total cost of ownership. As one would expect, the more technology contained in a cartridge, the greater the cost—both to the manufacturer and the consumer. It can cost close to 5 cents to print a black and white page with an entry-level personal laser printer or MFP using an integrated cartridge and a color page can cost more than 20 cents. Per page costs are directly attributable to the consumable and drop significantly as one moves up market to workgroup machines and production devices, which can print black and white pages for under a penny.

Operating costs are not the only considerations in the ultimate design of a toner container. Print volumes are another big factor. High-yield cartridges that deliver 7,500 to 10,000 pages offer advantages beyond cost saving. End-users benefit because they are not required to change spent cartridges as often, fewer cartridges have to be stored onsite, and so on. Consideration, however, also must be given to overall toner “health.” Toner particles can degrade or begin to clump together when exposed to the heat typically found inside EP devices. So, even if a machine prints huge volumes, bundling an imaging drum capable of printing tens of thousands of images with enough toner to support it may not make sense because the toner might start to break down. That’s why you’ll often find two-piece consumables in higher-end machines.

In general, most entry-level to mid-tier printers and printer-based MFPs use integrated cartridges. There are plenty of exceptions, however. Brother, Oki, and Samsung deploy separate toner and imaging units regardless of the class of device. Hewlett-Packard and Lexmark, on the other hand, tend to stick with integrated cartridges. Printers that support large workgroups usually feature separate toner and drum units to keep printing costs down and intervention rates low as well as reduce the risk of toner breaking down as noted earlier. Likewise, digital copiers normally depend on two-part cartridge designs.

Supporting the Business Model
Equipment manufacturers use consumables to support their respective business models. Printer manufacturers rely on the revenue that comes from cartridge sales because of the dramatic price compression the industry has experienced on most hardware. This is the basic razor-and-blade model, which applies less to copier vendors.

It seems that each successive generation of printer and printer-based MFP that enters the market is cheaper and faster than its predecessor and often offers more features. To ensure the profitability of these machines, printer OEMs have reduced the page yields of their cartridges or raised the price—or both. These is especially true for low-end to mid-tier color printers and MFPs as well as personal monochrome machines. Often, machines sold at the lower end of the market are so inexpensive the printer OEM makes no profit from the sale of the hardware; rather, all the profits come from cartridge sales.
Copier manufacturers and dealers also make a nice profit on consumables sales, but they are not as reliant on that revenue as those that market printers. Copier vendors are able to capture some profit when they place the machine. As I discussed last month, copiers are often purchased under lease and sold with a service contract that commonly takes into consideration the print volumes. The cost of service and consumables are all baked into these service contracts with their “per click” charges. Also, unlike most desktop printers, copiers offer a wide array of finishing options like staplers and other inline equipment. Customers are frequently willing to pay more for these finishing options, which adds margin for the dealers. Likewise, more recent copiers have come with workflow and document management solutions, which command a premium in the market.

Printer and copier vendors are emulating each other’s sales tactics and embracing, at least in part, the other’s business model. Copier manufacturers have invested heavily in developing lower-end machines that will allow them to grab some of the profits associated with higher per-page revenues. Printer OEMs are now offering more lease options and Managed Print Services by which they can offset the higher operating costs of their machines. In my next article on the different channels copier and printer vendors use, I’ll discuss these new converging sales tactics in more depth.

With over 12 years of experience, Charles Brewer is an independent consultant for the digital imaging industry. He is a contributing editor to Lyra Research's Hard Copy Supplies Journal published, which he managed from 2005 until 2009. Brewer has authored numerous articles, reports, and white papers on hardware as well as toners, inks, and media and has worked with various OEMS and third-party supplies vendors.