A laser printer contains several moving and heated parts during printing. Some of the parts require more attention than usual to keep your laser printer running smoothly. Located in the toner cartridge is a corona wire. It’s a thin wire made from tungsten.
During printing, the corona wire is charged with electricity and draws the toner off the drum to the paper. When the corona wire is charged, it gives the drum a positive static charge then the drum transfers the charge to the paper that in turn attracts the toner to the paper. The printer releases a laser beam transversely to the surface to discharge certain points while the drum spins. The laser then etches the letters and images to be printed as a pattern from the corona wire. Cleaning the corona wire regularly ensures a long service life.
Keep in mind attempting to clean them without basic printer troubleshooting knowledge voids any warranty and can cause damage to your laser printer.
- Open the top cover. If necessary, lock the top cover place. Failing to do so can cause severe damage to the printer.
- Pull out the drum and toner assembly.
- Set aside the drum and toner assembly on top of a cloth or paper to prevent the toner messing up the surface.
- Locate the corona wire tab on the left side of the toner assembly. Clean it by sliding the tab back and forth from left to right 10-15 times.
- Repeat the previous process if the wire isn’t completely clean.
- After cleaning, place the corona wire tab back to its original position on the left. Improperly placed wire will result a printed vertical line smear to the paper.
- If necessary, repeat the previous steps to clean the rest of the wires of the remaining color toners.
- Return the drum and toner assembly back. Ensure that the assembly is placed on the correct color label.
Make sure you clean the corona wires first before you replace toner cartridge of your laser printer.
If the procedure doesn’t improve the print quality, refer to a qualified technician to perform the cleaning.
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