Laser printers produce high-quality prints of texts and images through a laser beam. Such printers do not use conventional ink cartridges and have Toner Cartridges instead. A toner cartridge is filled with a powder called toner. The toner is made of microscopic plastic particles, carbon, and either black or a coloring agent. An electrically charged rotating drum picks up the powder and transfers it to the paper. The toner is fused with heat rollers to create the print.
There are various types of Toner Cartridges for laser printers in the market. They have been discussed here.
OEM
Genuine toner cartridges are highly reliable because they are tailor-made for the laser printers of their respective brands. The laser printer manufacturers manufacture original Equipment Manufacturer or b cartridges. This implies that such toners are designed to work with laser printers of specific brands depending upon the manufacturer.
OEM toner cartridges provide high output, superior quality prints and do not damage their compatible printers. However, the prices of genuine toner cartridges are much more than other kinds of toner cartridges. Thus, toner cartridges are recommended only if you want high-quality glossy prints frequently and can afford the high cost.
Compatible
Compatible Toner cartridges are not manufactured by original manufacturers of laser printers but by third-party manufacturers. Such toner cartridges are made using a host of compatible parts, making them suitable for many laser printers. Reputed third-party manufacturers of compatible toner cartridges test the effectiveness of their toner cartridges in a plethora of laser printers to ensure high performance.
Compatible toner cartridges are cheaper as compared to OEM toner cartridges. The cost per page of printing using compatible toner cartridges is also lower than genuine toner cartridges. However, there are many inferior quality compatible toner cartridges in the market; hence it is essential to look for reputed manufacturers providing warranty-backed toner cartridges.
Remanufactured
Remanufactured Toner Cartridges are made from used toner cartridges. There are many manufacturers engaged in toner cartridge recycling. This means the manufacturer collects empty toner cartridges, cleans them, replaces the worn-out parts, fills toner powder, tests and finally sells them again.
Recycled toner cartridges are cheaper than OEM and compatible toner cartridges and are also environment-friendly. They provide high-quality prints and have low failure rates. However, the print quality is not exactly the same as the original toner cartridges produced because the toner used is of comparable quality and not exact quality as the original toner.
Refilled
Refilled Toner Cartridges are made by simply refilling empty toner cartridges with toner powder. Before refilling, no inspection of the used empty toner cartridge is carried out. The parts of the cartridge are not replaced.
Refilled Toner cartridges are the cheapest among all toner cartridges. Such cartridges can be used for printers that are not used much and rarely print important documents. However, the quality of prints generated by such toner cartridges is the lowest. The failure rate and risk of damage to the printer are high.
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