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What is a refurbished laser printer?

A refurbished laser printer is one that has been comprehensively serviced and had all of its worn or broken or faulty parts replaced. We sell refurbished laser printers, not just second-hand models. We specialise in commercial duty models that are economical for the user to operate and maintain. We do not restore any printers that have been heavily used or give indications of excessive wear - we use them as a source of spare parts. We aim to restore our printers to the point where they should give years of trouble free operation - not just last for the duration of the warranty period. We also ensure that our printers will produce high quality output, consistent with the manufacturer�s specifications.

We purchase printers as end-of-lease products from government departments and large corporations. They usually lease IT equipment for a period of 2 to 3 years and then replace them with new models when the lease has expired. Most of the printers have been under-used in relation to their rated production capacities and are still relatively new models. We choose heavy-duty printers and this means that they can be expected to stand up to some hard use and abuse. They are economical to repair if you do have a problem � there are many economical and high-quality after market parts available for them and important parts such as the fuser are easily accessible.

Our refurbishing process

We begin by inspecting the printer and doing a series of quality test prints to diagnose its condition. We listen for noises made by worn gears or motor bearings or out-of-round pressure rollers in the fuser. We look for evidence of leaking toner cartridges and toner spills. We insert a toner cartridge known to be good and check the page count, print quality and maintenance history as recorded on the printer. Most heavy-duty printers have a recommended maintenance interval at which a set of standard parts need to be replaced. These parts comprise a maintenance kit: typically the fuser, the transfer roller and the paper pick-up rollers. We replace these parts as necessary to insure that the printer should be able to give years of trouble free operation. We always remove, disassemble, clean and overhaul the fuser.

We strip the printer down. We blow-out monochrome printers with compressed air to remove as much paper dust and waste toner as possible. We vacuum colour printers to avoid cross-contamination of the different toners: colour toner is much lighter than black toner and is more readily dispersed throughout the printer. We thoroughly clean all plastic components by washing or wiping them with appropriate solvents. We check the condition of the fuser; the transfer roller and transfer belt (colour printers); the OPC drum (if it is incorporated as a separate component in the printer; and paper feed rollers. We replace any broken or worn parts.
The fuser

The function of the fuser is to melt the toner and bake it onto the paper. The fuser is the part most likely to wear and need overhauling. In commercial-duty Lexmark printers, the fuser is a modular unit that can be removed as a complete sub-assembly. The principal parts in the fuser are a Teflon coated aluminium upper fuser roller (hot roller - usually metallic grey or green); a silicon rubber lower fuser roller (pressure roller, usually an orange colour); a halogen lamp (heating element) inside the hot roller; and a thermistor to monitor the fuser temperature. The Teflon coating on the hot roller gradually wears off or is damaged by the user (like the coating on a Teflon frying pan); the silicon rubber pressure roller becomes soft, its surface may become rippled or the roller may become out-of-round resulting in thumping noises during normal printing; the halogen bulb may fail; and the thermistor may become coated with baked-on toner or lose contact with the hot roller and cause the fuser to overheat.

Sometimes it is necessary to overhaul/replace the fuser before the recommended maintenance interval. This is usually the result of user abuse eg by re-using paper that has already been printed on one side and forgetting to remove staples, paper clips etc; or by using poor quality paper that causes excessive wear on the rollers. The components of the fuser eg the thermistor can also be damaged by excess toner from a leaking toner cartridge. Sometimes the fuser can be damaged by the printer being kept in a ready state for long periods without being used: the rubber pressure roller is kept hot by being pressed against the hot roller and may develop flat spots as a result of staying in one position for too long.

We always overhaul the fuser and insert new parts as required. We do this regardless of how many pages the printer has apparently produced. We always replace the hot roller; pressure roller; and thermistor. We often replace the hot roller and pressure roller bearings and bushes; gears; heating lamp; detach assembly; and exit rollers.