Cleaning the toner cartridges

Whoever made a refill of the toner cartridge knows!

Toner dust up to the ceiling, on the work table and if you have the misfortune to drop the funnel from the toner can during the operation, you are a happy man.

Do you want to avoid all these troubles with refill toner cartridges?

What are the toner workstations?

Manipulating the toner is a rather arduous job. The toner used in printers with laser technology is a dust based on carbon, ferrite and polymers, all these materials are combined into a particle no larger than a few microns of mm. This extremely small size makes the toner an extremely light and volatile dust, so that the operation of loading the toner cartridges is difficult. Why? When pouring dust into the toner container (cartridge) it spreads very easily in the air, but not only. Being very fine, it settles on clothes, on the workbench, in the room where we work and the most serious … in the lungs! 

Toner workstations are closed enclosures where cartridges are filled in a controlled manner, in a closed area where only the hands of the operator loading the cartridge enter. The sliding front door, the transparent plexiglass window, the LED lamp that illuminates the enclosure – all this makes the charging operation easy, predictable and user friendly. How are you protected, you will ask?

A fan with high vacuum power, pulls the air from the user, passes it through a complex filtration system – consisting of 1 set of protective filters and 1 high-capacity filter – and takes it out of the room perfectly clean, filtered, without any trace of toner dust. Toner dust is retained in filters that we will change once every 2…5 years. What’s more, the car comes standard with an air gun powered by a compressor, which makes the cleaning operation incredibly efficient, much better than using a vacuum cleaner, even a specialized one for toner.

How is the refill of toner cartridges done at present?

Most technicians in charge of refill toner cartridges use a Philips cross screwdriver and a workbench – which can also be a table. The most sophisticated also use a specialized toner vacuum cleaner and other additional tools that make the operator’s work easier. The work of the operator is the same in one case and in another. What differs, you will ask? The protection of the one who works! Is that important? We say yes, protection matters!

Why would you choose a toner workstation?

As we have said before, toner workstations have two important advantages over not using them:

– the first and most important advantage is the protection of the operator performing the refill operation. As we have seen, extremely fine dust penetrates everywhere, on clothes, in the workshop and unfortunately also in the lungs of the one who does this operation. Why is it important? Because medical treatment and even a lung operation is much more expensive than the machine itself. The latest medical events in the world, show us that the immune system is the most precious fortune of each of us in the face of the disease. Can refill also be done without the cartridge cleaner? Obvious! The question is: who takes the risk of deteriorating health?

– the second advantage, which is not so obvious as the first, is that a machine of this kind, in addition to protection also offers the organization of the operation itself, since everything is done in one place, the toner is stored and handled easily, several operators can work on the machine and last but not least the workspace is kept clean avoiding the costs of sanitizing and cleaning the workshop.

Advantages of using a toner workstation

– the protection of the operator’s health is the most important advantage, but not the only one

– the whole refill process is organized in one place, the toner is stored and handled easily, several operators can work on the machine

– the workspace is kept clean, avoiding the costs of sanitizing and cleaning the workshop. 

– the machine contains a residual toner collection system (it is good to know that not all toner dust is deposited on printed paper, about 10% is collected together with paper dust and other residues in a compartment of the cartridge, which forms the residual toner). This residual toner must be removed from the cartridge and then recycled. The collection system makes it possible to collect residual toner in a container (household bag of 80 to 120liters) every few months, and hand it over to a specialized hazardous waste recycling company, as toner dust is considered

– the existence of high-capacity and high-precision filters (filters can retain particles of several microns) makes this activity ‘safe’ in terms of environmental protection and the authorisation of activity from environmental impact regulatory bodies

– in the cleaning machine cartridges, they can be cleaned by air jet (the machine is equipped with an air gun as standard) and other equipment that “suffers” from dust deposition: computers, servers, printers, IT equipment, etc.

Frequent questions