On 21 Jun 2005 at 4:09, Anne wrote:

> What I would like to know is this:  Is there a longevity to toner as
> there is to ink jets that dry up on you?  I've looked in the user
> manual and googled it, but the answers only address longevity as to
> how many copies a cartridge will make.  I would like to know if toner
> ever becomes unusable because it will take me years to run 1,000
> copies.

  Ink jet ink goes onto the paper as a fine liquid, and the liquid can dry
up in the cartridge.  But that's not how toner works.

  Toner is a fine powder which is deposited on the paper electrostatically
and then "fused" -- melted, if you will -- into place by a flash of heat.
There's no liquid in the toner to evaporate, and so there isn't the same
issue.
  It's *possible* for toner to clump or become unevenly distributed in the
cartridge on some old printer models.  The cartridges for those models
included a little slider to run back and forth along the cartirdge every now
and then to break up the clumps and even out the spread.  But I haven't seen
any of those in a while, so I suspect that newer printers either do it
automatically or have adopted some other way to avoid the issue.

  The bottom line is that your toner cartridge should be good for about 1000
copies no matter how long it takes you to reach that point.

David Gillett

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