What is a refurbished laser printer?

A refurbished laser printer is one which has been serviced, cleaned and had all its worn, broken or faulty parts replaced.  We do not just sell second hand models.  We sell refurbished laser printers that have been fully serviced and cleaned on site by our technicians.  We specialize in commercial duty models that are economical for the end user to operate and maintain.  We do not restore printers that have excessive mileage or show immense wear.  Printers of this nature are used as a source of spare parts.  Our objective is to restore printers to the standard at which they can be expected to run for several more years, trouble free.  They should not fail with the expiration of their warranty period.

We purchase printers that have come to the end of their lease from large corporations and often government or council departments.  These types of companies often lease IT equipment for a period of 2-3 years, which are then replaced with new models when the lease expires.  Therefore many of these printers have out seen a fraction of its productive potential and are still relatively new models.  We specialize in heavy-duty printers that can withstand hard and heavy usage. 

Firstly, a printer is run through a series of quality test prints to determine its condition.  We listen for any noises associated with worn gears, motor bearings or out-of-round pressure rollers in the fuser.  It is checked for toner cartridge leaks and spills.  We then proceed to insert a good cartridge reserved for testing to check page count, print quality and maintenance history of the printer.  Most heavy-duty printers require standard parts to be replaced at regular intervals.  These parts are known as a maintenance kit usually including the fuser, transfer roller and paper pick-up rollers.  We replace the worn parts and disassemble, clean and repair the fuser – if not fully replace the fuser.

The printer is then stripped down.  Compressed air is used on monochrome printers to thoroughly blow out any dust & toner.  Colour printers are vacuumed to avoid cross-contamination of toners and sending toner into the delicate parts of the printer.  All plastic components are cleaned with appropriate solvents.  The fuser, transfer roller and transfer belt, OPC drum are replaced if worn or broken. 

The Fuser

The fuser melts the toner and bakes it onto the paper.  It is the most likely printer part to suffer wear and need servicing.  In commercial-duty HP and Lexmark printers, the fuser is a part that can be removed as a complete sub-assembly.  The fuser is includes a Teflon coated aluminium upper fuser roller; a silicon rubber lower fuser roller; a halogen lamp within the hot roller; and a thermistor that monitors temperature. 

The Teflon coating gradually wears off or is often damaged; the silicon rubber becomes soft and ripples or the roller may become out-of-round which causes in a thumping noise as it prints. The thermistor may become coated with baked-on toner or lose contact with the hot roller and cause the fuser to overheat. 

The fuser can often need replacing or repairing as a result of abuse e.g. having paperclips or staples in paper sent through the printer.  Other parts can be damaged by toner leaking or being left for long periods in ready state.  We always disassemble the fuser and replace theses parts where required.  Regardless of how many pages the printer has apparently produced, we always replace the hot roller; pressure roller; and thermistor. We also often replace the hot roller and pressure roller bearings and bushes; gears; heating lamp; detach assembly; and exit rollers.