Printer drum, also known as photosensitive drum, is generally composed of a basic substrate made of aluminum and a photosensitive material coated on the substrate. This is what our maintenance personnel often call “OPC drum”.

In actual applications, the printer drum referred to is the “drum unit” or “ drum cartridge”.

Toner cartridge is divided into three categories:

  • 1. Drum-toner integrated toner cartridge

Common drum-toner integrated toner cartridges include early products of Canon and HP. Samsung, Xerox and other brands also have laser printers with integrated toner cartridges. The integrated toner cartridge is actually an integrated design of the toner container (including the magnetic roller), the drum unit, and the waste toner container. The advantage is that it is easy to replace. When the printing effect is not good, the problem can be solved by replacing the whole cartridge.

In principle, the design structure of this toner cartridge does not allow users to refill toner. The toner refilling is operated by professional maintenance engineers. However, with the development of compatible toner cartridges manufactured in China, two holes are set on the toner cartridge, one is the toner refilling port and the other is the waste toner port, which is called the “easy to refill toner” toner cartridge.

Refillable Printer Cartridge

  • 2. Split toner cartridge (drum-toner separation)

The split toner cartridge is also known as the drum-toner separation design. The opc drum, drum frame, charging, etc. are one part, and the other part is the magnetic roller and toner kit. When the printer is out of toner, you only need to replace the toner kit without replacing the photosensitive drum. This design is most common in Brother and Lenovo series laser printers.

image of Brother TN-B020 toner cartridge and drum unit

  • 3. Three-body toner cartridge (drum, toner cartridge, toner separation)

This is a design that separates the photosensitive drum unit, developer and toner kit, and toner cartridge into three parts, which exist independently. In copier maintenance, we usually call them drum unit, developer box, and toner kit. If this printer is out of toner, you can directly replace the toner kit. The advantage is that you can replace whichever part is broken, which can save costs to a certain extent. This design is common in Brother laser printers and most A3 copiers.

Summary:

First, from the perspective of function, the main function of the toner cartridge is to store and transfer the toner used by the printer. The drum unit processes the transferred toner powder and prints the printed content on paper.

Second, from the perspective of material, the toner cartridge is usually made of plastic or metal. The drum cartridge is composed of inductor, photosensitive drum and other components. Therefore, the manufacturing process and composition of the drum cartridge are more complicated than the toner cartridge.

Third, from the perspective of life, the life of the toner cartridge is generally several thousand sheets. The life of the drum unit is generally several thousand or tens of thousands of sheets, depending on the model. Therefore, the life of the drum cartridge is generally longer than that of the toner cartridge, and the replacement frequency is lower than that of the toner cartridge.