What are the common malfunctions of toner cartridges in printing equipment under low-temperature conditions?

In low-temperature environments, common malfunctions of printing equipment drum units include: toner clumping leading to blurry prints and reduced print quality, as well as abnormal development and transfer. Both of these problems are related to the impact of low temperatures on the performance of toner and the photosensitive drum.

Toner Cartridge Malfunction

Toner Clumping and Blurry Printing:

• In low-temperature environments, toner inside the cartridge is more prone to clumping, causing poor toner flow from the ink tank to the developing mechanism, resulting in unclear prints, broken lines, and spots.
• In severe cases, it can lead to toner blockage, and the printer will display a "low toner" or "out of toner" error message, even though there is actually toner in the cartridge.

Developing and Transfer Abnormalities:

• Low temperatures affect the photosensitivity of the photosensitive drum, leading to abnormalities in the developing (toner forming on the photosensitive drum) and transfer (toner transferring from the photosensitive drum to the paper) processes. This results in printed images that are dull, uneven in color, or exhibit ghosting.

Paper jams:

• Low temperatures can cause paper to become brittle, and the feed and output rollers become less elastic at low temperatures, increasing the risk of paper jams.

Solutions

Preheat the printer:

Before printing, try preheating the printer for a while to raise the internal temperature, which helps restore toner flowability.

Clean the drum and paper feed path:

Cleansing dust and debris from the drum and paper feed path can reduce paper jams and print quality issues.

Replace consumables:

If the toner inside the drum is severely clumped, try replacing it with a new drum or toner cartridge.