How Does a Personal Copier Work?

Introduction

A photocopier is an essential piece of office equipment for any business. Unfortunately, the cost of ownership and upkeep of a full-sized copier sometimes makes them unobtainable by smaller businesses. Luckily, the office-supply market has recently seen the introduction of an affordable, personal-sized copier.

Portability

One of the greatest features of a personal copier is its ability to be easily moved from place to place. Most personal copiers come with an easy grasp handle that allows a business owner or employee to easily move the copier from the office to a meeting place, home or anywhere else he may need to make copies.

Toner and Drum

The personal copier condenses many of the features of a full-sized copier into a smaller package. Within the copier are two important components: the drum and the ink toner. The drum creates the image that needs to be copied, and the ink toner is the medium via which the image is transferred to paper. When the copier's intense white light hits the paper that needs to be copied, the light is reflected off the white areas of the page, and the rest strikes the drum below the paper. The areas where light hits the drum neutralize the positive atoms on the drum, while the areas that are blocked by print on the drum keep their positive atoms. The toner is then attracted to the areas with positive atoms still attached, while the areas where the neutralized atoms are present do not attract toner.

The Print Process

When the paper enters the copier, it is heated. The heat causes the paper to become positively charged with a stronger charge than the drum. This causes the toner to be attracted to the paper in the same pattern as it was on the drum, making a replica (copy) of the original image on the paper. The warm paper allows the toner to fuse to the paper, causing it to stick.

Differences From a Regular Copier

Though a personal copier works the same way as a traditional copier, it is limited in its ability. Most personal copiers can only copy about four pages per minute. They also are unable to copy documents larger than letter-sized. Other features like automatic stapling, collating and dual-sided copies are also not common features on a personal copier.