August 12th, 2009OPC Drum: Soul Of A Printer Cartridge
OPC Drum is a fundamental part of any laser Cartridge or copying device. “OPC” stands for Organic Photoconductor. Depending on its shape it is categorized as a drum or a belt. The word “organic” in Organic Photoconductor (OPC) reveals that the photoreceptor’s coating is contrived from organic i.e. carbon-based chemical compounds. These photoconductive compounds are actually petrochemical derivatives originating from the fossil fuels petroleum, natural gas, and coal. This is why OPC Drums are considered the most “environment friendly” photoreceptors available today.
OPC Drum plays a vital role in the process of non-impact printing. At the center of the imaging process is the organic photoconductive or OPC drum. The drum accepts and holds the charge. When it is exposed to light the organic layers become conductive and active, thus allowing the charge to migrate to zero potential. In this stage, a laser beam passes through an opening in the cartridge and focuses to discharge the charge on the drum surface. This creates a latent image on the drum. This charge allows the toner particles to “jump” from the developer roller to the OPC drum attracting the latent image. At this point, the hidden image on the drum is transferred onto a sheet of paper.
An OPC Drum of your toner cartridge won’t last forever. It’s not life time guaranteed. The average drum life is not more than two refilling cycles. However, it could last more or less. The drum life largely depends on the way a printer is operated. How long you use your equipment uninterrupted or the thickness of the paper that you are using for you printing jobs- things like these will matter. Any paper more than 20 lbs thicker will wear out your drum faster. The drum is the “soul” of the cartridge, it should be in good condition for you to have good print results; it has to be well handled. If an OPC Drum erodes; the best thing to put your cartridge back to use is to get the cartridge remanufactured.
Gloima Imaging Components is the leading provider of variety of consumables in a printer cartridge. Gloima serves its consumers with quality printer cartridge products for cartridge remanufacturing. Using compatible components for your printer cartridge saves reasonably on cost delivering OEM equivalence.

