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Brother Toner FAQ

Unfortunately, buying Brother Toner cartridges, or really anything related to your computer or printer, requires a little research before you make a purchase. There’s a lot of factors to consider if you want to select the perfect product for your machine. Here are a few of the most frequently asked questions regarding Brother Toner and Brother Toner cartridges:

1)      What are OEM cartridges? OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer, and applies to cartridges that are made by your printer’s manufacturer.

2)      What does “remanufactured cartridges” mean? A remanufactured ink cartridge is one that has been used,  disassembled, refilled with Brother Toner, reassembled and then repackaged and made available for purchase.

3)      Are remanufactured or OEM cartridges the best? Well, being that remanufactured cartridges have been used, they don’t have the same level of performance that OEM cartridges have and every once in a while, you can run into a dud. But all in all, remanufactured are cheaper and greener because they’re bring reused. But if you need maximum reliability, look into OEM Brother Toner cartridges from BrotherToner.com.

4)      How can I tell when it’s time for a new cartridge or drum? Faded or blurred print is a huge indicator that your ink is low. Also, many computers have a low ink notification which keeps you aware of your ink levels at all times.

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Brother Toner Recycling? It’s True

There really are a ton of reasons why you should use Brother Toner Cartridges, but undoubtedly, the big three are: quality, consistency, and now, recycling! According to the BrotherToner.com website, the Brother International corporation has always been environmentally conscious and says they have “always engaged in environmental protection efforts geared towards ensuring the welfare of all society.”

In May of 1993 the Brother Corporation totally eliminated the use of CFCs and trichloroethane in all of their products and means of production. If you’d like to recycling your Brother Toner cartridges or maybe a Brother Drum or two, all you need to do is go to Brother.com, print your free shipping label. Repack the used consumable, attached the label, and drop it in the mail.

According to their website some of the select components that are returned will be remanufactured, some are reused, and the unusable one are processed through Waste to Energy. Waste to energy is the process of creating energy in the form of electricity and heat from the incineration of the waste. WtE is further classified as a form of energy recovery.

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TN-580, TN-360, DR-520, What Does It All Mean?

TN-580, TN-360, DR-520…Sounds like names of robots in an uplifting-but-edge-of-your-seat space adventure, right? In fact, these are very popular models of Brother Toner cartridges. Yes, we think of them fondly, perhaps almost as fondly as Luke Skywalker thought of C-3PO, in our own way, but your interest in them might be a little more utilitarian. We understand.

TN-580 is our original high-yield toner cartridge. Just one of these puppies yields up to 7,000 pages! It’s and OEM type, compatible with the DCP-8060, DCP-8065DN, HL-5240, HL-5250DN, HL-5250DNT, HL-5280DW, MFC-8460N, MFC-8660DN, MFC-8670DN, MFC-8860DN and MFC-8870DW.

TN-360, another original high-yield toner cartridge, for when you don’t need the biggest gun of all, yields 2,600 pages. It, too, is OEM, and works with DCP-7030, DCP-7040, HL-2140, HL-2170W, MFC-7340, MFC-7345N, MFC-7440N and MFC-7840W.

DR-520, hold onto your hats, is an original drum unit that yields up to 25,000 pages.OEM, goes with DCP-8060, DCP-8065DN, HL-5240, HL-5250DN, HL-5250DNT, HL-5280DW, MFC-8460N, MFC-8660DN, MFC-8670DN, MFC-8860DN, and MFC-8870DW.

These originals will outperform any re-manufactured toner cartridge, any day, in any galaxy. Use the force that is Brother Toner!

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How Brother Toner Saved My Thesis

Brother Toner, this thesis is dedicated to you, for saving my life.

It’s just the way things go for me, that I’d run out of ink right on the middle of printing my thesis. I’m both a scatterbrain and a perfectionist. What this combination means, for those of you who are wired differently, is that I make a lot of typos, and then freak out when I catch them after the fact. So I print page after page. And then I reprint page after page, run out of ink, run to the store, etc.

I don’t know. I like to look at the printed word on real paper. I’m old-fashioned that way. I don’t catch things the same way on the computer screen. If I did, I’d save a whole lot of money.

The saving grace in this story is what a great deal Brother Toner is. I found a discount source on the web, because to be honest, I was wasting so much money on gas, driving out to the office supply store, and as the deadline drew closer, I started to need more ink in the middle of the night, when the stores were closed.

Oh, and also, the toner cartridges I was using before Brother Toner went about twice as quickly!

Which is why my thesis is dedicated to Brother Toner.

And Coffee. I think you can figure that one out for yourselves.

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Why Choose OEM Brother Toner Cartridges?

To OEM or not to OEM, that is the question. But “what is OEM?” you ask. Here’s a quick overview of OEM versus remanufactured ink cartridges and toners.

OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer. An OEM toner is one that has been manufactured by the same manufacturer as your printer. So, if you have a Brother printer, Brother toner is your OEM toner.

A remanufactured toner, conversely, is not associated with any particular brand or manufacturer; it’s a cartridge that’s been recycled, refilled with toner, reassembled, and placed on the market.

Remanufactured toners are cheaper than OEM cartridges, but this may be their only advantage. Because quality control varies with each remanufactured toner, you can never be sure what you’re getting. In fact, remanufactured toners are often defective and can do permanent damage to your printer.

Another downside of using remanufactured toners is that they generally void your warranty with your printer manufacturer. That means that if your printer breaks down, you have to bear the cost of replacement.

To keep your warranty and ensure that your printer stays in working order for years to come, and produces the best results possible, it’s recommended that you choose Brother Toner Cartridges when you have a Brother printer.

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Downloadable Brother Toner MSDS Sheets NOW AVAILABLE!

Brother Toner is proud to offer downloadable and printable Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) on its website.

An MSDS is a document developed by the manufacturer that details all of the chemical compounds used in creating the product. This list of items will include ribbons, drums, inks, and toners. Knowledge is power, and these documents are designed to provide the information needed to assist in the safe use of Brother Toners and brother toner cartridges.

The Brother Toner site currently has MSDS documents for a large portion of its products, including the DR-520, the TN-580, and the TN-360. If the model you are looking for is not currently on the list, you can search for the MSDS sheet that you need on the official Brother USA website. Visit the site here.

All available MSDSs come in PDF form and are printable following completion of the download. Adobe PDF Reader will be required on your computer to view the files. Free download of the reader is available here.

Please feel free to contact Brother USA if you have any questions or require assistance with the PDF downloads.

Thanks!

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Wood Block Printing

Wood block printing is almost the opposite of a Brother toner TN-580. It is the oldest form of printing and was developed in China in the 3rd century.  A relief matrix is used to cut away areas where the non print will be. The characters would have to be cut in reverse, a further complication. Then the block is inked, and paper or cloth is rubbed against it to allow for even distribution.

The two main methods are stamping and rubbing. Stamping was prevalent in Europe before the invention of the printing press. The block was pounded and stamped onto the printing material.Rubbing was the preferred Eastern method, where the block was face up and the material was rubbed with wood or by another process.

This technology came from stamps that were laid onto clay in Mesopotamian times (approx 3,000 BC).  The benefits of wood block printing were that, although it was labor intensive to produce a block, if a new edition was needed, the old block could be reused. Movable type was prone to wear and tear, and relied on the editor to an extent that made the thousands of characters in the Eastern alphabet difficult to cohere.

Let’s just thank goodness that we don’t still use wood block printing; we have Brother toner TN-580 and DR-520 to help us.

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Moveable Type Printing

Brother toner is the latest in printing technology, but even before Gutenberg and the printing press, there were methods that were developing into widespread use.

In  China in 1040, Bi Sheng invented movable type.  Unfortunately for him, the process was clunky, and it was difficult and time consuming due to the huge numbers of characters in the Chinese language. Preparing the printing plates with type fonts was much faster than woodblock printing. Wooden types, because of the wood grain and their unevenness in ink distribution soon gave way to clay types.

Wang Zhen in 1298 created more than 30,000 characters and printed large records of the Jingde, Anhui province. But after repeated use the characters faded. Eventually, metal movable types took the place of Zhen’s wooden characters.

In the 15h century, King Sejong the Great of Korea devised a new alphabet of just 24 letters, but Korean elites refused to accept it in place of the Chinese that separated them from hoi polloi.

Many speculate that the invention of metal movable type in the East just a generation before  Gutenberg may have influenced him in the creation of his printing press that spread throughout Europe.

Brother toner’s series on printing continues next week with woodblock printing. Buy Brother Toner Cartridges!

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The Printing Press

The printing press, a bit more so than Brother toner, has revolutionized global culture, allowing for the widespread availability of ideas. The Latin alphabet, with its two dozen characters permitted moveable type facing to print an entire lexicon, while the screw press, which was used to crush grapes and olives since Roman times, allowed for even distribution of pressure onto paper.  Johannes Gutenberg, a goldsmith, used these two facts, along with his knowledge of metals, to create a lead type set. He developed a movable under table that allowed for a swift interchange between sheets.  Gutenberg also invented oil based ink, which was much more durable than the water based inks so prevalent before his press.

The press also allowed for an abundance of print copies. Up to 3600 copies could be made per day, which spread the books of contemporary writers, like Luther and Erasmus throughout Europe. The latter watched three quarters of a million of his book sell during his lifetime (1469-1536).

The result of such widespread distribution of knowledge lead to the diminishment of spoken Latin, and a rise in the nationalistic languages of Europe. It’s interesting to watch a similar effect today, as the Internet revolutionizes the spread of knowledge and printing, with the help of Brother Toner and Brother Toner Cartridges, continues to change.

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Lithography

This month on the Brother Toner Blog, we will be featuring a special series of blog posts on the history of printing. This post is about Lithography.

Invented in 1796 by Alois Senefelder, lithography uses simple chemical processes for reproducing greatly detailed images. Using a smooth plate of limestone, a drawing is etched. A gum arabic solution is then added that repulses water based on its oil content. From there, turpentine is used to remove the oily film, but  a slight amount of it remains on the stone, ready to accept ink, which is hydrophobic.
After that, the stone is run with the sheet of paper through a press that provides even pressure on the paper, transferring the ink from the stone to the paper.

The modern process uses photographic images and a UV light to develop a reverse of the negative, i.e. the positive image. The plate is then affixed to a cylinder on a printing press. Water then covers the plate, and the hydrophobic ink sticks to the positive image. But if this were immediately transferred to paper, it would come off sopping wet. A rubber blanket squeezes off the excess water and then the ink is transferred to paper. Because the image is transferred, or offset to a rubber drum, not unlike a Brother drum,  the process is called Offset lithography.

Stay tuned for next week’s Brother toner blog, when we discuss the origins of the printing press!

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