Printer Imaging Drums

If you’ve got a laser printer you probably know it has toner cartridges which contain toner powder and periodically these need replacing when they run out of toner.

Another important component in most laser printers is the ‘image drum’. This is a cylinder that fuses toner powder from the cartridges onto the paper to create text and images. Image drums are also called imaging units, drum units, or photoreceptor drums – all different names for the same thing.

Unfortunately, image drums wear out over time and eventually need to be replaced.  A worn out drum unit can cause streaks, smudges, and blank spots on your printed pages, even if you just inserted a new printer toner. If you don’t replace the drum eventually your printer will stop printing. The time to replace the drum unit is when you get white lines on your pages.

Not all laser printers require a separate drum unit — some use toner cartridges that include a built-in drum. If you have a mono printer that uses separate drum units, you’ll only need one drum. For a colour laser printer, you may need a single drum (for all four colours), or four individual drums (one for each colour).