Sustainable Design - What a Samsung Colour Printer Taught Me Through Bad Examples

A few months back, I picked up a used Samsung CLP-320W  network printer. It has a Wi-Fi connection, prints excellent black and white, as well as colour prints. However, there are some design choices that remind me how designs could be far more sustainable.

Toner : The toner cartridges are meant to be taken out and replaced. There are chips on the cartridges that record the number of pages used and thus limits the use of the cartridge. Simply removing the cap and refilling with toner is impossible with the printer's software.

Solution : 

• Do not limit the use of the cartridges artificially. Allow consumers to decided if they wish to dispose of the cartridges. 
• Rather than a plastic cap that must be pulled out with a pair of pliers, often with much difficulty which destroys the cap, provide a screw plug.

Wiper or Doctor blade : The blade ensures that only a small amount of toner is swept from the reservoir onto a roller which is then deposited onto the page before passing on the drum and then through the fuser. In my case, the blade seemed to have been slightly bent. I tried straightening it, given it was made of stainless steel, but had no luck, just making it worse. It caused all my prints to have a vertical streak. When I looked inside my printer, I noticed that the the magenta and cyan cartridges had a mass of toner on them which had fallen from the yellow cartridge.

Solution :

• Replacing the wiper blade was not cost effective, nor widely available. I considered just getting a new set of cartridge - barely a sustainable solution. 
• Increase the number of fastening points to ensure equal distribution of the wiper blade. A standard wiper blade, e.g. for all A4 /  Letter size printers, would make the industry far less wasteful.

Note : I made an earlier post on my muddled efforts in resetting the Samsung CLP-310 page count. I eventually moved, and left that printer with a colleague from work. She indirectly reminded me once again, that people don't appreciate something unless they pay for it, or build it themselves : she complained about the pale printing after I had just refilled the toner cartridges. Issues about that printer didn't take more than a few lines in an e-mail, but I doubt she even tried to shake the cartridges even out the toner levels.

Links:

Right to Repair
Toner Reset