Consumables

Develops New Low-Gloss Black EA-Eco Toner With High Energy-Saving Performance

Tuesday 14. December 2010 - Expands EA Toner Production Capacity to More Than 10,000 Tons

As part of its EA-Eco toner line-up, Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. newly developed black toner with controlled gloss, Eco-LGK toner, which the company introduced to its new monochrome printer lineup, DocuPrint P105 b / P205 b / M105 b / M105 ab / M205 b. The new DocuPrint series has been launched in the Asia-Pacific region including China in November. To start mass production of this newly developed toner, it will increase EA (Emulsion Aggregation) toner production capacity from approximately 8,000 tons to more than 10,000 tons at Fuji Xerox Manufacturing’s Toyama Center located at Namerikawa-shi, Toyama, which has exclusive plants for EA toner.
Generally, black toner has the same level of gloss as the other three colors (cyan, magenta and yellow) for color documents or images. However, business documents, which are mostly black and white, and color images requiring subtle shades of black, require low-gloss black toner.
In order to control gloss, resin, constituent of the toner, must be hardened or changed, which can achieve higher elasticity (hardness) in the toner. Consequently, such toner creates a rough surface on the image when fused on the paper, and reduces reflection of light.
On the other hand, increasing the elasticity (hardness) requires a higher fusing temperature to melt the toner, which made controlling gloss while saving energy a challenge. Fuji Xerox succeeded in this challenge by such means as changing how the resin molecules are connected, without having to change the resin itself or its composition.
The EA-Eco toner is characterized by its high energy-saving performance, with a fusing temperature more than 20 degrees Celsius lower than conventional EA toner, resulting in up to 40 percent reductionNote 1 in power consumption during fusion.
Fuji Xerox first used it in its production system released in August 2008, followed by digital color multifunction devices, the ApeosPort-IV and DocuCentre-IV series, released in August 2009. Combined together with the new induction heating (IH) fusing technology, which enabled the world’s fastest warm-up time of three secondsNote 2, as well as the technology to cut power consumption during sleep mode to approximately one-sixthNote 3 of conventional devices, these multifunction devices have achieved significant energy savings. This contributed to the eleven products in eight models of these two series winning the METI Minister’s Award in the 20th Energy Conservation Grand Prize for 2009 (Energy-Saving Machines and Systems category) sponsored by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan.
Fuji Xerox will continue its efforts to reduce environmental burden even more while pursuing higher image quality through further development of EA-Eco toner and other technologies.
Note 1
The 40 percent reduction is possible in a glossy mode (low-speed printing mode to realize further glossy finish depending on the gloss level of paper).
Note 2
For ApeosPort-IV C3370 / C2270, DocuCentre-IV C3370 / C2270.
Note 3
Comparison with ApeosPort-III C4405 PFS. Less than 1.5 watts for ApeosPort-IV C4470, DocuCentre-IV C4470.
About EA-Eco toner
In contrast to conventional pulverized toners, EA toner is produced by aggregating pigment, wax particles and emulsifying resin in water solution. With this method, uniform toner particles, which include wax, with a size of average 5.8 micrometers each can be manufactured.
The EA toner manufacturing process differs from that of the pulverized toners where the toner particles get smaller by being pulverized. The EA toner particles grow in the process of constituents being aggregated in a chemical reaction, making it possible to cut CO2 emissions by 35 percent because of no pulverization procedures. The shape of the particles can be controlled with precision, thus enabling images to be more efficiently transferred and fused to paper, reducing the amount of toner used by 37 percent.
As the toner particle contains wax inside, it does not need oil when fused, enabling to be transferred evenly and thinly. Also, it is easier to write notes with a pen or attach self-adhesive notes on the paper, while also enhancing the clarity of small text. In addition, black text, photos and graphics appear more natural controlling glare, thus achieving both CO2 emission reduction and high-quality printing.
Further, the EA-Eco toner comprises of new materials and is formed with a new structure to comprehensively reduce environmental burden, leading to lower fusing temperature by 20 to 50 degrees Celsius compared with general toner in the industry.