Abstract

From desktop printing at home and small offices to high speed commercial printing, toners applications and its uses can be found in everyday life. Toner based electrophotography is the underlying print engine technology that drives the entire laser printer and toner industries. The entire electrophotographic process can be broken down to essentially six primary steps, which are described and explained. Although all toner particles have to perform well in the electrophotographic system, the major requirements for toners are ultimately dictated by the end use application of the imaged substrate they help create. Hence, toner composition is often uniquely tailored to provide that function. Toner particles are predominately manufactured by conventional melt pulverized process but the use of chemical toner is continues to increase in printers. Chemically prepared toner offer an easier way to produce smaller toner particles and allows control of toner shape to help simplify the printer design. For fixing a toner image to a substrate, heat is typically applied to fuse it to the paper or other substrate. There are many different methods of fusing or fixing used in the industry, but a nip forming roller system is most predominantly used in printers.

Many different types of security features can be incorporated in toners to generate prints with the desired level of security. These features could be either covert or overt. Some of these security features that are currently employed in electrophotographic toners are discussed.