MICR Toner

Rosetta Technologies has a team of chemists and engineers who work tirelessly on the MICR toner formulation for each MICR printer to ensure consistent high-quality MICR toner performance throughout the life of the printer and to guarantee adherence to national and international MICR industry standards.

There are five key elements that are evaluated and perfected with every type of MICR toner:

• Character Signal Strength – measurement of the magnetic property of the toner
• Adhesion – ability to adhere or fuse the toner to the paper stock
• Cohesion - ability of toner molecules to adhere or fuse to each other
• Durability – the performance of the toner through multiple passes in reader/sorters
• Toner life – the measure of output expected per toner cartridge or bottle

Toner development in laser printers typically falls into two categories:
Monocomponent and dual-component systems.

Monocomponent Toner Systems

By monocomponent, we mean that there is only one component, i.e., toner, used in creating the images that result in a printed page. These systems are usually found in cartridge-based products. The movement of toner from the cartridge to the photoconductor, then to the page, consists of applying different electrical charges to draw toner out of the cartridge sump, onto a charge roller, then to the photoconductor after the laser has created the latent image, then another charge draws the toned image onto a sheet of paper.micr toner cartridge, micr toner

Dual Component Toner Systems

In dual-component systems, such as those printers that use our ProMark™ MICR toner, there are, obviously, two components involved in developing a toned image.

Dual-component systems typically consist of a toner hopper and a developer hopper. In the developer hopper, one of the components, developer mix, is held. This substance is combination of toner and very small metallic beads called carrier. The printer system holds the developer mix at a consistent concentration, i.e., the relationship between the amount of toner and the amount of carrier to achieve optimal optical densities, by controlling the amount of toner released into the developer station.

These stations usually have a mixing roller that keeps the mix in constant motion and a magnetic roller. The carrier beads are attracted to the magnetic roller and create a brush, much like if you were to put iron powder on a piece of glass, then hold a magnet under the glass. This brush of developer holds the right amount of toner that is then drawn electrostatically onto the photoconductor drum, which has been written with the page image by the charging laser.

The rule of thumb is that monocomponent systems are usually found in workgroup-class printers, while dual component systems are commonly used in higher speed printers. Dual-component technology brings greater efficiencies needed to keep up with the speed of these production printers, something that a monocomponent technology could not do, as a rule. Additionally, dual-component systems enjoy a much lower cost per page, due to the fact that the entire electrophotographicsubsystem (as in the monocomponenttoner cartridge) does not have to be thrown out when the toner is used up. The toner is simply replaced.

At Rosetta Technologies, we have broken that model somewhat, in that we have two workgroup models that utilize dual component technology, rather than the traditional monocomponent systems. Rosetta produces both monocomponent and dual component MICR toners, depending on which MICR printer is being developed.

Learn more about Rosetta Technologies' MICR toner and the MICR printer engineering process.

Read about Rosetta Technologies' revolutionary ProMark™ MICR Toner.