What is the environmental impact of LED/LCD printers?

What is the environmental impact of LED/LCD printers ?

• please helppp thank you

• Answer:

  It is true that the terms LED & LCD are not commonly known or referred to when talking about printers and are commonly used when referring to TV's or monitors, but there is such technology for printers as well. LED, sometimes also called LED array (which were developed by Oki & Panasonic), printers have been around for quite some time now, though laser & inkjet technology is much more common and widely used. LCD printers are very rare and not very well known. I have never worked on an LCD printer and it's been over 10 years since I've worked on an LED array printer. Here is an example of an LED printer: http://www.asianproducts.com/product/A12025449551579309_P12025470094113921/lexmark-c912dn-led-printer.html I cannot find a current example of an LCD printer, but here is a link about how it works: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/L/LCD_printer.html Here is an excellent graphic showing the comparisons between a laser & LED array printer: http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=LED+printer&i=46015,00.asp Here is an excellent description of how they both work: http://mimech.com/printers/laser-printer-technology.asp Basically they're pretty much the same in the majority of the printing process, the only difference is how the photosensitive surface (photoconductor) is exposed to create the image for printing. A laser is used to scan the surface from one end to the other using a rotating mirror to move the laser light. An LED printer actually has a bar interlaced with LED's and lenses that span the entire length of the photoconductor and they are turned on and off as necessary to expose the correct areas of the surface. The operation of an LCD printer is similar to and LED, but uses LCD panels to block or allow light through as needed to expose the surface. As for the environmental impact of LED/LCD printers, that's very hard to say. They are not common pieces of equipment as much as other printing technologies are, but would suspect they have as much environmental impact as laser printers have. Here are some links that might help: http://www.macworld.com/article/132673/2008/03/printercost.html http://webworkerdaily.com/2010/01/27/sustainable-printing-the-environmental-impact-of-your-printer/ http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/environmental-impacts-of-printer-supplies-configuration-260557.html http://www.greenprinteronline.com/content/WaterlessEnv Best of luck.