Behold, the magnificent Lexmark E320 laser printer.
A true work of beauty to be remembered through the ages.
Okay, maybe it’s not so magnificent. Maybe it’s a fairly unremarkable laser printer from 2001. Maybe it’s Maybelline. I don’t know.
Regardless, Arturo and I took this thing apart.
First of all, the printer is held together almost exclusively by phillips head screws. We found thirty screws in the laser module alone, and saw many more in the rest of the printer.
The electronics in the printer are not unique to this model. Look at the gold colored circuit board to the left below:
Look at the bottom right. Empty spots!
It looks like there’s missing components on the board. The markings show places for two capacitors and a resistor (and some other things which I can’t identify). Why would someone manufacture a board and not use some of the connections on it? These spots are definitely used in something else. The E322 printer is the premium model of this printer and most likely shares the same board. Those extra capacitors and resistors could correspond to some other feature not present in the E320. Or, this board is used for not-printer things and those missing components are used in a completely different layout.
While the printer probably wasn’t designed with the environment in mind, it’s still mostly recyclable. The only issue is separating components out. The casing is made of ABS plastic, which is widely recycled. The internal framing is sheet steel, also recyclable. Electronics can be given to special collection depots, and ink cartridges can often go with them. However, the printer isn’t made to be taken apart by the consumer. While it is built nearly entirely with screws, it isn’t easily apparent on how to take some of them out.
The little gold circles are the bottoms of screws.
After looking, there’s no available guide from Lexmark on self-maintenance beyond changing the toner and fixing paper jams.
This is the laser module of the printer:
Top Left: Scanning Mirror Bottom Left: Alignment Lens Right: Laser
This is what makes a laser printer a laser printer. The laser bounces off the scanning mirror through the alignment lens onto the imaging drum, giving it a charge to pick up the toner to put on the paper.
The alignment lens is made of acrylic instead of glass. This might be for durability or cost. The light enters the nearly flat side and exits the curved one, directing the laser in the same direction no matter the direction it entered from off the mirror.
Shiny!
The scanning mirror itself is the polished side of the hexagon on top. The motor underneath moves and changes the angle of incidence to redirect the laser with great precision.
Brushless DC motor
The motor lies inside the scanning mirror’s body and controls its movement. Its torque is high enough to move and stop quickly, allowing for high-precision printing.
Arturo and I ended up spending most of our time on completely dissecting and understanding the laser module. Unfortunately, that left much of the rest of the printer together.
Though it might have been nice to completely disassemble the device, I gained greater insight though focusing in on just the laser module. I haven’t taken a printer apart before, and thought the laser was mounted to a motor and moved directly, instead of through a mirror. Moreover, comparing to the other, newer printer showed how printer design has changed over the years (hint: less screws!).
