Even though the office photocopier is a necessary piece of equipment that all businesses must have, there are many people who do not comprehend the intricate details that happen within the machine. As such, the following content will reveal what happens when you press the “start” button to make a copy of your documents:
The process begins when the photocopier makes a temporary image of the original document. Next, inside the machine is an aluminium cylinder that is coated with a photo-conductor, usually selenium. This will hold a charge in darkness, but it loses the charge when exposed to light. As such, the lighter parts of the image (the white areas on a piece of paper) lose their charge to become negatively charged, while the blacker areas of the image (where the text is) become positively charged. This results in an electrical map of the original document.
Once that is done, the toner, which is basically powdered ink, will be applied. For Black & White, the black toner will be attracted and stick to the positively charged regions. For color print, the cyan; magenta; yellow; and black toner will be attracted to the negatively charged regions, thus forming a huge plethora of colors from there.
From there, a duplicate image will be formed on a blank piece of paper and before pushing the paper out, high heat and pressure will be applied from a pair of hot rollers onto the paper to ensure that the toner particles are permanently inked onto the paper. The result is a nicely-printed and warm copy of the original document.