Black: CLP-K300A/SEE - Toner for CLP-300 Approximate 2,000 pages @ 5% coverage of the page. Cyan: CLP-C300A/SEE - Toner for CLP-300 Approximate 1,000 pages @ 5% coverage of the page. Yellow: CLP-Y300A/SEE - Toner for CLP-300 Approximate 1,000 pages @ 5% coverage of the page. Magenta: CLP-M300A/SEE - Toner for CLP-300 Approximate 1,000 pages @ 5% coverage of the page.
Image unit for CLP-300: CLP-R300A/SEE - Approximate 20,000 pages @ 5% coverage of the page.
Waste toner box for CLP-300: CLP-W300A/SEE - Approximate 5,000 pages @ 5% coverage of the page.
Specifications: Print Speed (B/W) Up to 16 ppm in A4 (17 ppm in Letter) Speed (Colour) Up to 4 ppm in A4 (4 ppm in Letter) Resolution Up to 2,400 x 600 dpi effective output First Print Out Time (B/W) 14 seconds First Print Out Time (Colour) 26 seconds
The CLP-300's specs: it uses a 300MHz Samsung CPU and a rather scarce 32MB of memory. The printer software does not have HP's PCL printer language, which has been adopted by just about every printer manufacturer. Unlike PCL, the proprietary SPL-C language used by this printer relies heavily on your computer's processing power to complete print jobs. As a result, the speed of the CLP-300 will depend on the speed of your computer.
The first page pops out after 14 seconds, and you'll get around 16 pages per minute for black and 4 pages per minute for colour documents.
The printer also uses a box to collect the waste toner, this is supposed to be replaced after Approximately 5,000 pages at 5%, however during testing, the printer frequently stopped, and requested the toner waste box be replaced long before 5000 pages. We of course emptied the toner from the waste box, rather than purchase a new one.
This printer as with all other colour printers from Samsung uses cartridge chips to control toner replacement. Through the way the printer has been designed, the print process is different to previous Samsung colour printers. The toner cartridges are used as more of a toner reservoir, than the ‘All in one’ type delivery units, made popular by HP (LJ2600).
During printing the cartridges continue to feed fresh toner to an existing supply of toner, which remains contained within the drum unit at all times.
When the toner supply in the cartridge unit is used up, the printer informs the chip, at which point the printer stops and refuses to print until a new cartridge is inserted. The existing cartridge can be refilled – However the chip contained within this cartridge refuses to allow any printing. In essence it is a KILLER CHIP.
Removing the chip from the cartridge is virtually impossible, the chip is sealed and glued into place and any realistic attempts to remove it, will damage the cartridge beyond its being capable for future use.
We did not let this stop us from firstly applying our AQC Group compatible toner, and secondly finding a useable format in which to remanufacture these Samsung CLP-300 cartridges.
In order to tackle the cartridges, it was easier to think of this machine as an inkjet printer rather than a colour laser printer. For many years inkjet users have used a variety of novel methods of refilling cartridges and bypassing the chips attached to them. We followed this same thought process:
The Cartridges:
The Black cartridge is slightly larger and carries more toner. The chip contact points are visible next to the protruding gears and toner ‘feeding tubes’. The above picture also shows the chips sealed into the cartridge shell. Removal of these chips is impossible without specialised tooling.
Dismantling the Cartridge
We removed the top of the toner cartridge; this reveals the contents of the toner hopper. A gear driven paddle is used to stir the toner. Also in this section is a ‘never ending spring’ or Archimedes Screw, used to drive the toner into the ‘toner feeding tube’
Next we looked at the contents of the cap, as our best possible way into the cartridge for refilling purposes:
As we can see the ‘cap’ contains the filling bung and gears required to drive the paddle and Archimedes Screw, The cap was also glued into place, and we found difficulty in splitting this section from the cartridge. Entering through this method could easily cause damage to these gears, and replacing this into its correct position after refilling is not easy, and therefore more time consuming.
At this stage, with all ‘traditional’ methods to refill these cartridges looking impossible or very time consuming, we decided to use a more novel approach, one that is quick and easy.
Using the direct assault method we melted a hole into the toner hopper section (Tip: I put my ear to the side of the cartridge, twisted the gear and listened to the paddle pass by the point where I wanted to make the hole) from here we can easily refill our cartridge:
Now we were able to test AQC Groups replacement toner, we removed the original Samsung toner, and refilled with out toner.
Just for testing purposes we closed the hole with tape, however this of course could be sealed with foil and over covered with company labels etc...
Overcoming the Chip issue
Original OEM Chip
Whilst testing the AQC Groups replacement toner it became clear the chips continue to work even after the toner has all but been used up. We know when the cartridge runs out of toner the printer informs the chip, and both stop any printing. However if we do not allow the cartridge to run out of toner, we can carry on printing for a limited time, using the existing OEM chips.
Replacement aftermarket chip are available from AQC Group. These chips can be placed into the hole made by removing the contact points of the original chip as shown in the picture below.
AQC Group’s replacement Samsung CLP-300 chips are colour coded for your convenience.
The AQC Group replacement toner performed extremely well during testing, the print reproduction and likeness to the original Samsung toner was excellent, beyond even our expectations. Realistically to the eye there is very little difference whatsoever between the OEM toner, and the AQC Group compatible replacement Samsung CLP-300 toner.
We ran full AQC Group yield testing; at 5% approximate page coverage, in order to achieve OEM standards of 2000 pages for Black, and 1000 pages each for the colours. The following fill sizes are advised minimum weights:
Black: 80g Cyan: 40g Yellow: 40g Magenta: 40g
As previously mentioned, some existing OEM toner will have remained in the drum unit of the printer, when we first used AQC Group replacement toner. No incompatibility or contamination of print images was seen, proving the AQC Group Toner is compatible with existing OEM toner. The AQC Group replacement toner is Polyester based toner.
Providing refill kits, the toner fill sizes can of course be higher, allowing continuous recharging of the cartridges two or possibly three times more than the original OEM.
