Printer Faults - Marginal Tyre Marks.

Defects down the margins of pages are likely to be print process rollers and particularly the OPC drum and Fuser which are directly exposed to the paper. The pattern suggested this tends to be characteristic of the OPC and its cleaning blade wearing out.

This pattern is typically seen from midway in the life of a refilled or refurbished cartridge. The OPC cleaning blade is at the end of its life. A refurbished cartridge probably should have a replacement blade, a refill probably would not get that.

The same pattern can be seen in a print cartridge bought new when it has aged. If the cartridge has always been used for light print, a job like printing labels with a small bar-code, the cleaning blade breaks down before the toner is exhausted.

There isn't anything much can be done but if you have two printers and one often gets this fault try swapping the cartridges each week to even out the wear.

Since laser printer faults from the drum and the fuser can sometimes look pretty similar it is worth checking that the fault is indeed coming from the OPC drum. Take the cartridge out, turn it over, open the shutter and examine the drum to see if the marks on the page are reflected by marks on the OPC itself. If not then there may be some other explanation. Try a stop-test to see where the problem first appears.

If the fault is seen on the OPC the only option is to replace the cartridge.