Today's manufacturers have moved away from old technology pulverized toner to a chemically grown or polymerized toner. The internal working components of todays modern printers are designed specifically for the use of polymerized toner. Third-party, knock-off toner cartridges are produced using old technology pulverized toner.

This is what polymerized toner (on the left) and pulverized toner (on the right) look like under significant magnification:

Because of the extremely small particle size and the uniformity of its spherical shape polymerized toner flows within a printers image producing components, much like a liquid, and has the desirable properties of serving as a lubricant as well as not clumping, clogging or being abrasive to the delicate internal components of toner cartridges, transfer belts and development units.

The abrasive nature of pulverized toner has a damaging effect on, expensive to replace, fusing units significantly decreasing their life expectancy.

Picture a bucket of marbles and a bucket of driveway gravel and imagine trying to insert a hand into the buckets. Easily done in the marble filled bucket but quite difficult and uncomfortable trying to insert your hand into the bucket filled with driveway gravel.

The down-side to using, third-party, knock-off toner cartridges is that the excessive wear these toner cartridges introduce to your printers internal components, due to the abrasive nature of the toner, is cumulative and can over time result in an expensive repair or, an earlier than otherwise would be required, need to completely replace your printer. 

Polymerized toner offers the following benefits over pulverized toner:

- Due to its extremely small particle size and uniformity in shape polymerized toner can achieve more consistent and even coverage requiring less toner resulting in increased toner cartridge page yields.

- Due to its extremely small particle size and uniformity in shape polymerized toner provides higher resolution capabilities for crisper, better defined and more accurate printouts.

- Polymerized toner dramatically reduces the undesirable effect of differential gloss resulting in more natural looking printouts.

- Perhaps its most beneficial attribute: Due to its lack of abrasiveness polymerized toner ensures maximum drum unit, transfer belt, development unit, and fusing unit life and thereby maximum overall printer life.