Colour problems on taskalfa 400 ci

gloryhound · 05-26-2009

Well can't say as I'm impressed with the Taskalfa's I how 2 in the field and have had nothing but trouble with one of them.

Client prints about 20K prints per month in colour, by the
2nd week.. black developed a line from some unidentified piece of plastic that gummed up and ruined the mag roller in the dev unit. (replaced)
3rd week.. Magenta started leaving white lines on page, dev was chocked full of some sort of white foreign matter. (replaced)
4th week.. Yellow starts to fade.. from front to back.. (replaced)
5th week.. After Y dev had been replaced.. Yellow fades out completely.
6th week.. All colours fade with the exception of black. A complete replacement on transfer, devs, and drums. All seems fine.
7th week.. Cyan fades away to nothing.. This is starting to get tired. Kyocera provides a F/W update that might help
8th week.. Replaced all Dev's F/W update and complete reset and recalibrate. Yay problem seems to have been beaten.
9th week.. Normally printed Blue fonts now are printing purple, minor colour and image density problems with cyan at full bleed.

The other machine exibited signs of having problems.. especially in even coming close to the colour desired.. These machines have been a complete disappointment from the beginning.

Has anyone experienced this kind of series of colour problems?

Electrical environment is good, voltage is good, cycle isn't sour..
Temperature and humidity is within spec.
Paper is good.

Just can't get the same output twice on these machines.. it's like Fred Flintstone designed them

**Eric1968** · 05-26-2009

Are you really sure the paper is of good quality? The white stuff could be paper dust. Maybe they're printing some sort of exotic media through the by-pass?

**kyoceradude** · 05-26-2009

Something we got from our rep that might help......

TASKalfa Copy Quality Check list follow in order as listed

________ 1. Install current firmware
System menu
________ 2. System Menu > Arrow to 2nd page > adjustments/maintenance
________ 3. Drum Refresh
________ 4. Developer Refresh
_______ 5. Color Registration > (Always perform Color Calibration after doing Registration this Prevents the Issue of registration changing a day or two later)
_______ 6. Color Calibration
Maintenance modes
________ 7. U464 > AC/ Calibration > Select All > Start
After completed turn power switch Off/On
_______ 8. U410 Continuous Adjustment

If this fails then try this.......

1.Replace DV unit (all colors)
2.U147 set operation mode --> Mode2
3.U464 (Set Calib Timing during Print) 1800 --> 480

**10871087** · 05-27-2009

The first problem your having is that Canadians constantly misspell the word "color".

We probably have 15 or so machines out now and (knock on wood) they all seem good. Just a couple firmware updates so far but no failures. I do have a couple end-users that need some adjusting but the machines have been very good so far. I would follow Kyoceradude's recommendations and hopefully things will turn around for you.

**dogsbody** · 05-27-2009

Originally Posted by 10871087

The first problem your having is that Canadians constantly misspell the word "color".

No he spelt it correctly, just like it is mum, gaol, etc.
Off topic but I couldn't help myself. Sorry.
Cheers.

**blackcat4866** · 05-27-2009

I have to agree with kyoceradude.

I've only got (2) placed, but they're both doing more than 20K per month. Colour is consistent. there have been some problems with finisher error codes & CFxxx codes, but they have been resolved by the firmware.

The most common problem I've seen on colour machines in general is techs skipping steps of the calibration. Do the whole calibration procedure and you should be golden. =^..^=

**JSC** · 05-27-2009

I have had a couple giving poor quality, but since upgrading to the latest firmware all problems have gone..........

**kyoceradude** · 05-29-2009

Originally Posted by blackcat4866

I've only got (2) placed, but they're both doing more than 20K per month.

Damn, we have over 30 of these TASKalfa's and over 350 of the Voyager machines out there. So, we understand that proper procedures must be followed to eliminate problems. Do not skip any steps in setup or updates. Also make sure you use a good qualit of paper when performing Auto Gray adjustments. It takes a good hour to update firmware and follow CQ checks on the T/A.... We have several Voyagers (KM-C3232E) with over a million copies...