Riso HC5500 Head Lines?

[Joe Foe from Buffalo]

Looking for feed back on who had to replace heads on a Riso HC5500:
1) To get rid of lines cleaning service mode will not fix.
2) Average head life (print counts) in the real world is before you had to replace heads that have lines.
3) If anyone found a cleaner that can be used to clean the heads and how you cleaned them.
4) If you cleaned them and fixed the lines how long has it extended the heads life so far or till the head was un fixable or needed another cleaning?
5) Which colors have you had to replace
6) How many heads have you had to replace...so far and why (for lines or other issues)
7) If you have tired the cleaner Riso has for last resort to wipe clean heads clean and how good it works?

[Joe Foe from Buffalo]

Bump. Does anyone even work on the HC5500?

[-ph-]

Hey Joe,

Those are a lot of questions, here are some answers [i hope]

1)If you tried all the cleaning programs [hyper, extra,...], you'll probably have to replace the heads to get rid of the lines. I've never tried to clean them because i always could send them back in warranty. i guess cleaning the heads manually is very difficult, because they're so fragile.

2)Hard to pin a lifetime on these heads. The machine that gave us most problems is our showroom model. It's working only a few times a month and we use it to test all types of paper. My experience is that if the machines are not running daily or do only small runs the ink will dry in the heads and if you use roughly cut or just bad paper, the paperdust wil get into the print nozzles, which causes withe lines;

3)Never tried any cleaner on them. I'm afraid cleaning them manually will damage the heads and void warranty.

4)In the field i did replace 4 heads now, on one machine two cyan heads about a year ago and on the other one also two cyan heads about half a year ago. So far no recalls on them [keeping fingers crossed]

5)cyan [90%] beacause they are first in line, they catch the most paperdust. On the previous model [HC5000] there was the same problem with the black heads so the position was changed with the blue heads on HC5500 [other color, same problem]

6)About ten [more or less], always same problem [white lines]

7)I haven't used any cleaning solvents from Riso. Do they have products for cleaning the printheads?


I presume you're having problems withe the cyan heads? A few tips for replacement:
-don't spill any ink on the flatcables when you disconnect the tube from the head[it might damage them]
-Cover up the PCB's to prevent them from getting spilled with ink
-if you wear gloves use powder free gloves [powder may get into the printhead nozzles]
-In the manual, they advise you to use a torque wrench, but i always used a normal screwdriver [don't fix them too tightly]
-place some white sheets on the transfer belt to avoid leaking directly on the belt.
-According to the manual it's neccesary to do an automatic adjustment after replacing heads but i always did a manual adjustment [Quicker, but still long enough, imo]

I normally work on Digital colour copiers [Kyocera and konica minolta] and it's a whole different story. The HC5500 is no match to a decent color copier [quality wise], but it's fast.

Hope these answers are of some help for you.

Greets
p

[Joe Foe from Buffalo]

Thank you for the reply.

Please explain how you got the heads covered under warranty after going to service mode and trying all cleaning options that didn't fix it. Did you have to prove to Riso some thing and how?

Riso does have caps for the ink lines to prevent ink spilling when the line is taken off the head. They are expensive but worth it to stop the ink form leaking when replacing heads.

Yes Riso does say torque the newer 5500 to 90 front and back on all heads cause the screws are made of cheap metal and if they snap it will be a huge pain to tap them out. That's why Riso gives new screws with new heads.

I also use/prefer manual adjustment over automatic also cause I don't carry a scanner with me to do the automatic settings. Don't forget after replacement setting the head replaced to the spaces on the sticker on the side of the head replaced to same specs in service mode. It matching the needed voltage needed basically in layman's terms to max head life.

Yes Riso does make a cleaner for the heads. It's not a well known cleaner and not listed any place....but if your a Riso dealer and call tech support and push the issue even more if your looking to have the head covered under warranty they do have it as a very last resort to save the head. It's not listed what it is but is called "A solution" and followed by "B solution" to neutralize "A" LOL Comes in small generic bottles from Riso like a secrete potion. Can also be used on the Riso ComColor mach heads.

[RRodgers]

Looking for feed back on who had to replace heads on a Riso HC5500:
1) To get rid of lines cleaning service mode will not fix.
2) Average head life (print counts) in the real world is before you had to replace heads that have lines.
3) If anyone found a cleaner that can be used to clean the heads and how you cleaned them.
4) If you cleaned them and fixed the lines how long has it extended the heads life so far or till the head was un fixable or needed another cleaning?
5) Which colors have you had to replace
6) How many heads have you had to replace...so far and why (for lines or other issues)
7) If you have tired the cleaner Riso has for last resort to wipe clean heads clean and how good it works?

Try some blanket wash. You can get it at any print store. (for printers NOT a place like staples) Maybe try kellypaper (Kelly Paper - More than just a paper store.) I've used it and it worked VERY WELL!! Riso has a couple of bottles of stuff that they "recommend" to use but I found that blanket wash works very well.

[Joe Foe from Buffalo]

I was thinking blanket wash would work well. I was also thinking instead of rubbing a cleaner on the heads it may be better to soke a head in bath of cleaner to try to clean the head. Or just try filling a OEM ink 5500 bottle with some thing like blanket wash and do multiple cleanings in service mode on the bad head to try to clean it. Then put the OEM ink bottle with OEM ink in it and do a couple more cleanings and run the heck out of that head in nozzle check test mode to try to bring it back to life.
I would only try these if I had a new head or heads in hand or can get them over night ready to install if it didn't work.

[Joe Foe from Buffalo]

Bump. No one else works on these and has two cents to say?

[RRodgers]

I RARELY find ANYONE that works on the HC's on any of the tech boards I troll (I'm RRodgers on all of them)

One thing you can try is to make a page that does 100% Cyan (be sure to leave a boarder) and print that like 50 times. That "might" help push out some of the crap that is in the heads.

[ccopy]

These machines had a niche for about 6 months before Xerox & Konica Minolta came in blew RISO's claim to having the cheapest cost per click full color. When people realized that the HC 5000 and 5500's were nothing but medium quality ink jet printers, RISO fell flat on their faces. The demand for these machines was non-existent so not a whole lot of people were trained on these machines.

RISO will not deal directly with someone that owns one of their machines. RISO has subs that are forced to stay within their contracted boundaries. Any RISO dealer that steps outside their boundary to either sell supplies or service machines will immediately be sued or license revoked.

Therefore you will not find very many people that will be able to assist you in trouble-shooting.

I know a little about these machines but not enough to assist you...I'm sorry.

[Joe Foe from Buffalo]

What other websites / boards have you found for tech's? You are correct ccopy.....but we still have to service the ones that are in the field for years to come...But your also not totally correct on the Xerox & Konica Minolta mach's. Can't beat cost per copy that the 5500 has. Ya the 5500 don't make really good color compairded to the Xerox & Konica Minolta....But Riso never claimed to is sold to be good color...only fair spot color and cheaper then any other mach.

[ccopy]

What other websites / boards have you found for tech's? You are correct ccopy.....but we still ave to service the ones that are in the field for years to come...

Good luck and if I find anything, I'll be sure to post it here.

[Joe Foe from Buffalo]

Anyone know how to get the HS2000 scanner to be able to be used as a stand alone scanner. The HS2000 is sold by Riso and can be used with the HC5500's and rips but Riso has no info on being able to use it with out the 5500 and rips. I know Riso doesn't make it and a diriver must be available to make it possible as a stand alone.

[RRodgers]

So just plugging it in won't work? The rips run a custom linux version on them. (I forget which)

[Joe Foe from Buffalo]

I don't know how to run/use linux so I guess that's possible. And no just plugging it in to XP it will not work in fact when you go to device manager in Windows it doesn't know it's plugged in.

[RRodgers]

These machines had a niche for about 6 months before Xerox & Konica Minolta came in blew RISO's claim to having the cheapest cost per click full color. When people realized that the HC 5000 and 5500's were nothing but medium quality ink jet printers, RISO fell flat on their faces. The demand for these machines was non-existent so not a whole lot of people were trained on these machines.

RISO will not deal directly with someone that owns one of their machines. RISO has subs that are forced to stay within their contracted boundaries. Any RISO dealer that steps outside their boundary to either sell supplies or service machines will immediately be sued or license revoked.

Therefore you will not find very many people that will be able to assist you in trouble-shooting.

I know a little about these machines but not enough to assist you...I'm sorry.

I agree with what ya posted but the part I underlined. Ohhh... we can prove that is not as correct as they want you to think it is.