I would like to meet a Canon Engineer and kick him/her in the beard.

[ragajungle]

As a baby technician I was schooled on Ricoh(Lanier/Savin) and Oce MFP's. DF Feed belts, Rollers, etc... Then on to Fusers, okay...., even a registration assy on a Rico1075, at the time I thought it was the worst thing in the world. As the years went by I gained an appreciation for the above said. Yes, toner is messy, but troubleshooting and maintenance was a cinch. Even big problems like a failed controller or a bad power supply was easy.

But then I was kicked in the teeth and sent to Canon training...kicking and screaming...but strangely intrigued by the, so called, Cadillac of Machines.

And what I discovered was that if Cadillac had adopted Canon's build/product quality and engineering methods they would still be shlepping Cimmerons... You remember those right? The $30K 'Lac Cavalier.

Since 2006 I have been regularly working on these machines along side Ricoh and Kyocera and everything else IKON pushed. I dealt with the irc6800, c3100 which I thought were utter disasters. Then the flimsy cacophony called the S1 internal finisher and then the t1-t2 finishers and there WACK staple ribbon cable/swing guide/rediculous firmware updating procedure, having to do clutch-ectomies on seg4's was common place at a million clicks.

Today did it for me though... The fact that this company would use dollar store clutches in a 65 ppm machine is amazing. the rest of the world has moved on to stepper motors in just about every application years ago.... having to rip apart the ENTIRE contoller assy on a ir6570 (VS one that has 3 screws and swings out) not to mention removing the gigantic external fax comm board over the controller (like 60 friggen screws!) and then MANGLE this stupid metal waste toner shield/housing and the plastic thing that slides out with the bottle to get to a clutch was it for me.... They suck. All of them SUCK! They are not engineered to be serviced. And they sure as hell don't last more than a million before you are replacing all sorts of crazy things.

I know every machine has its down falls, every machine has some weak point, some irritation. But it is like every frikken canon I lay hands on is a joke. Just this week alone:

ir1670 DF feed tires and a fuser on ir1670 - seriously canon? the document feeder on that pos had to be removed from the copier, flipped upside down and completely disassembled to replace a $5 roller.

ir6570 ribbon cable in t1 finisher - completely and utterly stripped off every panel to replace a wearable item.

ir6570 vertical transport motor assembly, wow you may as well call a coroner. If this was a Ricoh I would have been in and out in an hour. this is day 3....

irc6800 I dont even need to go here because this machine is a total joke and everyone knows it. This time though there was a drum phase error and required gutting the machine to get the dv assy out... 4 hours later....

This is not a lack of experience or some lack of cognition or even a lack or resources. I am a good tech, this is just simply miserably engineered machinery. That causes customers to have unnecessary down time for otherwise routine maintenance. Seriously if there is a Canon Engineer out there reading this you should take notes because your Copiers Suck. I have a Ricoh mp9000 next to a 7501 and it literally runs laps around it. 21mil on the ricoh 9 million on the canon and i can tell you that i am under the ricoh a whole lot less than the 7501

End Rant

[ragajungle]

Edit: it is a ricoh mp7500 NOT a 9001

[mojorolla]

I think we would all like to have 5 minutes in a room with an engineer alone. Great rant!

[ragajungle]

As long as we are ranting and kicking in beards gimme 5 with a fuel speculator too! LOL!

[mojorolla]

How about 15 minutes with each house of Congress. I wanna go back to the good ole days when people brought rotten vegetables to throw. Nothing says "up yours" like a rotting head of cabbage to the face.

[ragajungle]

Agreed! Maybe we could set up a rotten fruit stand outside of town hall meetings? Then they would just pass a law taxing flying fruit...

[Lagonda]

The asian engineer that designed it is probably only 18 and incapable of growing a beard.

[jonezy999]

And on the other hand, it would be great to meet an engineer who has designed a unit or machine that is just brilliant to work with. Simplicity can often rule where over engineered units are time consuming to repair, and sometimes ya just get it wrong.

An example of both springs to mind.
The Bad
IR3300 upper feed unit??????? How does this thing work? I'm sure the dude who designed it thought it was quite impressive, quite impressive that it actually works. I don't even attempt these anymore unless I really have nothing better to do and the customer is up for the labour charge just to get the bloody unit out of the machine for inspection.
The simply great.
Toshiba e3500c (there is a few similar actually) feed units. Take the tray out. Take one screw out, there is the unit in your hand. Rollers clip out and in. Swap a few c clips, ahhh easy street. That said, the rollers are pretty rubbish in terms of yield but I could replace 20 sets in the time it takes to get the ir3300 unit out.

WOW, overwhelming sensation of love and hate just passed through me.

[vincent64]

Speaking of toshiba, feed sections easy to change, yes, how about the transfer belt unit, on some of there color machines, its a nightmare, the cleaner unit comes out the front, and the belt comes out the side below the fuser, and on some of the bizhubs, feed rollers can be a pain, that 2nd tray clutch, have not had the pleasure yet, but I have heard of it.
Sharps AR 235/275 and that whole line of them, changing the #1 cass feed rollers and sep pad, WOW, take supplies out, pull fuser, pull MFT and all that to get to the feed rollers and sep pad...2nd tray on down, pull tray above it, and open side door, and take out 2 screws.
And what enginer came up with that new fuser unit for the newer sharp color machines, DID someone not learn from Toshibas use of a fuser belt.

[ragajungle]

Nice thoughts... Yes, I should have added the 3300 feed unit to that list.



In desscribing the bass-ackward way that some of these machines fuction this comes to mind... I need to go into the kitchen to get some milk...

Instead of going down the hall I open the livingroom window and climb up the side of the house to the roof, do Summersults across the roof and then squirm my way down the chimney and come into the kitchen via the oven.

Then crab walk over to open the fridge Instead of opening it by the handle and door, I lay the fridge on its side, using only my feet and get out a swazall and buzz a whole through the back. See its easy!