Horizontal color stripes with ricoh mpc4500

**aoab50** · 01-27-2016

My ricoh aficio mpc4500 has horizontal stripes on prints, when I print empty pages these horizontal stripes fade away after few pages and the empty papers comes out clean, but then re-appear when I print coloured pages. and these stripes appear on the back of the next pages also.
I replaced the pcu unit for C, M and Y with some used pcu's but I got the same problem. I noticed that I don't have black stripes, so I replaced the charge roller of the black pcu with the cyan pcu, but the problem was the same.
I cleaned the ITB cleaning unit and vacummed it but it didn't help. is there any way where I can make sure if this problem is caused by the itb cleaning unit.
I've attached three pages, the first one was printed after I cleaned the printer by printing 10 empty pages, the second page was printed after 7 copies and the third page was printed after 30 copies. As you can see on the third page there is a magenta line also. these lines grow thicker and wider and denser after each print.Attachment 31790

**mikadonovan** · 01-27-2016

Since you have ruled out the PCU's, fuser and ITB is pretty much whats left.

**solorajder** · 01-27-2016

I think problem is that in developer unit is too much toner (If you will turning the magnetic roller the toner will smoking from developer unit)
, this excess toner then transfers to charge roller and the cleaning blade,which you can see as stripes on copy.

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**banginbishop** · 01-27-2016

And what's the pm counters showing on this machine? You've replaced parts but have you printed out the smc report?

**Wishbone** · 01-27-2016

You need to replace your transfer belt cleaning unit.

**slimslob** · 01-28-2016

This appears to be a problem with just the cyan and magenta. When you replace a color PCU with a used PCU, the used PCU may also have a problem. Since the problem does not show for the yellow on your samples, try swapping the drum unit of the yellow with the drum unit of either the cyan or magenta. If the problem moved to the yellow, you need to replace the drum units with new drum units. Otherwise you need to replace the developers. Vacuum the development units completely. My guess is that the lubricant bar is almost completely worn. You can separate the drum unit and development unit, remove the drum from the drum unit and vacuum the toner that has built up between the cleaning blade and lubricant spreader blade. This will alleviate the problem for maybe a week or two.

**Polarbear** · 01-28-2016

Originally Posted by slimslob

This appears to be a problem with just the cyan and magenta. When you replace a color PCU with a used PCU, the used PCU may also have a problem. Since the problem does not show for the yellow on your samples, try swapping the drum unit of the yellow with the drum unit of either the cyan or magenta. If the problem moved to the yellow, you need to replace the drum units with new drum units. Otherwise you need to replace the developers. Vacuum the development units completely. My guess is that the lubricant bar is almost completely worn. You can separate the drum unit and development unit, remove the drum from the drum unit and vacuum the toner that has built up between the cleaning blade and lubricant spreader blade. This will alleviate the problem for maybe a week or two.

Are you sure about the condition of your used pcus? I have had it before where the pcus when they get older keep residual voltage and this is the outcome.

Have you tested your problem pcus in another machine?

I tend to agree with the cleaning unit being the culprit, but also take a good look at the ITB. Grit and dirt gets in between the belt and the support rollers and can over time destroy a cleaning unit blade as the bumps shock the blade as they come past.