MPC7500 PM

[Shadow1]

We always end up hearing the issue of the air here being the problem. Nothing beter than a machine running at 10% or less humidity on top of the lack of pressure a mile up. Oh well, live and learn!!

I've got the opposite problem - long hot summers with 90% humidity. The HVAC guys have it worse - imagine having to work someplace in weather like this when the only reason they ever call you because the A/C was out. They have real problems installing the right unit out here - a system that is big enough to handle the heat in mid summer is usually too big in spring and fall, so it doesn't run long enough to pull the humidity out of the air. Seen brand new buildings stink of mildew - does wonders for copy machines. Every install on my machines the damp heaters get hooked up, its just not an option to leave them off.

On the plus side I guess is my 3260's run great. I have the known issues with them: Unstable toner density on long runs, Transfer Roller scratches, Peeling Hot rollers at half PM or less - but I'm not cleaning charge rollers every 20k or futzing with the developer trying to get it to initialize properly. I can deal with that stuff, and I can do a really good PM on one in 3 hours, instead of a rushed, crappy, just glad I got it working again job on an MP7500 in 6.

[Retread Tech]

I don't miss the 90%. I grew up in Kentucky and got enough of that weather to last forever. We do run into the occasional account that uses a swamp cooler. They make nice spots due to wet paper! On a lot of Ricoh printers we were able to adjust transfer voltage to fix quality issues. It isn't so easy on the 7500 or the 3260c machines. I have been lucky in that the 3260c seems to run from PM to PM without much effort. Too bad the 7500 doesn't carry that ability on!

[stephend]

I did a recently a partial 300 K PM on a machine with 245K on black and just 5700 prints in color. From one PM to another I'm trying to improve me speed performances without cutting on quality of my work.
So, it took me 90 min to PM the K unit for 300K, replace the developer, replace all PTR parts and oil roller and cleaning roller in the fusing unit, clean the working area and pack all the garbage.
Due to the extensive vacuuming required and the increased number of customers pissed off by the terrible noise I think a better idea is to have already with you a set of units already rebuilt in the shop.

[paulg]

I did a recently a partial 300 K PM on a machine with 245K on black and just 5700 prints in color. From one PM to another I'm trying to improve me speed performances without cutting on quality of my work.
So, it took me 90 min to PM the K unit for 300K, replace the developer, replace all PTR parts and oil roller and cleaning roller in the fusing unit, clean the working area and pack all the garbage.
Due to the extensive vacuuming required and the increased number of customers pissed off by the terrible noise I think a better idea is to have already with you a set of units already rebuilt in the shop.

As i belive the Japanese do

[stephend]

Can anybody tell if other manufacturers like Konica Minolta or Xerox for this mid-high range of color machines use units or individual parts to perform the PM?

Even Ricoh MPC 6000 & PRO series are asking for PCU units....this message is popin up after 200 K "Please replace PCU "K or CMY" unit. So what's the point of a message like this if we are going with 2 huge boxes (150 K + 300K PM kits) with over 60 individual parts in them to the customers...????
Many of them as soon as they hear that the maintenance will take over 4 hours for 300K get really upset and are calling managers and sales people to complain.
The cost for Ricoh units it's huge (~500$/unit + 200$ bag of dev) and the cost for both PM kit's is ~ 225$/kit so 450$ for both.

[paulg]

Can anybody tell if other manufacturers like Konica Minolta or Xerox for this mid-high range of color machines use units or individual parts to perform the PM?

Even Ricoh MPC 6000 & PRO series are asking for PCU units....this message is popin up after 200 K "Please replace PCU "K or CMY" unit. So what's the point of a message like this if we are going with 2 huge boxes (150 K + 300K PM kits) with over 60 individual parts in them to the customers...????
Many of them as soon as they hear that the maintenance will take over 4 hours for 300K get really upset and are calling managers and sales people to complain.
The cost for Ricoh units it's huge (~500$/unit + 200$ bag of dev) and the cost for both PM kit's is ~ 225$/kit so 450$ for both.

Look at the Katanas and the Venus range (tags for the pcu's) where on both you can see the units like you say were meant to be changed as units either by a Tech or even a trained customer. As you say they take to long in the field its plain to see the Japanese of course would expect the units to be swapped over and then rebuilt..

I think many companies are going to have to rethink how they service units otherwise as you say those without a procedure to swap units and rebuild machines will get in many cases outgunned by those who can on down time.
On some machines what were simple procedures for older machines on a typical copier in years gone by are becoming more time consuming and worse of all more complex unless in a workshop in a relaxed enviroment where you can vac to your hearts content.
Many units have fiddly units or complex setups which if not done correctly mean everything has to be redone or replace parts!!

Many Service management have not seen these newer devices im guessing and keep pushing Engineers to carry out the everyday procedures in the times they worked on far less complex mono kit.

While the Designers in Japan most likely would think us mad to repair/replace the parts on these units in the field

[stephend]

Many Service management have not seen these newer devices im guessing and keep pushing Engineers to carry out the everyday procedures in the times they worked on far less complex mono kit.

While the Designers in Japan most likely would think us mad to repair/replace the parts on these units in the field

Unfortunately many of the service managers I know are useless. They don't know anything about the machines, they are not interested at all to find out what's new or to put in place service strategies. They are involved only in bureaucratic work, statistics and they are really concerned about calls/day, your workload and how to save more money reducing your salaries because the economy is bad. It's sad to see that the people who supposed to sustain you in field are not doing it at all. I'm doing this unit rebuilding activity at home because if I'm doing it at work they will think I have nothing to do and they will stuff me with calls from other techs.