Ricoh MP C3500/4500

[spaniel ears]

Ok. I've never noticed a wax bar in the PCU's for the MP C3000 / C4500's but the 3260C does have a wax bar.

As far as cleaning charge rollers goes on the B2232042 OPC unit, it's a waste of time.

With a bit of work with a file, you can modify the connector so the above will fit and replace a colour drum unit for about one third of the price.

The wax bar is under the brush roller, and it's not a waste of time cleaning the charge roller on the B2232042 OPC unit, if you've got a black charge roller (take them out of scrap units if you haven't) you can clean it up to look as good as new with Ambersil foam cleaner, so hopefully you can get double the life out of a PCU because when the dirty charge roller first starts to give copy quality problems, the drum is still in mint condition usually.

[iscott]

I have looked for Ambersil and it is not available in the US.
I have got one MP C 4000 that is having some issues so I guess I’ll try the Soap and Hot water route. Thanks for the help.

[verderacer]

We need to keep this thread going. Some good info... I too am sick of changing whole pcu units on the B223 and D029.

I will check with our local Katun office and see if the cleaner is available.

[largo]

In the end it is a design error from Ricoh. If they had increased the diameter of the charge roller and especially the cleaning roller, we would not have this problem.
I don't understand why they used the foam roller either.

Lotec, You are talking like you're a specialist
If it was so simple i think they allready modified this
But if you are so sure that this is the solution, than I would advice you to go apply for a Job by RICOH JAPAN section: ENGINEERING/ DEVELOPMENT

[spaniel ears]

We need to keep this thread going. Some good info... I too am sick of changing whole pcu units on the B223 and D029.

I will check with our local Katun office and see if the cleaner is available.

It's available in the UK from Katun, but as essyzi mentioned, other anti static foam cleaners may give just as good results if you can't get your hands on Ambersil.

[E Winter]

If the drum unit is close to the PM cycle I would not just clean the charge roller. I'd also remove the drum and clean the blades, wax brush with a vac. If the drum surface looks healthy you might have a good chance to double the lifetime. The new charge rollers are unfortunately a step backwards - you can't really clean them with proper liquids. I just use water or glass cleaner for those.

In the end it is a design error from Ricoh. If they had increased the diameter of the charge roller and especially the cleaning roller, we would not have this problem. I don't understand why they used the foam roller either.

Probably because they prefer to keep the lifetime close to the specified PM cycles^^ btw - larger diameters aren't automatically better. The MPC6000 PCU's are struggeling with the same issues.

[Lotec]

Lotec, You are talking like you're a specialist
If it was so simple i think they allready modified this
But if you are so sure that this is the solution, than I would advice you to go apply for a Job by RICOH JAPAN section: ENGINEERING/ DEVELOPMENT

Yeah, That would have been kind of cool. But I need 1 more year at the university to become an engineer in mechatronics.
I stopped and took a year of each of the following subjects: history, psychology, biology and chemistry. And from January I'll do a semester in operating systems, and after that I'll take a semester in programming... and then I want to take web programming and I also need a year studying networks, network management and network security.

And I find it hard to believe that Ricoh would just hire a regular engineer. I bet (hope) they all have a masters degree in their field.
After all we used an old Ricoh Aficio 400 in mechatronics class (both the machine and the finisher) - and that stuff has quite a lot of science involved. I'm sure Ricoh have some very advanced design software that is specialized for their need? We only used solid works and 3d studio at school - and the most complex thing we designed was a pistol grip drill. It was kind of interesting to see the parts in the CAD software and then produce the parts on the CNC milling machine and end up with a working product. But a drill is like a toaster compared to a copier.
So I'm not saying it is easy to design a copier. Not at all.. but when they have a team of spesialists - they should have solved this by now. Or at least have an "easy fix" until they have solved it. The easy fix is of course a charge and cleaning roller kit. At a cheap price.

So my critisism comes because:
1. I'm frustrated because I spend my day (and evening and night) changing drums..
2. Because they have not tested the machine thorough under all conditions. We order pallets full of drums.. if they didn't experience the problem during testing the test criteria/spectrum have been to small.
3. They have not started to sell the charge roller/cleaning roller assy.
4. They have not come up with a solution to a problem on existing machines, that we will have to maintain for years to come..

And I have looked at the design of for example Kyocera, and I see they have larger diameter on the charge and cleaning roller. And it just keeps working - day in and day out. We have never had this problem with Kyocera.
So I'm kind of thinking... why do they not buy a Kyocera, and study their solution - and see if they can transfer that solution to fit in Ricohs PCUs - and keep the form factor the same. Then they could announce that the B22322xx and D02922xx PCUs have gotten new part numbers due to part modification to improve reliability.

They should have a link on their web page for grumpy pissed techs - that went straight to the system engineers at Ricoh

I think Ricoh have great products - but there are 3 problems with the design of their smaller B/W models, and 2 problems with their smaller color range. I don't work on bigger machines than the MP9001 and the MPC5000 at the moment.
I might add that with the MP6001 and up.. I have no problems with the design at all. I like it. My dream would have been that the smaller models (AF1018, 2018, MP2XXX, AF450/1045/2045/3045/MP4000) was in fact a scaled down version of the MP6001.
I've been fixing the MP6001 generation back when it was analog and called FT6645. And I have seen it been improved for every version ever since. I didn't like the new thin hot roller though.. the thick ones lasted at least a million pages..
All I miss with this model is quicker mainenance. Be able to open the fuser with only 4 screws, and design the cleaning web so it can be changed by the user.
If you look at the smaller machines with their fusers, PCUs and paper feed/paper lifting mechanism.. there is room for improvements. And they have had plenty of time to do them. Even a new machine have weaknesses they could have fixed years ago.
And again.. we sell some HP printers.. and they go 225 000 pages between every service.. and we're there only every 225 000 pages. They just work. So smaller machines can have longer service intevals too.
Simple fuser.jpg
On the MPC machines... I like all parts of the machine (like the doc feeder, the paper feed, the transfer belt, transfer roller, laser, touch panel and user/tech experience) except the PCU unit, and the fuser is overly complicated/fidly. If they modefied it like the MP6001 and add a cleaning web that the used can change.. that would be sweet. And make it last 600K. I'm not sure the minor quality issue between a fuser belt and a fuser roller would be such a problem on these machines anyway. It is office machines, and not like the Pro C900s who's competing against offset presses. 99% of our customers don't even use a quality paper for color copiers. It should look OK, but the price is more important.

And now that we hardly ever sell b/w machines, it is more important that the color machines are highly reliable. We get more service calls on color machines - but we are still the same number of techs. That gives us a lot of work to do. And if you change the magenta drum on monday, and are back on thursday changing the black.. they may not be all that happy with their machine... and on friday you have to change the cyan developer because of faint areas ...
When we have more then enough to do - the customers have to wait even longer. And somewhere we have to start cutting corners.. or start working 16 hour days.

but hey.. that's just my two cents..
And if nobody put their two cents in, how can you get change?

[largo]

I agree with you lotec.....
But i work more than 10 y at ricoh

one thing i can give you is that... (and confirmed by other countries)
that those lines (mpc2500,mpc3500,mpc2800,mpc4000 series) are comming when
we are heading freezing temp.
In my opinion it has something to do with temp/humidity

in my country (and others i think also) we have a big workload
we have a verry lot mpc calls with lines now

like you said: "if you change black pcu, the day after is the c pcu,...."

why ricoh JAP doesn't do something????? i don't know.
They don't know a solution,...?


It's not fun for the customer but there is nothing much we can do

but on the other side........ I have lines on those machines and lots of done the last weeks ....but some of them it is the firts call in 1 year, and those customers are happy if they see an engineer just 1 time in a year

wouldn't you? or every 2 months for jams .... you can choose

greetz

[spaniel ears]

If the drum unit is close to the PM cycle I would not just clean the charge roller. I'd also remove the drum and clean the blades, wax brush with a vac. If the drum surface looks healthy you might have a good chance to double the lifetime. The new charge rollers are unfortunately a step backwards - you can't really clean them with proper liquids. I just use water or glass cleaner for those.




Probably because they prefer to keep the lifetime close to the specified PM cycles^^ btw - larger diameters aren't automatically better. The MPC6000 PCU's are struggeling with the same issues.

I get the feeling the new charge rollers have a bit of un-cleanability built into the design of the coating - we'll see about that. I haven't got one to try in hot soapy water at the moment, only the old ones, but if anyone has please let us know the results. And you're right of course about stripping and cleaning the pcu as well as the charge roller Jan, I forgot to mention that.

[nmfaxman]

I have found that a simple and cheap ISP windshield fluid tends to disolve Ricoh toner with little effort.
On charge rollers I just wipe them down with a dry rag after cleaning them, and I have made them last 3X the book life.