MP4500 Overtoning

[Caveman]

Many of the MP4500 copiers that I have been called to service recently are overtoning and maxing the waste toner collection bin with only 50 to 70k copies. Almost every MP4500 is overtoning causing the mag roller to become coated with a 'baked on' layer of toner. Has anyone come across the cause and solution for this condition? Contacted RICOH Tech Support regarding this problem and was told they are waiting to hear back from Japan - apparently this problem is being seen by many field techs.

[Cipher]

'Same shit, different year' springs to mind as far as Ricoh's 35/45ppm B&W range goes.

As a lot of these problems are not new unfortunately.

[unisys12]

I have a national account with several of these and only one seems to giving us problems. Overall, yeah the whole family runs dirty, but it seems the B291 series take it to a new level of crap because of the CQ issues that come into play once the overtoning takes place.

As I have outlined before in other threads; One thing I have done, for a long time now, is to run about 30 or so copies after changing the developer and before the TD initialization. Also, instead of covering the toner entrance (on the dev assy) with paper, I leave the toner bottle out. Then run TD sensor initialization. This detones the developer a bit and seems to give the machine a better chance at running more efficiently.

With all this said, we have noticed that the B291 series seems to be real hit and miss. Like I said, we have only one out of five giving us problems at one account and the others we have in the field seem to be doing ok. Given the above actions are taken, as well as proper cleaning of the mag roller during scheduled PM's. As for the older series, such as the B004, the above actions really seems to take care of the issues. As well as making sure the firmware is up to date on the machines.

I was really hoping that the new D009 series would address a lot of these issues. We got our first one in yesterday and as I started setting it up, I found that it basically is the same as the B291 series... just a different drum. Which I could not tell what was so different about it., even though we got an email stating that it would not work in the older series! I am waiting for a training package to come out for the D009 series, maybe I will find out then.

[tomy2010]

With this problem I always clean the mag roller with suitable solvent like an acetone It's helps for ca 50k prints.
Unfortunately Ricoh have no idea for solve this problem which is repeated from model A-C2 (Aficio 350-450)

[slim]

Be sure and clean the doctor blade good as small chunks will build up and cause low density for the ID sensor patch, which will want to add more toner. Not sure why it is building up yet, waiting for ricoh japan.

[Ricoh-ono]

I've seen this problem as well. I contacted Ricoh technical support regarding this issue. They said it was currently under investigation but I should try the following:

1. SP 2001-2 - Ensure it is at default value (250V).

2. SP 2201-2 - Set at 480V (default is 400V)

3. Clean the development unit mag roller or replace if necessary.

4. Make sure drum ground is below 50 ohms. (Measured from flywheel to frame).

I have tried this on a few machines recently, but it is still too early to tell if this will help the problem. Until then I expect to run through a lot of vacuum filters cleaning these 'pigs'.

[Ollie1981]

Many of the MP4500 copiers that I have been called to service recently are overtoning and maxing the waste toner collection bin with only 50 to 70k copies. Almost every MP4500 is overtoning causing the mag roller to become coated with a 'baked on' layer of toner. Has anyone come across the cause and solution for this condition? Contacted RICOH Tech Support regarding this problem and was told they are waiting to hear back from Japan - apparently this problem is being seen by many field techs.

A few things I've come across.

1/ We seemed to have a bad batch of toner for a period of time. It was MP4500 badged toner in a bronzey/gold coloured bottle as opposed to the silvery grey we usually got. It caused exactly the problem you mentioned, hard toner on the mag roller and overtoned copies.

Try removing the toner bottle and running a whole load of skyshots to detone the dev as much as possible. Then load the machine with a fresh batch and force toner supply to see if you can get an acceptable copy. If not you may have to vac the whole lot out, from toner hopper, PCU cleaning unit to dev unit, re-dev and start again with a fresh batch of toner.

2/ Non-OEM toner. These machines are a pain in the arse at the best of times for finickity copy quality problems when used with the correct toner.

3/ Check the customer's office to see if they have any older iterations of this machine. On certain big contracts of ours we have customers who have a cornucopia of Adonis variants within the same building. A common scenario is the MP4500 runs out of toner and the customer has no spares, they check to see if the 1045/2045 in the next room has any spare bottles (because they look pretty much identical to the untrained eye and the bottle will fit), they pinch one and stick it in their machine without knowing that it's incompatable.

I've had many a head scratching moment with a undertoning/overtoning machine until I actually look what toner the machine's got in it and lo and behold........

[paulg]

We were told to ensure we always followed the correct procedure when removing the drum of loosen off the dev unit holder oterwise the dev unit seal (the plastic part which clips in on the top of the dev unit) will become deformed causing light bands. If the light patch occurs near the id sensor patch of course after a while your get serious over toning.

We had a spate of these problems and this was the intial fix. Not heard anything since. But to be fair i don't see many of them.

[iMind]

We were told to ensure we always followed the correct procedure when removing the drum of loosen off the dev unit holder oterwise the dev unit seal (the plastic part which clips in on the top of the dev unit) will become deformed causing light bands. If the light patch occurs near the id sensor patch of course after a while your get serious over toning.

We had a spate of these problems and this was the intial fix. Not heard anything since. But to be fair i don't see many of them.

My statement is the same, got a client with 40 machines, six of them with over toning A4 LEF exiting face down, lighter copies on the right side damaged seal gets into friction with drum, these machines had at that moment about 20K. working well waiting to see

[Scott_Lewis]

Just installed 45 MP3500/4500 for a customer last month. Two of those have already had developer issues. The problem I had was light streaks where developer was not feeding out evenly on the mag roller.

Similar issue where Japan engineering is supposed to be looking into it. I applied the 2001 and 2201 changes per request and will see how that works out.

The real reason for this post is to mention that after I cleared the mag roller of developer by turning the rollers by hand and running a bunch of copies I went back to look at the 'cleared' mag rollers again.

What I noticed was the coating on the mag roller was now uniform whereas before I could see unevenness where the banding was occurring. Since I've cleared the mag roller and let the developer re-coat the mag roller, I've not had the problem come back. Its only been a few days but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.