GPR-11 Drums Secret for longer life?

[msiudy]

Peaceful and fruitful!

Teckat, sorry to have been an ass at the outset.

I do have one issue though... feel like helping? I just picked up another machine with only 13600 on the counter. It's been sitting a while. I had to change out the fuser unit since the rollers had flat spots on them. Now all is well with one exception... There is mild streaking on the printed sheets. It doesn't appear to have anything to do with color, since it happens in the cyan, magenta, black or yellow. I have replaced the cleaning blade, put all new toner and drums in, cleaned the ITB and changed the foam roller that is just before the fuser unit. (Don't know what that's called but it's the foam roller that pops out easily when you squeeze the clips. It's the one that is in the open area when you open the fuser drawer. Any ideas?

[msiudy]

The one thing I haven't done thus far is to replace the ITB, I did clean it though. I have a couple of spare ITB units that I can pop in with no problem. I guess that's my next move unless you have another idea.

Another question if you don't mind. The drums in this machine read only 90 in service mode checking. However, they get coated with toner and produce a lot of background "print/smear/fuzziness". Can you clean a drum roller with alcohol? I wiped the cyan drum down with a soft cleaning cloth but it came right back. They may be toast since they've been sitting as long as the fuser unit that developed flat spots...

Thanks,

Mark

[teckat]

see link

http://www.copytechnet.com/forums/ca...blem-copy.html

can not use alcohol/ drum potential is shot
90 means nothing / drum surface life has to do with the amount of toner coverage usage on paper-

[msiudy]

So does the age of the drum have anything to do with it? Could it have "dried" out? Like I said, the machine has been idle for quite some time. Anything I can do to save the drum? The machine only has 4000 color copies on it, the rest are black only. I guess it could be a bad drum, but I'm thinking it's from sitting around doing nothing for so long... thoughts?

[msiudy]

I thought about that, and actually looked at the plates but didn't take them off to inspect. Will do. Thanks!

[teckat]

So does the age of the drum have anything to do with it? Could it have "dried" out? Like I said, the machine has been idle for quite some time. Anything I can do to save the drum? The machine only has 4000 color copies on it, the rest are black only. I guess it could be a bad drum, but I'm thinking it's from sitting around doing nothing for so long... thoughts?

once u remove the Drum from the box and it's wrapper, surface deterioration sets in- (air,light,room conditions,environment,usage,age, all contribute to issue

[msiudy]

Teckat- Streaking is still there. I have cleaned the plates on the ITB assembly, put a new wiper blade assembly in, changed all the toners and drums, put a new fuser in and I still get the streaking. It's pretty random, as in not in the same place, and not on every sheet. I'm thinking it may be the ITB belt itself since the streaking "moves" around on the sheet. I assume the belt position is not the same on every sheet, so that may be why the streaking is moving, it is also more prominent on the operator side of the sheet as it exits. The machine prints beautifully other than the streaks.

As a side note: When you open the fuser drawer and open the end where you would remove a jam, there is a set of rollers on a shaft. Five rubber rollers in total. They were very soft and melting so I replaced that roller shaft with a good one. I mention this because I'm wondering if there is another set of rollers somewhere that I should check to see if they are deteriorated as well. Other than finding something like that I'm stumped.

Is it possible the image streaking is being formed on the belt? 99% of the sheet prints fine, just those random streaks. If it's not on the belt, then I would think the sheet is "dragging" across something. The streaks are not across the entire sheet, very spotty. The longest on may be only 1.2-2", but again, it moves around.

Thanks for your help.

Mark

[teckat]

take off cover -right side machine, to view ITB Belt> run some PG10's> look at image on Belt as it rotates> see if image has marks/

post some prints of issue> either with test prints[pg5/pg10] or your own issue

[msiudy]

scan of print

Here you go.

[teckat]

that looks like scrape marks from ITB plates/ check your interior paper guide unit/ & position to ITB plate/

[msiudy]

Okay, so what is the "interior paper guide unit" and position to the ITB plate? I had previously cleaned the plates and they soiled up again pretty quickly, so you're probably right on here. But I'm not sure what I'm looking for... I have a service manual, so if it's in there I can look it up.

[teckat]

if this is a 3200/ slide out the fix unit/ remove IITB/remove fix unit/ the rest of the entire guide is now visible / u can now remove the entire guide to inspect it /
if u remove everything else DRUMS & TONER/ u can inspect the inside cams that lift ITB

your ITB plates could be bent/ your Trans roller could be off centered /check-it is spring loaded

the 5180 had a kit to repair issue, don't think it will fit 3200/ parts are different, but u will get the picture
see pub

TP08.pdf

best bet is to Call a Canon Trained Tech

[anothertech]

I've seen that symptom when the Belt stretches and starts to droop on the edges. Take the ITB out and look down between the belt and the lower metal plate, you can see where the belt starts to get very close to the the plate at the front and rear edges. It doesn't look like it can touch, but it can when it's turning. If this is the case, you'll need a new belt.

[msiudy]

Thanks for the input. I did look at the belt to check the spacing between the plates and the belt, and compared them to another ITB assembly. They appear to be fine. But you might be right.

I just bought this machine and it has only 13600 copies on it, practically new. However, it has sat for a while and I think that some of these parts simply dry-rotted, like tires on a car that sits.

Since the belt itself is some kind of plastic I wouldn't think it would go bad from sitting, but it's certainly possible. I did put a couple other ITB assemblies in and I kept getting paper jams, it simply would not carry a sheet through. Maybe that's a clue that could shed some light on this?

This machine, since it's practically brand new, handles paper and performs great compared to the two others I have that are approaching 1mil + copies. There's just something smearing the image somewhere. It's probably something very simple, but nothing is simple until you find it.

Thanks for your help guys.

Note: One of the other machines prints great, but shuts down in the middle of a print job... I suspect it's a software issue, any ideas? Screen goes blank (turns white), and the only recovery is to restart.

[msiudy]

Some times I feel like I should be posting on FML (f my life).... So this new machine is now printing nicely. So I have a job on 12x18. Every drawer and the by pass tray keep telling me to load paper... but the paper is in there. The screen says to load plain paper and appears to be asking for 8.5x11. Any ideas? I'm pretty sure this is a simple one.