Canon IRC 3200 - Useful Life ??

[arunts]

regarding drum life

thanks for the reply, that was really lot of informaton.

Is there anything we can do other than replacing drum unit when drum units give their way. (when we get background) Can we replace cleaning brush / drums etc.

[kurtw]

wow, there is a lot of great info here on the 3220.

we have a 3220 who's lease is about the expire. We have 350,000 prints, 80% of which is heavy color, on a machine that was well taken care of by canon (belts replaced, drums, and service regularly). We are considering buying it out for $3500 which is roughly 10 months of payments. We would also renew a service contract with the machine.

Canon of course wants us to upgrade to the 4080 or 5185 with a much higher price. It's not looking like it makes sense to us.

Suggestions? The 5185 was mentioned in a previous post and something about paper issues which wasn't too clear to me? Any other known issues with the 4080 or 5185? The only thing we didn't like about the 3220 was the dock feeder always jammed which we are told is taken care of on the 4080 and 5185?

Thanks.

[OtherTech]

4080/5180 has greatly improved feeder (like the one on an ir5000/6020). Your 3200 sounds like it could easily be used for a couple more years, if you can put up with the feeder. (350k is nothing) The one concern with 4080/5180 was the fuser, very costly.

[sirphantazum]

3200 replacement: If you are thinking of moving to the 5185 series consider your needs.. It can be a work horse if used correctly, its all abiout the type of paper you use.. I have some that only use 28lb hammermill (which is awsome) but over time will jam more because the paper is smoother. The Finisher on the 5180 series (4080-4580-5185etc) are not that great (the w1 w2) The fuser on the new series ihas gone thru alot of changes and now is supplied by canon with the drive motor and gears attached so what use to take 45-hr to replace is back to 15 minutes. The 5185 is nice in that it can scan 2 sided at the same time with out rotating the paper BUT the inner scanner lens alweays seems to atract paper dust. The dums on the 5180 series are rated for 80k instead of 40 k on the 3200.. If you are an office then get a nice quality 24 smooth paper, 5185 series..(you choose the speed) do not get the big finisher w1 or w2.. and you will be very satisfied. my ffices rarly get service calls and when they do it rearly color issues. Also .. you must do the auto gradation(FULL)on good paper and fiery calibration, this will help those drums last...
NOTE on the 3200 feeder.. there is a brand new update on the spring type and pressure on the sep pad to reduce multi pick ups. It does help.

[kurtw]

thanks sirphant and othertech,

looking through the log i see that we haven't had the fuser replaced yet. the drums have been replaced 3 times and probably about due again. the transfer belt, fixing assy, feed/sep rollers, and paper pick up rollers have all been replaced once.

I will have to look and see if the fuser, drums and all other parts will be covered under our new service contract if we decide to buy the 3220. We will look into having the feeder springs replaced (very good to know). The new quote for the service contract is to be what we have now with a 15% increase, so we are calculating costs.

Our paperstock varies with print jobs, all about equal. Hammermill 8.5x11 28lb, Hammermill 11x17 32lb, and regular cheap copy paper. Is the cheap copy paper a bad idea for longevity of this machine?

thanks again.

[sirphantazum]

I wouldnt say it effects longevity, it just causes more service calls due to paper dust.. example: I have a 3200 with over 3 million 102 clicks. Every month they run a Perferated paper (heavy1 setting) about 20k 12x18 single side sheet. the perf paper leaves HUGE amounts of dust which causes jams, e004 codes and total distroys the drums. I would never put a 5185 in that area because of the paper and I would never be able to get that job running well on it. Its all about keeping them clean, at every drum change Im vacuming everything out and cleaning the rollers.. The goodthing is they will never call me for jamming issues on that job.. its out of spec paper.
Now I have 5180s that run crappy paper (KROMACOAT 10 pt and even 12pt) Canon doesnt suport KROMACOAT but this cust states its with in wt spec.lol. anyway we are there more Then once a week. Then i would be at another print shop who run all hammermill stock.. The kroma customer kills fusers way before 250k were as my hammermill running account goes consistantly past 300k (on third fuser). So i would say that unless you really LOVE your service Tech..lol.. run good paper..
IF you are running crappy paper and notice excessive curl try gettinginto the service mode goto copie>Option>Body>TEMP-TBL. set the value to 2 (decreases fuser temp by 10c i think) on the 5180 serie machine same spot but set it to 4. IT helps alot. it has solved more the 3 dozen machines with crazy stock jams.. "(just be aware that if you run gloss stock you might have to readjust that setting for proper fusing.)

[OtherTech]

Fuser ay and fixing ay are the same. Last about 200K. Cheap paper shouldn't make much differance to wear on machine, just poorer copy Quality. A 15% increase in service costs is OK as machine will need more service as count goes up. (No lease payment will save you money) I will have to check out the new spring for sep pad.(sounds like cheap , easy upgrade. Hope it helps)

[golfgong]

irc3200 drums - looking for buy out old drum .toner cartridge.

if any one has a old IRC3200 drum and toner cartridges,
we are buying,

let us know,


YKC inc,
201-313-0055


Eli Kim