Black drums used as color

[schmeckles22]

Hello,

I have been using black drums for CMY for a while now and I print high coverage on each sheet, I get them to around 65% before they need to be changed.
My brother runs a similar business and says with the correct CMYK drum units without being rechipped he can run them down to 30%.

I thought they were the same, was he just lucky? Both of us use genuine drums only.

[tsbservice]

Re: Black drums used as color

And the model is?

[copier tech]

Re: Black drums used as color

Hello,

I have been using black drums for CMY for a while now and I print high coverage on each sheet, I get them to around 65% before they need to be changed.
My brother runs a similar business and says with the correct CMYK drum units without being rechipped he can run them down to 30%.

I thought they were the same, was he just lucky? Both of us use genuine drums only.

Use the correct genuine drum AND toner for your ‘mystery’ model & you’ll get around 150% life.

[schmeckles22]

Re: Black drums used as color

Use the correct genuine

Some people on this forum have said that black drums are identical, just different chips.
This is for the C284e and they are all genuine parts just rechipped.

[EarthKmTech]

Re: Black drums used as color

Use the correct genuine

definitely the case on the older corona drum charge versions like e series, but 8 series on with pre-charge roller i rarely see them make it to 100%, usually start failing with anything less than 10% left.

[allan]

Re: Black drums used as color

Its exactly the same same thing just the chips are different. You need to rechip them to reset counters and age compensation.

[copyman]

Re: Black drums used as color

And other option if not getting more than 100% drum life is using aftermarket drum & chip. Been getting great yields on various models. 100% genuine toners but aftermarket drums, belts, fuser rollers. Profit margin way up and customer happy. If they check internet and see your price is way lower than any posted they are happy. Perhaps for a print shop or graphic artists, etc then using everything genuine makes sense. But for 99% of my accounts "business color" is all that's needed.

[REGSIS]

Re: Black drums used as color

Hello,

I have been using black drums for CMY for a while now and I print high coverage on each sheet, I get them to around 65% before they need to be changed.

Why do you need to change them?
What is the problem?

[schmeckles22]

Re: Black drums used as color

Why do you need to change them?
What is the problem?

I change them every 1-2 months as I start to see lines down prints, I print a lot of full coverage images so I expect them to degrade faster but from my brother he has said that the non-chipped versions have longer life it seems.
Printer is C284e.

I have noticed that I can get a few desperate days out of them if I use the stick and shove it through the hole at the bottom and pull the white cleaning sticks but it's a last resort.

[Gift]

Re: Black drums used as color

We don't have any issues with the Cxx4(e) series drum conversion, 99% of the initital or modified drums exceeds the predicted lifecycle by "a lot"

[Bix]

Re: Black drums used as color

It is still unclear whether you use original toners or not. On the 4/4e series the drums can do two turns without problems.
Using aftermarket toners compromises this.

[schmeckles22]

Re: Black drums used as color

It is still unclear whether you use original toners or not. On the 4/4e series the drums can do two turns without problems.
Using aftermarket toners compromises this.

All genuine toners and genuine DR-512k units.
My average page coverage is around 60-70% which is why they degrade faster but I wanted to know if DR512K is the same as DR512C,Y,M.

Don't get me wrong, if they were used for standard office prints (text, the odd image) you wouldn't notice, but I print customers designs on to banners so it's noticeable. Just trying to work out if they are indeed different and if it's cost effective to buy DR512K,M,C,Y.

The degrading is visible by dark bleed lines down designs - Light grey images will have a dark grey line down the page etc

[Bix]

Re: Black drums used as color

Yes its are the same.
you need to swap the chips and you can buy them aftermarket. You could also do this with dev units.

[schmeckles22]

Re: Black drums used as color

Yes its are the same.
you need to swap the chips and you can buy them aftermarket. You could also do this with dev units.

Yes I already change the chips, just wanted confirmation that they are the same.
I wonder why my brother can manage to get much more life out of them than me, seems odd.

How is it done with dev units? I thought they had developer powder made for specific colours?

[Bix]

Re: Black drums used as color

Yes I already change the chips, just wanted confirmation that they are the same.
I wonder why my brother can manage to get much more life out of them than me, seems odd.

How is it done with dev units? I thought they had developer powder made for specific colours?

There are many factors such as humidity, temperature, printing conditions. For the developer unit you need to make at least 100-200 prints to make the color change after the change.