Bizhub C 350

[Guest]

New to forum,please bear with me!
My C350 is printing too light. I have reset text to max,no change.
Also we have 90% all toners,and door latch was loose,poss causing it to shut off and code.I cant reproduce this fault today,however,poss fixed it?
Anyway,what do I check next for light printing?

Thanks,
Adrian

[Jules Winfield]

Cleaning LED heads often solves print quality issues on these machines...

[adrose]

led heads?

Where do I find them?
Thanks,
Adrian

[KEVIN900]

Take out the Image Units. They're under where the image units are.

[Stirton.M]

New to forum,please bear with me!
My C350 is printing too light. I have reset text to max,no change.
Also we have 90% all toners,and door latch was loose,poss causing it to shut off and code.I cant reproduce this fault today,however,poss fixed it?
Anyway,what do I check next for light printing?

Thanks,
Adrian

A couple things just in case cleaning the LEDs isn't enough.

Touch the utility key (plastic button), then touch "consumable" key on the display.

In there you should see a series of bars. 4 of them represent your image units. The rest represent the transfer belt unit, second transfer roller, fusing unit and filter. When these units are new, the bars are clear. As they age, a series of dots progress from the left to the right.

Image quality in the machine is dependent upon several factors. How old the consumables are is the primary thing. As the image units age, the surface of the drums become worn, and the organic material on them breaks down. The developer inside (graphite mixture with toner at about 7-8% toner ratio) also breaks down electromagnetically. Transfer of toner to the drum surface degrades over time. The machine can compensate for this, but there are limits to what it can do.

Image transfer from the drum to the belt unit and eventually to the paper is also subject to the wear and tear of the belt unit and the 2nd transfer roller. The belt wears down and becomes worn, the surface no longer shiny and smooth. The second transfer roller (spongy roller on the right hand door when you open it) also wears out and loses its electromagnetic conductivity properties over time.

Generally the machine compensates for the age of any given item in the consumbles. For example, if you have a brand new black image unit put in, but the colour units are roughly 3 quarters their lifespan, the machine will adjust the black density to match the other 3 colours. The purpose being so there is even colour balance. It's not an exact thing, but the machine does reasonably well most of the time.

Where it doesn't do well is when the belt and 2nd transfer roller or fuser come into play. The IUs could all be brand new, but output quality could still be bad if the belt is old. Even when there is no copying and printing going on, the image reproduction sections will wear out, and things like ozone will also accelerate this. Image quality suffers.

Some things you could try.

You can try to adjust some settings in admin mode...such as reset and stabilize. This sometimes can correct densities. There are other settings there that can do the trick too, but generally it is not advisable to change those as it can wreak havoc down the road if you change consumables. Nothing serious, just that image reproduction quality can suffer as a result in those situations.

Replace the IUs as a set is generally a recommended action wherever possible. Not always practicle, it depends on how you print....more black and less colour printing for example, no sense replacing the colour IUs if they are only a couple dots into their life and the black is at EOL. However, if image quality such as density is important, you may have to "waste" a set of IUs. Much of the time, this is a tech decision. The majority of my customers are on service contract, so it doesn't cost them, but it does cost my company. Generally, I will try many other options before I go after a full set of IUs with a wide count variance.

If the belt or roller or fuser are near end of life, replace those as well.

That all said, I hope that helps you narrow down probable causes of light prints.

Review the consumable life screen and let us know what you see there. At that point, we can advise further action based on what you pass on.