C6500 Problem with black lines

[Splatt]

Hi all,
I have a problem with black lines running in the feed direction of the print. There are a cluster of fine lines around the center of the page (SRA3) and one thicker line in the upper quarter. See attached images.

When I run a test printing individual blocks of CMYK the lines appear on all the colours.
I have a suspicion that this may be the transfer belt as there are lots of lines on the belt, although they don't all appear on the print. I have a new belt cleaning blade en route to see if that helps. The belt is at 68% of life.
Unfortunately, the developers are all past 100%, once the new set arrives I will be changing these too.

Any ideas on what is causing this problem and if there is a work-around until parts arrive? Should I order a new transfer belt?

On another topic, if anyone knows of a supplier of consumables that ships to Spain and is reasonably priced then please tell me! It's getting tiresome having to scour ebay all the time picking up cheap bits as they appear.

Thanks in advance for your help.
Steve.

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Re: C6500 Problem with black lines

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[mikeena]

Re: C6500 Problem with black lines

ok so here is what you want to do yes the transfer belt is going to be the problem but it could be caused by the second transfer rollers too. if you are above 200k and have not replaced the 2nd transfer roller do it. they can last longer yes but the life of them is 200-250k. the reason you want to do them is because you dont want to have to replace anoth transfer belt. as far as suppliers have you tried precission roller katun if not try them another is copylite i believe thats how you spell it.



sorry also check the developing units to make sure they dont have lines on them either

[Splatt]

Re: C6500 Problem with black lines

Hi Mike,
Thanks for your input, much appreciated.
I have the 2nd upper transfer roller on order and it is due any day now, I think I will also order the lower roller today as it doesn't look brilliant.
The developing units look fine, despite the black being at 160%. Again, new developer is on order.

Another thing I have noticed that seems odd is that the line is also appearing on the reverse of the paper even when it isn't duplexed. That must be a clue!

Cheers,
Steve.

[Arcadian]

Re: C6500 Problem with black lines

You might want to check the cleaning blade too. Charging Wires or could be backed up filters on the machine doesn't look like a drum issue.

Looks like more transfer image unit, could have scratches due to blade flipping, I'm having that issue now.

try running a print out with a grey background for black and see, then try all the colors, see which is doing it the worst if it transfer unit it should show on all colors run about a 70% screen test thru it.

if its on the other side might need a good cleaning, or filter not sucking the toner out properly, might want to check them too.

good luck

[empiru]

Re: C6500 Problem with black lines

Splatt, if I were you, first of all, I will try to see if those lines appear on plain paper as well as on thick paper. If they don't appear on plain paper, then my guess is that you don't have any issues with the Tr. Belt/ Dev Units/ Drums. The problem could be in the Fusing Unit, the Fusing Belt or the Fusing Roller/ Lower could be damaged, OR, the plastic guides on the Paper Exit Guide Section may be clogged with toner (the part that is located on the left side of the Fusing Unit and is made mainly out of plastics). You could check that out too.

[mikeena]

Re: C6500 Problem with black lines

Splatt, if I were you, first of all, I will try to see if those lines appear on plain paper as well as on thick paper. If they don't appear on plain paper, then my guess is that you don't have any issues with the Tr. Belt/ Dev Units/ Drums. The problem could be in the Fusing Unit, the Fusing Belt or the Fusing Roller/ Lower could be damaged, OR, the plastic guides on the Paper Exit Guide Section may be clogged with toner (the part that is located on the left side of the Fusing Unit and is made mainly out of plastics). You could check that out too.

I think you hit it right on the spot. double sided lines would tell me fuser if you look at the fuser you might see the lines on it as well and if I recall so you know splatt there is more then just two transfer rollers each color should have its own as well in the transfer belt for future knowledge but as empire said I think its the fuser rollers if you are having a double sided issue sorry I did not realize it was double sided lines when you are doing single sided copies

[Splatt]

Re: C6500 Problem with black lines

Thanks for your input guys. Life just got considerably harder though.
I pulled out the ADU and took the cover off the fusing unit, the rollers and belt look clear, apart from a transverse scratch on the fusing belt which seems to intermittently cause a small line on the print. It's right at the edge though so not a big problem, yet. I'll get a new belt ordered for when it gets worse.

In an effort to diagnose the problem I then caused a jam during printing to investigate. The lines are appearing on the black drum. I printed a blank page and once again the lines appear from one edge of the sheet to the other. At this point the bizhub's touch screen stopped working. I believe I can plug a computer into the hub to emulate the touchscreen so I can work around this new problem for now.

I then switched out the black drum for an old one with a surface defect which I kept for testing purposes like this. The lines are appearing on this drum also.

So now it appears to be problem pre-drum and one that occurs even when no K data is sent.

I hope that someone can enlighten me and that this can be fixed without the expense of a new laser!
It would also be great to discover why the touchscreen has suddenly thrown the towel in too.

At this point I realise I need a backup copier.

Thanks guys,
Steve.

[mikeena]

Re: C6500 Problem with black lines

ok so here is the next step if you have a vac pull the drum and developing unit out take the vac and clean the roller on the dev unit is there a line on the mag roller of the developing unit?

[Splatt]

Re: C6500 Problem with black lines

Hi Mike,
Vacced a horizontal section of the developing roller and it all looks uniform.
I fear we are heading towards the laser!

Cheers,
Steve.

[Splatt]

Re: C6500 Problem with black lines

Holy crap!
Just ran a couple of test prints and the lines have gone from the front! There are still very faint lines on the rear of the print though, which I'm now guessing may be a separate issue with a dirty roller somewhere.
I'll be changing all the developers soon, so lets hope we have the problem nailed.

I must admit I am at a bit of a loss as to how vacuuming off a stripe of developer fixed a line that occurred on a different plane? If you could explain that one to me I'd be very interested.

Now to try and fault find the touchscreen issue!

Seriously though Mike, I'd be happy to paypal you for your time, even if for a few drinks to show my gratitude.

Cheers,
Steve.

[mikeena]

Re: C6500 Problem with black lines

well the movement might of fixed it lol if you cleaned off the right section of the unit you should of cleaned off the toner of the mag roller which might of caused a issue my guess its not the lens its something to do with the developing unit if cleaned properly it can be fixed if not replace the developer unit there is one more way to check be very careful wait BE VERY CAREFUL lol pull the black dev unit out and the for say cyan unit out swap the two units never NEVER shut the toner door trick the senosr you dont want toner to dump into the dev units (toner section being the front door that screws in) make a copy that way if the cyan line is there its laser dirty bad whatever if not make a one color copy telling the machine to use cuan (that the black is in now) if the line is there its the developing unit. you will find the line probably travels with the developing unit

[Splatt]

Re: C6500 Problem with black lines

Well that issue appears to be resolved, thanks to Mikeena, empiru and arcadian for your advice.

I seem to have also sorted out the touchscreen issue, which appeared dead. I first found a workaround so I could finish some printing jobs. I inserted a mouse into the USB port at the back of the copier and lo and behold a cursor appeared.
I then detached the touchscreen / control panel and stripped it down, carefully cleaning the glass all the way to the edge and also the inside of the bezel. When I put it all back together it worked fine. Probably had some crud causing a 'touch' making the panel appear dead.

I have since also had a jamming problem but found the solution right here on this forum, to which I am eternally grateful!

Cheers all,
Steve.

[empiru]

Re: C6500 Problem with black lines

Splatt,

You wrote somewhere in this post that you inserted a mouse in the USB port of the copier and a cursor appeared. I want to tell you, I service these machines since 2009 and honestly I didn't know this tip. I only used that port for firmware updates. I tried it today for one of my clients and it works like a charm, SO,

THANK YOU for posting that tiny detail.

PS: I know this post is off-topic, but I wanted to show my apreciation.

[jay3]

Re: C6500 Problem with black lines

Holy crap!
Just ran a couple of test prints and the lines have gone from the front! There are still very faint lines on the rear of the print though, which I'm now guessing may be a separate issue with a dirty roller somewhere.
I'll be changing all the developers soon, so lets hope we have the problem nailed.

I must admit I am at a bit of a loss as to how vacuuming off a stripe of developer fixed a line that occurred on a different plane? If you could explain that one to me I'd be very interested.

Now to try and fault find the touchscreen issue!

Seriously though Mike, I'd be happy to paypal you for your time, even if for a few drinks to show my gratitude.

Cheers,
Steve.

Having similar problem now. Saw a KM tech dealing with this once and his procedure was to vacuum drum blades, rollers and all around there. Didn't work, so he replaced a blade, didn't work, so he replaced the offending drum. Problem was resolved. Good troubleshooting by the tech I guess -- from least to most expensive as far as service/parts goes.