CL7000 Alignment

[Verne]

Hi everyone and thanks for letting me into your forum.

I have a CL7000 that I brought out of storage and am seeing if I can put it back in service. I gave it a good cleaning and have resolved most of the issues with one that's very vexing to which I hope someone will have some insights.

There are 2 printing issues which may be from the same problem:

- the colors are out of alignment

- it's printing a repeating candy-cane-like pattern of colors stripes (1 stripe for each color vert then one for each color diag, then repeats). on the back of the page in 3 stripes - left, middle and right. I cleaned off the transfer belt before running another test and the pattern was recreated so the printer is trying to say something to me that I don't understand and can't find reference in the service manual.

Before it was put in storage the fusing unit was replaced but I didn't do a forced realignment (having not read the manual at the time).

When I try do to an auto alignment (which is the only option) it responds:

result = NG

Does the same when I run a fusing unit alignment. I assume that means an error was detected. When I display the error code it comes up

070707

The manual indicates that is a sensor error.

I understand this printer has 2 sensors - one located at the start of the transfer belt (paper feed end) and another at the fusing unit end. There are directions to get at the one by the paper feed, which I was able to attempt to clean up, but nothing about the one at the fuser end. I took the printer apart and looked around as best as possible but didn't see anything, but it is crowded in there and might have missed something.

So I'm just about there getting this back in running shape but could use a little help from those with some experience as i'm a noob.

[slimslob]

Re: CL7000 Alignment

All I can recommend is run Forest run as fast and are far from that dinosaur as you can. That engine was introduced eighteen years ago. Part my no longer be available.

If you really want to try to make it usable I would recommend replacing the image density sensor, transfer belt and transfer belt cleaning unit. That should get rid of the process control patches on the back of the copies and prints. You may also need to replace all 4 drum units and all 4 development units. Then Heaven forbid anything goes wrong with the toner system. One other thing, that fusing units on those had a habit of splitting the input drive gear.

[rthonpm]

Re: CL7000 Alignment

That model brings back memories as I cut my teeth on the copier equivalent to that model. That was close to twenty years ago. Service parts for that machine are long since extinct, and likely you've got an issue with a bind in the transfer area, if I recall correctly. Donate it to a museum or take it to an e-cycler. With the age and scarcity of parts, it's not worth your time trying to get it going again.

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[Verne]

Re: CL7000 Alignment

That model brings back memories as I cut my teeth on the copier equivalent to that model. That was close to twenty years ago. Service parts for that machine are long since extinct, and likely you've got an issue with a bind in the transfer area, if I recall correctly. Donate it to a museum or take it to an e-cycler. With the age and scarcity of parts, it's not worth your time trying to get it going again.

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Thanks rthonpm and slimslob, I appreciate the fast response.

That's pretty much what I'm thinking but wanted to spend some time to see if it was an easy fix.

Your comment on a binding in the transfer area makes sense as the printer "grunts" when it does it's startup stuff, which it never did before, so something isn't happy.

I did a second pass at cleaning it, pulling out the transfer belt unit and cleaning everything I could find, and the grunting has subsided considerably but obviously there's still something amiss. If the belt isn't moving as it should then the sensors wouldn't read a valid time interval and would throw an error, so that all makes sense.

It has been in storage for almost 10 years so not a big loss to toss. Might be worth taking another run at cleaning focusing on the drive unit this time, but I have no interest in sinking any serious money into it. As you say, consumables are done so it isn't really a viable solution anyways.

Thanks again for the insights.

[Zaxxon]

Re: CL7000 Alignment

Retro print is the new black

[Verne]

Re: CL7000 Alignment

Here's a question: can the printer be switched to black only?

My needs are to print 11x17 on 2 sides in black and white only.

Getting the other colors out of the equation eliminates the alignment issue.

I put new development kits, fuser et.al. into it before it went into storage so there should be a few hundred/thousand pages I can squeeze out of it I'm thinking.

[mikadonovan]

Re: CL7000 Alignment

Here's a question: can the printer be switched to black only?

No. Clean the id sensors, replace the transfer cleaning unit and then run line position again.

[slimslob]

Re: CL7000 Alignment

Here's a question: can the printer be switched to black only?

Yes by using a black only driver.

I put new development kits, fuser et.al. into it before it went into storage so there should be a few hundred/thousand pages I can squeeze out of it I'm thinking.

And how and how long have they been setting in storage. If more than a couple of years they will fail fast.

[Verne]

Re: CL7000 Alignment

Yes by using a black only driver.


And how and how long have they been setting in storage. If more than a couple of years they will fail fast.

It's been in storage since 2013 so I'm not expecting much but am persistent if nothing else LOL.

So I gave it another go-over. This time I aligned the gears on the transfer unit and cleaning unit and was able to seat the cleaning unit properly. It wasn't going in all the way before and I didn't want to force something into breaking but was able to wiggle it in now. All this has been part of the problem (user error). Even though it sounds much better it's still throwing the 070707 error.

[Verne]

Re: CL7000 Alignment

So I ran some black and white only prints through after disabling the automatic line adjustment setting and it seems to be working. Printed side is very nice, as usual for this printer, and it's stopped putting the alignment stripes on the back.

Still can't get the color to register but I can live with that.

[rthonpm]

Re: CL7000 Alignment

The transfer belts on this series are translucent and the image density sensors read through the belt and use the reflection of the shiny roller at the top of the belt. If that roller is dirty or has a lot of debris on it under the belt, the machine will never pass a line position. Saw it plenty of times on the LD232c and its sister machines.

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[Verne]

Re: CL7000 Alignment

The transfer belts on this series are translucent and the image density sensors read through the belt and use the reflection of the shiny roller at the top of the belt. If that roller is dirty or has a lot of debris on it under the belt, the machine will never pass a line position. Saw it plenty of times on the LD232c and its sister machines.

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That's very good to know. Would entail taking the belt off, no? I'll check that out for sure.

For black and white I've got it down to a faint toner mark in the middle of the page (vertically on an 8.5 x 11 so the width of the transport unit).

The scraping blade on the transfer cleaning unit is in pretty rough shape and needs to be replaced for sure.

[rthonpm]

Re: CL7000 Alignment

Whole belt off, then hoping you can get it back on without damaging it.

You must be a glutton for punishment for going through all of this. As soon as the MP C3500/4500 series machines came out, I told my sales guys to get them sold to everyone who had the copier version of your printer.

That said, I have a soft spot for that series: they were stupid easy to work on for PM parts, and if not for the whole 45 degree crazy angle transfer assembly they would have been great machines. Likely for the money, and cash equivalent of the time, you're putting into this machine you could pick up a second hand model that's generations newer and more reliable.

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[Verne]

Re: CL7000 Alignment

Whole belt off, then hoping you can get it back on without damaging it.

You must be a glutton for punishment for going through all of this. As soon as the MP C3500/4500 series machines came out, I told my sales guys to get them sold to everyone who had the copier version of your printer.

That said, I have a soft spot for that series: they were stupid easy to work on for PM parts, and if not for the whole 45 degree crazy angle transfer assembly they would have been great machines. Likely for the money, and cash equivalent of the time, you're putting into this machine you could pick up a second hand model that's generations newer and more reliable.

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I got it used dirt cheap when it was maybe 10 years old as "corporate surplus." I do short book runs with black and white internals so the unit did real well because of the large paper handling and duplexer. At that time it was cheaper for me to print my own with the Ricoh than use a service for short runs but now it costs about the same. A lot of that business has gone POD, which is a remote laser-copier with bindery attached.

This unit was needing a service when it went into storage and from what I'm seeing 99.99% of the problems have to do with dirt and toner getting in the wrong spots. It's knowing where to look that's the tricky part.

I do admire how the whole thing is put together as they really facilitated the unit being serviced. I did radio and TV tech back in the day and that stuff started becoming impossible to fix. Computers went the same way, so this is kinda refreshing.

For graphics I've been using an ink-jet but that doesn't cut it when press-proofing for a laser-print run. I really like the Ricoh's print quality and am glad it's still limping along. When it starts becoming impossible I'll drop it off at the recyclers. It doesn't owe me anything.

[Gift]

Re: CL7000 Alignment

Alignment issues - perhaps dirt went below the transfer belt and on that "glossy/chrome" surfarfaced roller that is also the "reflector" to the ID sensors. General density should also look fine for each color in order to create solid MUSIC/Calibration patterns.

I think the CL7000 also uses an oil unit for the Fuser - better put a fresh one in, otherwise you might find the separator strippers inside the fuser rollers^^