RICOH CL-7200 folds paper, especially when using the duplex unit

[NewOrder]

Hi Folks,

it's me again...clueless as ever...

as I wrote, I bought a RICOH CL-7200 (see link below). The counters in service-mode (SP-7803) looked promising:
PCU (K): 4212, PCU (Y/M/C): 6200
Developer (K): 25265, Developer (Y/M/C): 6200
Fusing Unit: 8068
Transferbelt: 203388

But the device doesn't operate correctly; It "folds" new papers (80g) sometimes on one or two edges (see attached picture - turned by 90 degrees to the left; upper border is the side coming out of the printer first) - especially in Duplex-Operation nearly every third paper is folded and messed up in the middle. The print is then turned about 5-10 degrees in any direction.

Now my questions are:
1. WHEN DOES THAT HAPPEN? I guess the folding occurs before the print-process itself, because the CL7200 prints the wrapped up back-side of the paper as if it were the front-side.

2. WHY DOES THAT HAPPEN? I read in the Service-Manual that the speed of the different transport-rollers inside the machine can be altered and it looks, as if the pages are "teared out" (simplex mode) by two rollers that turn too fast (see second picture).

Any ideas?

Regards and thanks in advance!
NewOrder

PS: Now I regret having sold my good old "CL-7000" - never change a running system...
PPS: My last post: http://www.copytechnet.com/forums/ri...you-think.html

[rthonpm]

There are two major possibilities:

The first one is a bad mylar or two in the paper path causing the paper to hang. Some of the mylars were changed at least for the copier version, but the same logic is used so the updated B1809005 mylars will work.
The second, and more likely cause, is a burr or some kind of damage to the plastic in the paper path of the machine. I had one just a few weeks ago with just a little chip where the paper makes its return into the machine to print on the opposite side skewing the paper.

[NewOrder]

Dear Rthonpm (btw.: what does that mean?)

thank you for your quick analysis! Can you tell me a way to check the paper path in a 'more professional way' than I tried before (e.g. lying with my torch in several positions under/beneath the printer, trying to find distortions of all kinds, cleaning rollers with a cloth etc...)?

Thanks for the Part-No. of the "MYLARS" - but I have to confess, that I'm a 'poor' end-user, who relied on the modular setup of any RICOH-Printer (changing 'bad' parts out); never aware of facing such problems...I read about the MYLARS in the german RICOH-Service-Manual several times - 'till now, I don't know, what RICOH means with MYLARS anyway...sorry).

I have a second theory: Don't you think, the fusing-unit is worn out? I found the origin of the two 'mystified (bad?!?) rollers': These are nothing else than the two 'output' rollers of the printing-process, which you can see on top of the output-standard-tray (left side): While the paper is putted out, they leave their traces on the paper. AND: The bucklings at the edges of the paper are resulting from the fuser-unit, too (my guess!) - the paper buckles in the same way outputted, while moving the fuser-unit manually.

But this thesis is only a guess, as I said.

Let's solve this problem!

Regards,
NewOrder
PS: Sorry for my bad english - this answer took me about an hour, using several translation-services on-line...

[rthonpm]

As an end user, trying to diagnose the duplex mylars would be tough as to get to a lot of them a good amount of disassembly would need to happen. Even for an experienced tech it can be time consuming and frustrating, so you may need to consider a visit by a service tech for that.
As for the fuser unit, with only 8,000 pages on it the unit should still be in very good shape, but the shipping variable comes into play since you recently bought the unit. Try rdering a new fuser and see if anything improves without worrying about the mylars and such. If the paper is being deformed by inadequate pressure in the fuser that would lead to all kinds of nasty skewed images.

Hope that helps...

Rthonpm (RighT HONourable Prime Minister)

[NewOrder]

Dear rthonpm,

I think I found the cause of this whole 'case': PAPER! I used the same 80g Paper (noname) that worked well on my AP-3800C and later on my CL-7000 (for duplex-print) but it it failed on the new 'oilless' fusing-technology the 7200/7300-series holds. Maybe the fusing-unit gets hotter? As I said: I'm a end-user; 'Mylars' is a foreign word for me , but I'm working on it!

In duplex-mode the noname-paper folds on the edges as shown on the attached picture in post #1 and leaves the messy overall-print; the new CANON-paper (80g) doesn't. But this is only a first superficial oveview (about 100 duplex-pages printed); maybe I ask for help again in a few days/weeks/hours!

Anyway: thanks for your help!

Regards,
New0rder
PS: wowie! 'RighT HONourable Prime Minister'