Ricoh AF1035 streaks

[mikadonovan]

There are at least 5 different Ricoh dealers in Georgia with IKON being the largest with several locations across the state. Do a Google search for exact locations

Thanks all for the input...I will check the mag roller as teebee1234 stated. I have looked for a tech in my area for this machine but can not find one...any suggestions?

[Shadow1]

An experienced tech can look at a copy and tell exactly what is wrong here, but for newbie techs and non-techs use the Divide and Conquer Test Procedure:

Print a counter sheet <User Tools> <Counter> <Print> <Start> Are there any streaks? No = Problem is in the scanner. (Most likely a dirty slit glass - make a copy from the doc feed and lay it face up on the glass - the lines will point to (near) the dirty spots on the ADF glass. They can be very tiny and very hard to see.)

Are the streaks on the front only or back possibly showing through to the front? Back = Something in the transfer. These machines have a habit of building up paper dust on the Transfer Cleaning blade, so sometimes you can clean the clumps off the blade and scrape and vacuum the buildup out of the red felt seal and it will work for a while. Not a bad idea to replace the blade at this point - it probably doesn't have long to live. The belt itself is nearly immortal, and won't affect front side copy quality unless it is totally shot (rips and holes in it) I've seen belts with 700k - 1M still working fine although they look ugly.

If streaks are on the front make a few copies and open the door in the middle of the run - you want to see the copy just after it passed the drum before it hits the fuser, so if it made it into the fuser back it out - be careful the toner will rub completely off. Streaks? No = Worn Heat Roller. Replace the Hot roller, Pressure Roller, Cleaning Roller, and Stripper Fingers.

Do the streaks go absolutely ruler straight down the page, or is there a wavy spot in them about every 6 inches? Wavy = failed drum blade. (there's a gear/cam that bumps the blade to help keep it from wearing scratches in the drum, so toner leaking past a nick in the blade won't be in a straight line) You can just replace the blade, but it makes more sense to rebuild the whole PCU since everything has to come out to get it torn down to the drum blade anyway.

Now it gets a little harder - as mentioned before buildup on the Mag Roller can cause streaks, but they're usually wider and fuzzy than streaks from a dirty Charge Roller. Mag roller buildup typically starts at the front and back, and to start with only shows up after a few copies. Remove the Developer assembly (be sure to set the drum unit on a clean flat surface and cover it to prevent scratches and light fatigue.) and brush the developer aside with your finger down the entire length of the mag roller - you should be able to get to bright aluminium just by brushing with your finger, not your fingernail. Clean = Dirty Charge roller or scratched drum. You can clean the charge roller with soap and water, but make sure you rinse and dry it good before reassembly. Most drum scratches are easy to spot, but sometimes the coating is just worn enough to cause development problems.

If you don't know how the PCU comes apart on these its a bit funky and can be a bit tough to figure out for a non-tech - especially since there will be toner covering most of the parts it would be really helpful to see well. CANNED AIR IS YOUR ENEMY, as are Vacuum cleaners with standard filters.

As I said, each of these problems has a very distinct look to anybody who's been doing this for more than a month, its just a matter of actually seeing each problem and learning to recognize it. So when I see a copy with a line or lines that wiggle a bit I know its a drum blade on this machine, and I don't go through the whole procedure, but if you haven't seen it before, doing it this way will keep you from guessing and just throwing expensive parts at the beast.