Ricoh MP C3500/4500

[iscott]

Are charge rollers and charge roller cleaners available for the MPC 3500/4500?
Or has anybody found a good way to clean them (other than water)?

[Lotec]

They are not available.. yet. I would thing another manufacturer like Katun would come up with these parts. But nothing yet.

I've tested cleaning - but will not last long enough.

I've also tried to glue a very thin microfibre cloth around the cleaning roller. I've had drums lasting about 180-190 000 pages. It still cleans good - but the surface of the charge roller gets worn and affect the copy quality.
The problem with this solution is that it takes time, and the edges of microfibre cloth have to be glued almost perfectly - or else it will cause vibrations that gives an uneven charge and that can be seen on solids or pictures. It is not that easy to see with text.
I've had occations where the cloth started to fall off too, because the glue was not strong enough.
I've tested with several types of fabric. I even used a piece from a microfibre towl I have.

I can not understand why Ricoh have not come up with a solution. They got to have the technology to make a microfibre cleaning roller out of one piece? Or at least be willing to sell the charge roller and cleaning roller as a separate part.
I've actually contacted a manufacturer of charger rollers in China. They would be willing to make the parts, it I ordered enough. But I can not afford to do that as an individual person. But Katun could do that. And we would all buy from them. Save time and money.
What's not to like about that..

Now I don't have time to experiment any more. I just change drums like a robot. About 10 a day now..

In the end it is a design error from Ricoh. If they had increased the diameter of the charge roller and especially the cleaning roller, we would not have this problem.
I don't understand why they used the foam roller either. It looks like the same in cleaning spunges that is used to remove crayon marks when children have been drawing on walls and furniture. They do not last long either. They should at least have made it much bigger. Maybe 2-3 cm in diameter, or more.

When you read the tech service manual for the new models(MPC3001/4501) that's going to replace MPC2800/4000 - we're told they have come up with a new charge roller material. But they say nothing about the cleaning roller. It can not be bought as separate parts either..

But right now.. I don't care. We hardly sell any Ricoh machines now. We go for Kyocera until we're sure the new models work out fine. The Kyocera models are better at the moment. They are much cheaper to run also.

[iscott]

Thanks Lotec I was affraid of that but it never hurts to ask..

[Venom]

Have you tried removing the wax bar? I did an experiment and had great results but no longer work for Ricoh so I only saw the 6 month result of no build up on charge roller.

[spaniel ears]

If you're talking about the old type black MPC charge rollers, I find by far the best thing to clean them with is Ambersil Amberclens foam cleaner. Spray some on a cloth and rub the charge roller as hard as you can and it removes every scrap of shit on there, you end up with a charge roller that looks like new, cleaning with meths or water still leaves signs of grey lines on the charge roller, but with Ambersil the surface is spottless and shiny, these rollers aren't worn, they just look worn, but they're actually just dirty. I only tried Ambersil for the first time this week, had a call on a machine with lines on copies, the drum was mint but no amount of cleaning of the charge roller with meths or water would clear up the lines, so I thought i'd give Ambersil a try. I haven't tried it on the new brown-ish charge rollers yet, but you can clean the coating off these completely with meths if you can be bothered, and in my experience (cleaned a couple 3 or 4 weeks ago) that will clear the lines from your copy if cleaning with water doesn't do the trick .

I've also found that cleaning the charge roller in hot soapy water also removes all the grey lines which i'm assuming are wax, I just gave them a gentle rub with one of those sponges with a scourer on the top. I've cleaned up a few black charge rollers from the old PCUs we had in the office, so now i've got half a dozen brand new looking charge rollers, and i'm going to take the cleaning rollers to my brother's workshop to blow clean with an air hose. Also, as many of these PCUs were changed because the charge roller was causing lines, now that i've got spotless charge rollers to put in them some of them can be cleaned up and used again until the drum and blades wear out. I found the best results come from using Ambersil, both methods leave the roller spotless but Ambersil leaves the surface more shiny looking. Haven't tried the brown charge rollers in hot soapy water yet, but I will.

[Lotec]

Interesting solutions

Spaniel ears:
This sounds interesting. I've looked up Ambersil in the web, because I've never heard about it before. I thought is was just a product available in the US - but it seems like CRC Europe is selling in. I see they have three types of Amberclens. Two under a heavy duty section where one is non-flamable. There is also a food grade version under cleaners - precision.
CRC Industries Europe - product navigator
Just want to get hold of the right one and try some cleaning... I think.. or just change the drum, and get a refund from Ricoh... I'm sure the cleaning takes just as long time as changing the drum.. which takes about 6-7 minutes now.

Venom: Does it have any side effects to remove the wax bar? I was just thinking Ricoh would for sure save the money on the wax if there was no need for it? I've read the service manual for the new MPC3001 and 4501 series. On these models the black PCU is supposed to work longer than the CMY colors, and it says something like this: and is therefore equipped with a bigger wax bar.
The brush touch the wax bar, and spread it on the drum for more easy toner cleaning..?
I'll try to remove one just to see what happens.

Like I said earlier I've rolled a thin microfibre cloth around the cleaning roller. The PCU with 80K lifetime have lasted up to 180-190K. But the glue have to be the right type - and the joint have to be perfect. The max PCU life for the MPC2800 that is supposed to last 120K have also never been higher than 180-190K. But it kind of proves that the cleaning roller material is important.
If they had a softer cleaning roller with a slightly larger diameter, I think the problem would have been solved.

The regular cleaning rollers used for Ricoh B/W copiers.. they don't by any chance fit - so it can replace the foam cleaning roller?
Have anybody tried that?

[spaniel ears]

Interesting solutions

Spaniel ears:
This sounds interesting. I've looked up Ambersil in the web, because I've never heard about it before. I thought is was just a product available in the US - but it seems like CRC Europe is selling in. I see they have three types of Amberclens. Two under a heavy duty section where one is non-flamable. There is also a food grade version under cleaners - precision.
CRC Industries Europe - product navigator
Just want to get hold of the right one and try some cleaning... I think.. or just change the drum, and get a refund from Ricoh... I'm sure the cleaning takes just as long time as changing the drum.. which takes about 6-7 minutes now.

Venom: Does it have any side effects to remove the wax bar? I was just thinking Ricoh would for sure save the money on the wax if there was no need for it? I've read the service manual for the new MPC3001 and 4501 series. On these models the black PCU is supposed to work longer than the CMY colors, and it says something like this: and is therefore equipped with a bigger wax bar.
The brush touch the wax bar, and spread it on the drum for more easy toner cleaning..?
I'll try to remove one just to see what happens.

Like I said earlier I've rolled a thin microfibre cloth around the cleaning roller. The PCU with 80K lifetime have lasted up to 180-190K. But the glue have to be the right type - and the joint have to be perfect. The max PCU life for the MPC2800 that is supposed to last 120K have also never been higher than 180-190K. But it kind of proves that the cleaning roller material is important.
If they had a softer cleaning roller with a slightly larger diameter, I think the problem would have been solved.

The regular cleaning rollers used for Ricoh B/W copiers.. they don't by any chance fit - so it can replace the foam cleaning roller?
Have anybody tried that?

I think Katun sell Ambersil, as long as it says Ambersil anti-static foaming cleaner on the tin then it's the right stuff. We also use Ambersil heavy duty solvent ME20, which is probably the one you've seen, but this is no good on charge rollers, even though it's a more powerful cleaner (we use it to clean toner off fuser rolers/guides) it doesn't seem to touch the crap on the charge rollers. If you can't get hold of any then the hot soapy water gets them just as clean, the hotter the better with the water. I'm hoping the hot soapy water will work on the new brown type as well because the surface starts to come off on those if you rub too hard, and it takes about 15 mins to clean the surface off completely with meths, and even though this will give you clean copies i'd rather not have to do it if at all possible. I was toying with the idea of removing the wax bar as well, or the small gear that drives the brush, but the wax is supposed to make the drum last longer, so if that means the drum could be good for 160-180k then if we can overcome the problem with the charge roller then we're onto a winner.

It's early days because like I said i've only tried Ambersil this week, but to me it looks like it restores the charge roller to new. As for the cleaning roller, blowing clean is the only solution i've found, but they do wear out so whether you'll get one to last 160-180k remains to be seen. It looks to me like they only clean toner off the charge roller anyway, unless you modify them as you've done which has clearly given you good results. I'm just a bit gutted at all the perfectly good PCUs i've thrown away because you can't get a new charge roller.

Here's a pic of the Ambersil you need.amb7010070s_eps_large.jpg

[ezzysi]

I've been using amberclens for some time to clean all charge rollers, even back to the 1035/45 B+W machines with great results.
To be honest though we changed foam cleaner a while back and now use the lemoney smelling cleaner from Parcia and that works just as well so i'm guessing most office equipment foaming cleaner would do the job.
I've always finished off each roller with a quick wipe over with some alcohol just to remove any traces of the foam cleaner, not sure how important that really is but its always worked great for me.

Simon

[Venom]

I didn't see a problem removing wax bar...I had done it on a spent pcu and it went forever

[XXX]

Ok. I've never noticed a wax bar in the PCU's for the MP C3000 / C4500's but the 3260C does have a wax bar.

As far as cleaning charge rollers goes on the B2232042 OPC unit, it's a waste of time.

With a bit of work with a file, you can modify the connector so the above will fit and replace a colour drum unit for about one third of the price.

[spaniel ears]

Ok. I've never noticed a wax bar in the PCU's for the MP C3000 / C4500's but the 3260C does have a wax bar.

As far as cleaning charge rollers goes on the B2232042 OPC unit, it's a waste of time.

With a bit of work with a file, you can modify the connector so the above will fit and replace a colour drum unit for about one third of the price.

The wax bar is under the brush roller, and it's not a waste of time cleaning the charge roller on the B2232042 OPC unit, if you've got a black charge roller (take them out of scrap units if you haven't) you can clean it up to look as good as new with Ambersil foam cleaner, so hopefully you can get double the life out of a PCU because when the dirty charge roller first starts to give copy quality problems, the drum is still in mint condition usually.

[iscott]

I have looked for Ambersil and it is not available in the US.
I have got one MP C 4000 that is having some issues so I guess I’ll try the Soap and Hot water route. Thanks for the help.

[verderacer]

We need to keep this thread going. Some good info... I too am sick of changing whole pcu units on the B223 and D029.

I will check with our local Katun office and see if the cleaner is available.

[largo]

In the end it is a design error from Ricoh. If they had increased the diameter of the charge roller and especially the cleaning roller, we would not have this problem.
I don't understand why they used the foam roller either.

Lotec, You are talking like you're a specialist
If it was so simple i think they allready modified this
But if you are so sure that this is the solution, than I would advice you to go apply for a Job by RICOH JAPAN section: ENGINEERING/ DEVELOPMENT

[spaniel ears]

We need to keep this thread going. Some good info... I too am sick of changing whole pcu units on the B223 and D029.

I will check with our local Katun office and see if the cleaner is available.

It's available in the UK from Katun, but as essyzi mentioned, other anti static foam cleaners may give just as good results if you can't get your hands on Ambersil.