RICOH Aficio 1022 Toner Low

[tonkyman]

I have 4 Ricoh 1022 copiers that have all had the same issue so I'm looking for a better answer than what I've been doing.

The copier will notify the user it is low on toner but when you change the toner the old one is not empty (maybe half empty). You install the new toner and the machine churns away for several minutes the says "Toner Low" again. If you keep opening and closing the cover it will keep cycling and finally the toner warning will go off but will come back on several copies later.

After checking everything and it all looking normal I replace the drum/developer unit and the problem goes away.

Is the toner sensor in the drum unit going bad before the life of the drum is up? Is there a problem with the toner or bottle that is not allowing it to tone up fast enough?

Just wondering if any of you guys have seen this issue and what you did to correct it.

Thanks for your help,
Tony

[saidva]

I had a similar problem in a Gestetner 3265. The machine told me to open the door and change the toner bottle, which still had plenty of toner in it. Also, the "waste toner bottle full" light came on at the same time, but it was mostly empty.

I fiddled around with the thing and eventually the problem went away, but I'm not sure what I did that fixed it. I'm told that this machine has had this problem for a long time, and it's very intermittent, maybe once every two or three months.

My guess is that it's some kind of toner feeding or mixing problem, which would be consistent with your symptom of sometimes failing again after a few copies. Maybe a weak motor (or binding drive train) moving the toner supply. It may be somehow related to my "Gestetner 3265 sc590" thread from a week ago, which was the same machine. Anyone else have any thoughts?

[tonkyman]

My Findings

Well, I've tried a few things today and I've found one that works but I'm not totally sure what it points to.

I got to thinking that the little plastic part in the top of the toner bottle was not coming out far enough when the lever was pulled down so it was not allowing very much toner to come out of the bottle. This would explain why cycling the machine a few times would finally tone up the developer. Then as you make copies you are using the toner faster than it's being replaced.

To test this theory I removed the plastic insert in the end of the toner bottle and reinstalled the toner into the hopper. I closed the cover and it cycled for just a minute, the toner light went off and the machine came ready. I ran a few hundred copies and the toner light didn't come back on (problem fixed, sort of).

Now to find out why the toner was not being opened by the hopper. I reinserted the plastic insert into the toner bottle, inserted the toner bottle into the hopper, pressed in on it with my hand and locked the handle down. Now I assume the center part of the hopper is supposed to grab the plastic insert and extract it when you let the green handle down, which is what opens the toner bottle. Anyway, I let the green handle down and then pulled back on the toner bottle expecting to find the plastic insert being held by the gripper in the center of the toner hopper, but it was not. I can only assume that this is what is causing the problem because it's not opening the toner bottle. If the test I preformed was valid then I would think the toner hopper itself is bad and the gripper/extractor is not functioning as it should ------ but I've been wrong before and more than once already today.

Anyone have any thoughts on the matter

Thanks,
Tony

[Cipher]

If the toner hopper plunger does not fully return to it's home position when the green handle is in the up position the teeth will not be fully extended on the other side and the gap in the middle will not be large enough to allow the teet of the inner seal of toner bottle to passthur and be grabbed when the handle is pulled down.



Normally a hopper strip down and clean out does the trick (messy job though).

There is also four plastic mylars inside the toner hopper that transport the toner around to the hole on the side.
I've seen one or more of these to come off.

[tonkyman]

Thanks

Thanks DaZ,
The toner hopper is a $120 part so a tear-down and inspection is a very good idea. Are there any tricks I need to know about before I get started?

Tony

[Cipher]

Nah it's pretty easy really.

1. Put the green handle up and push the metal pin out of the pludger.
2. Three plastic tabs on the main hopper hold the inner plastic piece of the hopper in place (behind that is a large spring).
3. With that removed you can now push the pludger in further than it would normally go which will give you enough space to remove the green lever.
4. Then pull out the pludger as far as you can and twist it around to expose one screw, undo that screw and the pludge splits into two parts and you can then remove it.

Everything else after that is plain sailing.

[tonkyman]

I'll do it.

I'll just do me a little tear-down and inspection tomorrow morning and see what I can find . That department is swamped this afternoon so I can't afford to shut them down right now.

I'll let you know how it works out.

Humbly,
Tony

[jeffreyozz]

push in until "click", then down. If i had a quarter for everytime i had to say this, guess I wouldnt be lookin on here right now. Sounds like you need to have that one on one with the customer.

[coolhand]

did you replace the supply holder or try to clean it out. When is the last time you change the developer. Mybea check the drum unit ? Check SP2-921 shuold have 4 modes. Toner supply determination, This can checked using SP2-220. (Intravia manual # 10,) i think you should take the drum unit out and check the sensor. Your not getting a code SC390 are you. Toner near end detection: check setting with SP2-923.

[blackcat4866]

Lots of good ideas ahead of me. DaZ is right about the plunger mechanism. Also the green handle can break having the same effect of not opening the cartridge opening.

Were you getting SC392? I seen this when the OPC unit is too cold (usually February in Michigan). Run SP2-802 three time to get a normal reading Vt=2.6 (Abnormal=2.96).

Gear 16T on the developing unit may become damaged. Usually it is accompanied by some noticable noise.

I believe that this machine has 3 or 4 standard toner feed rates. If your customer is doing a lot of heavy fill the standard feed rate may be too slow. Set SP2-921 from 2 to 0. See TSB A265/A267-012.

[tonkyman]

Fixed

As DaZ had suggested, I disassembled the toner hopper and did a good cleaning and inspection. What I found was the plunger was not going in all the way when you lifted the handle. It was binding on old toner and gunk that had built up around it.

After a good cleaning is works like it is supposed to. I have told the users to lift the green handle and push in on the plunger with their finger to make sure it was going all the way in. Then I told them to listen for the "pop" sound it makes when the handle is lowered and the insert is pulled from the end of the bottle. They seem to have grasp the concept so we'll see how it works.

I want to thank you guys for your help and great ideas to point me in the right direction....... I couldn't have done it without you

Humbly,
Tony

[unisys12]

Welcome aboard Tonkyman... Glad to see a fellow NE MS tech on the boards. Glad to see you got it fixed by the way. Good'ol DAZ!

Hey! One thing I would like to point out to ya about this. Our shop does keep one new unit on the shelf, at the shop, but we have several used units that each tech carries with them. What we do is take them out of older machines and clean them out at the shop. We also replace the cup, with the mylar strips on it. This part is a lot cheaper than the whole unit and the strips will tend to come off with age. This makes it a lot easier on the customer, since we can swap out the unit real quick and save the mess for the office bench.