Ricoh CL7000 cyan banding issue

[Guest]

Hello all,

I bought a used CL7000 back in 2008. When I first got it it had 47422 color and 2637 black pages printed. It now has 54672 color and 8716 black pages printed.

There was an initial problem in that it was printing a faint cyan line about 1/4" wide down the center of the page. I had it checked over by a Ricoh tech who said it was the photoconductor unit. I replaced it and the problem cleared up. Recently the line started showing up again. I've given it a good cleaning, but that doesn't seem to help. I've replaced all the consumables except the Developers and the Paper Feeder Roller Kit. I suspect the Cyan Developer but wanted to check first to see if there may be something I'm overlooking.

Thanks for any help you care to offer.

[Andru]

Bump for the morning crowd...

[TonerMunkeh]

Clean the laser glasses with the long brush thing first, if it's still doing it replace the dev unit.

[Andru]

Clean the laser glasses with the long brush thing first, if it's still doing it replace the dev unit.

Thanks. I've done the brush thing several times already.

[Jomama46]

It would not surprise me that the pcu is defective again. Most probably the blade is not cleaning the drum.

[Andru]

It would not surprise me that the pcu is defective again. Most probably the blade is not cleaning the drum.

Would that be fixable? Seems like an awfully expensive way to keep a printer running. If this is the case, any guesses why it's just happening to the cyan?

[Jomama46]

Yep, yep and nope.

[Andru]

Yep, yep and nope.

A person of great knowledge and few words I see. I'm interested about yep #1. Care to elaborate?

On yep #2, I've come to view this printer much like a Ferrari. Works great when it works but you need to be constantly mucking with it to keep it going.

I just had the printer apart and the only thing "obvious" was the railing that holds the developer in wasn't sitting properly and was a bit "warped," for lack of a better descriptive adjective, so it "might" be causing a misalignment. The unit was shipped across North America on a train to me, so something might have been knocked out of kilter. Anyway, I seated it properly and it straightened out.

Otherwise there were toner lines on the PCU corresponding with the lines on the paper. I cleaned them off as best as possible and on a test print the lines are gone. No surprise. I guess the question is how to keep the problem from recurring - i.e. what's causing the problem in the first place.

A less troublesome issue is the magenta has taken to "smearing" - i.e. the toner goes where it should but doesn't seem to mix/adhere properly. I suspect the developer unit but am open to suggestions if it could be something else. Thanks again for the input. It's very much appreciated.

[Jomama46]

Yes, its fixable. The drum blade is probably not cleaning the drum and may be removed and cleaned. Will it last. Not long, I'm afraid. The real fix would be to replace the PCU again. Expensive? yep. Whats causing it? It maybe 3rd party toner that is clumping and blocking the blade. On the other hand those units dont usually go the distance. Most of our customers are on Maintenance plans or at least cost per copy so they dont concern themselves with it. And we price our service knowing that they arent gonna go the distance. 50K as I recall for the pcu with the developer going 100k. No problems really with the developer unit, (toner pump feeding it is a bitch to replace) but the PCU is a different animal. the charge roller gets dirty, the blade goes dull, the drum scratches. And no parts are available to rebulid. All you can do is either replace the unit or nurse it along. As much as the technology has advanced since this model was introduced in 2003, many of the same types of copy quality problems are still there, including the ones you mentioned.
This is one of the problems with saving money by buying over the internet or from a non-dealer. Short term solution I would say. Good luck.

[Andru]

Thanks. I got 10K out of mine. Is there any magic to taking it apart other than removing screws and connecting the dots?

So the type of toners makes that much difference?

[Jomama46]

No magic. Just dont be surprised if you have to replace it anyway.
Yes, there is a reason why the real stuff works and cost more. IMHO

[Andru]

Here's a twist - I've just printed 22 11x17 duplexed sheets set to plain paper @ 600 dpi and they came out great. Then I ran an 11x17 through the external sheet feed set to thick @ 1200 dpi and the lines came back. I cleaned it up and printed another 22 11x17 duplexed sheets set to plain paper @ 600 dpi and they came out great again. I've run a sheet through the external feeder @ 600 dpi set to special paper and it printed fine as well.

Could this have something to do with the 1200 dpi or thick paper settings?

[Jomama46]

"thick" setting just raises the fuser temp and can be adjusted for transfer current also. I cant help but think this is a random occurrence. If the thick paper wasnt smooth, its possible that fibers are being transferred to the pcu and blocking the cleaning process. just a thought

[Andru]

On the toner - the cyan, which is causing the problems, is Ricoh's. The others, which seem to print fine, are generics.

I am using a different paper stock. The paper I'm using for 1200 dpi/thick is a premium stock and much smoother than the other, which is a basic 20lb copy bond.

After a bit more experimentation it appears running it at 1200 dpi exacerbates the issue. I took the pcu apart and did my best to clean the blade, but not sure I was cleaning the right part.

Guess another pcu is required. Thanks for sparing me on the developer, which is much more expensive.

[Andru]

Q: Does the printer care which PCU goes in which slot?

Sometimes they'll put chips in parts that tell the cpu if, say, a cyan PCU is put where a magenta should go. Is this the case with the CL7000?

Reason I'm asking is, Ricoh sells the color PCU's in sets of 3, yet it seems only my cyan has an ongoing problem. That speaks to a bigger issue of what's causing the cyan to go prematurely when the others don't, but for the sake of expediency I'm considering getting the PCU kit, replacing only the cyan and if that goes again after only 10,000 copies, use one of the others in it's place.