Greetings everyone and thank you for any info in advance. I am new to the industry and I still have much to learn. We have a Ricoh Pro C900s that is great when it comes to speed of jobs, but when it comes to image quality and general reliabilty it is greatly lacking compared to our 3 KM's. I was wondering if anybody had any tricks of the trade when it comes to gettigng the image quality up, ours tends to be streaky at times and even gritty. As far as the reliability goes it jams constantly, we make sure we jog the paper, ALOT. We've had it up for service calls numerous times within the past month and th service tech will fix it but then less then 1k clicks later the problems begin again. Through some research of my own before posting I was made aware of a newer version for the fuser that helps to cure the quality problems, but other than that we havent been able to find anymore info on it, I was wondering if anybody who has used upgraded to this unit knows the cost and/or the part number. Again thank you all for your time, sorry if it is alot for my first post but I am fustrated and would love nothing more than to get this machine up to par.
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Re: Problems with Ricoh Pro C900s
The quality on these machines is typically very good. Normally no real grainy look to the prints. The streaks are usually oil marks on there and can be caused by numerous things. The upgraded fuser you are talking about doesn't exist, it's a whole new machine, the C901 which is an amazing machine. They took the oil fuser out of that model and use a type of chemical toner to compensate for no oil. Normally with the streaks things to do are to PM the fuser which should already be done. There is an oil tank that will get a residue in it that gives it a very cloudy appearance and that tank does need to be emptied and oil changed every now and then along with the filter inside that tank. Its very messy and I recommend a Homer bucket or something like that from Home Depot or whatever home improvement store that's around you because it will go in the trash after this. Usually with proper maintenance and changing that oil and filter the streaks can be kept under control. As far as the grainy look make sure the developers are being replaced when they are supposed to be. I am a field technician trained on this model and this model really doesn't have that many issues. As far as your jamming that can be a number of things but this model normally doesn't ever jam when used and setup properly except for certain paper types out of tray 3. Use tray 4 for the heavier or coated papers. Make sure the machine is level and off of its wheels. That machine cannot be on its wheels or it causes many problems, especially if you have a plock on the end of it but that beast is another story. -
Re: Problems with Ricoh Pro C900s
Thank you for the reply and the advice. I checked our wheels and they are touching the ground fairly firmly but they actual "stands" are what most of the weight is on. I understand that the C901 is a great machine and had many improvements compared to the C900s. I will look into the suggestions that you made and talk with our tech and see what he says about those issues. As far as the fuser goes, I was told by our tech that there is a new fuser that came out for the c900 in a service bulletin, we have tried to get into contact with him to get a price quote but he isnt the easiest person to reach. I also did some research and found that there was a Ricoh Technical Bulletin issued about the new fuser that is No. RG178129 on 05/01/11, but since I dont have access to those I can't verify it. Again thank you for your help I greatly appreciate it and I will look into the suggestions that you made and see if that helps with the quality any.Comment
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Re: Problems with Ricoh Pro C900s
just an update for anyone who is following the thread. Our service Tech came in and did a full PM along with another more knowledgable tech. The replaced just about everything, rebuilt the fuser we use for coated stock and everything worked great until the fuser blade actually "disitigrated", their wording not mine. So they replaced the roller and blade again, along with developers, filters, belt, drums, and the 400K kit. Now after 3 days of use the images are gritty again and we are having the same problems. Any input would be great, but this is more for anyone whos following. Updates to comeComment
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Re: Problems with Ricoh Pro C900s
Just another update. It seems our roller for our coated fuser has been chewed up after less than 20,000 clicks and the gritty feeling on the black is burn marks. Has anyone had any experience with these issues and if so were you able to correct it?Comment
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Re: Problems with Ricoh Pro C900s
Do you have two separate fusers that you swap in and out depending on stocks? That's what it sounds like. If so how long do you keep the coated fuser out of the machine?Comment
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Re: Problems with Ricoh Pro C900s
Yes, we have two seperate fusers, one for coated one for uncoated. We swap them back and forth constantly, the time varies anywhere from 15 min up over night. The tech kept refering to is as the roller, its in the fuser and is an orange/red color. It is completely chewed up, one "chew line" looks like it could be from the teeth on the exit side of the fuser and the other is inbetween two teeth.Comment
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Re: Problems with Ricoh Pro C900s
Looks like the pawls are digging into the rollers. Those are adjustable and they should not touch the belt or the pressure roller. They hover just above them. It many other fusers the pawls touch but not on this model. For the coated fuser if leaving overnight you may try manually adding a bit of oil to it after reinstalling it. I had a customer manually add oil to the fuser due to the amount of fill they were using on the pages. Put about half of the squeeze bottle (not the oil supply bottle, the other one that comes with machine) and distribute it amongst the three holes in the top of the fuser if its getting too dry. I fixed my oil problems on that fuser with the oil change and all but if your still having problems you may try that. Maybe the pump cant keep up with the fill on your coated paper. Cant overfill the unit or you get a mess on the floor.Comment
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Re: Problems with Ricoh Pro C900s
that sounds like a good idea with the fuser, I'll have to ask about that becasue at this point we arent going to do anything Ricoh doesnt tell us to do becasue we may be claiming this as a lemon. We are a very busy print shop and have 4 digitals, 2 b&w and 2 color, we should be putting anywhere from 30,000-100,000+ clicks on the ricoh each month and we aren't getting anywhere near that due to it's constant down time. Again appreciate the advice and hopefully that will fix some of our problems.Comment
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Re: Problems with Ricoh Pro C900s
The pawls have to be adjusted by the tech anyway so you would have to but if they are tearing in to the roller then they are too close. As far as the oil ask your tech about that but that's what I had to do with one of my customers but they only have to do it with the specific paper and fill they were using. During normal printing they had no problems. Keep me up to date.Comment
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Re: Problems with Ricoh Pro C900s
I dont know much about c900s but it sounds like the coated paper is the problem (or pre printed stock)Last edited by BLADE; 10-19-2011, 03:26 AM.Comment
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Re: Problems with Ricoh Pro C900s
BLADE YOUR ON THE RIGHT TRACK, IF THE PRINTS ARE COMING OUT GRAINEY, ITS MOST LIKELY THAT THE PAPER TYPE SELECTED IN THE PAPER LIBRARY ISNT SET CORRECTLY, SOMETIMES YOU NEED TO ACCESS THE CUSTOM PAPER CATALOGUE/ADVANCED SETTING OF THE PAPER TYPE( U NEED TO LOGIN FIRST TO SEE THIS.....admin no passwrd) and then play with fuser temps,paper transfer currents etc.... till you find the right setting that works for that type of paper.
i have had to do this for a number of customers, its a bit of mucking around but if you get it right your laughing..............HOPE THIS HELPS,.......GOODLUCK......
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Re: Problems with Ricoh Pro C900s
part number for the new fuser with a hardened hot roller are D0164301 NA or D0164302 EUComment
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