MP C2500, 3000 etc. charge roller mod

[ryanb]

ok, crazy idea, i've been doing this a couple months now and so far no problem...this only works with the "green"-ish charge rollers:
take the white cleaning roller out, then carefully, VERY CAREFULLY, scrape the "green" coating off of the charge roller (best to use a knife, stuff comes off like "lottery ticket" scratch-off stuff). get it down to the white core, then buff out any remaining spots, etc with some Scotch Brite. make sure it's all clean then pop it back in (leave the cleaning roller out).
i'm also looking at removing the lubricant bar from the Transfer Cleaning unit as that seems to be the stuff contaminating the charge rollers. you have to leave the Lubricating Brush in tho as that is part of the whole drive for the Trans. cleaning unit.
i haven't seen this idea anywhere else in the forums so i assume i'm the only one thats tried it, but so far, so good!

[NeoMatrix]

Re: MP C2500, 3000 etc. charge roller mod

Works with most Ricoh MPC machines.

Use metholated spirits and scour pad the rubber layer will come off quicker with minimum scratching to the white roller underneath.

I only do this MOD if desparation calls for a quick machine fix to get the customer up and going.

I'm not comfortable with posting this info to the forum. We might see consumers trying this for themselves.

[jonezy999]

Re: MP C2500, 3000 etc. charge roller mod

Yeh I do the same if I'm desperate. Surprisingly some machines have run for quite a while like this. Never removed the cleaning roller though. Wonder how well it would work on a high volume machine though.

[mrwho]

Re: MP C2500, 3000 etc. charge roller mod

Same

[spaceman99]

Re: MP C2500, 3000 etc. charge roller mod

Use metholated spirits and scour pad DO USE A KNIFE

Same as others some work on for ages and just the od one fails
good luck

[ryanb]

Re: MP C2500, 3000 etc. charge roller mod

thanks for the info, guys! i had tried a few "chemical" approaches but nothing we had here seemed to take it off, i'll see if we can get the mentholated spirits. i know the "knife" can put some "waves" or ridges in the surface but so far it hasn't seemed to affect it.
it seems that these modified rollers are lasting longer. we were doing a lot of cleaning and replacing before, so pretty happy with the results. So glad to see i'm not the only one to try this. Our TSM heard about it and his jaw 'bout hit the floor, he seemed ok after i told him it had been working for months!

[spaceman99]

Re: MP C2500, 3000 etc. charge roller mod

sorry to ALL..... I missed NOT

DO NOT USE A KNIFE. Use metholated spirits and scour pad the rubber layer will come off quicker with minimum scratching to the white roller underneath.

make sure you do a final clean in 1 direction with Meth's and a clean cloth.
cheers

[iMind]

Re: MP C2500, 3000 etc. charge roller mod

How would you rate copy quality with the white charge roller ; (0) not that good (5) good (10) the same

[mrwho]

Re: MP C2500, 3000 etc. charge roller mod

I see no noticeable difference, to be honest.

[iMind]

Re: MP C2500, 3000 etc. charge roller mod

Thanks

[ryanb]

Re: MP C2500, 3000 etc. charge roller mod

also, has anyone found a supplier that sells the charge roller assemblies?

[collme]

Re: MP C2500, 3000 etc. charge roller mod

Ricoh Japan will not sell charge rollers seperately as it would lose them money so i doubt if you will be able to find a supplier. as for removing the coating, Ricoh direct engineers have been asked to try this for quite a while with a good results, we have also been told to remove the cleaning roller as well. this method has also been tried on mpc3300 4000, 5000 with good effect but you must leave the lube bar in. vac out unit and remove the layer of the charge roller with ipa and a scourer. main side effect is it will wear out the surface of the drum quite quickly but it is worth it to get 40% more life out of the drums.

[pLatik]

Re: MP C2500, 3000 etc. charge roller mod

also, has anyone found a supplier that sells the charge roller assemblies?

[Ollie1981]

Re: MP C2500, 3000 etc. charge roller mod

I have had some success, some failures with "modifying" the charge rollers. Here's my advice from experience:-

1/ If the customer is running any kind of heavy coverage work with some regularity expect a recall, especially if you are removing the cleaning roller.

2/ Remove the cleaning unit (2 screws on MPC2500-4500, 2 screws and clips on MPC2800 - 5000 and comes out with the charge roller assy) and check the amount of lube bar that is left, if the lube bar is gone then the drum isn't going to last much longer. I always clean the edge of the cleaning blade while I'm in there especially if there's visible toner residue on the drum surface.

3/ I've stopped removing the cleaning roller now as I was getting recalls, what I do now is carefully place them down the rubber hose attachment on my vac one end at a time whilst it's running. This gets rid of 90% of the toner and lubricant that they are saturated with that contaminates the charge roller. Problem being is that they are so fragile and easily damaged.

4/ Change the dev at life, this helps to keep the toner levels going through the drum unit at whereabouts they need to be.

5/ Try and impress upon your boss that this is not a magic fix that works all the time. I had this pushed upon me as some kind of "miracle cure" that was going to save the company megabux, cure world hunger and save the rainforests. It works most of the time and can get you a lot more clicks out of a drum, but I've heard ridiculous claims of supposedly getting 400k out of a drum with a PM life of 80k, double life is usually do-able (160k) at 200k I've found the lube bar is practically gone and by then it doesn't owe you anything anyhoo.

[Oze]

Re: MP C2500, 3000 etc. charge roller mod

I changed a black drum on an MPC3000 last week that had done 388K....un modded....mind you the dev had overtoned :/