Are colour pcus interchangable on mpc 3500s?

[paulg]

The title says it all for a customer site we need to keep a few pcus on site. But it would be nice to use a colour pcu for any colour. Don't have one in front of me to check but does anyone know i can't see much difference apart from the front covers.

[Ollie1981]

The title says it all for a customer site we need to keep a few pcus on site. But it would be nice to use a colour pcu for any colour. Don't have one in front of me to check but does anyone know i can't see much difference apart from the front covers.

Most guys I know who do these machines (me not included at the moment) only carry one "K" drum unit and one colour drum unit for field repairs, when the PM cycle comes round then they get a PM kit and replace all the colour drum units as a set though.

This is just what some of my colleagues do to keep a bit of space free in their already full to the brim cars. I'd guess the official Ricoh line is "No" though.

[paulg]

Most guys I know who do these machines (me not included at the moment) only carry one "K" drum unit and one colour drum unit for field repairs, when the PM cycle comes round then they get a PM kit and replace all the colour drum units as a set though.

This is just what some of my colleagues do to keep a bit of space free in their already full to the brim cars. I'd guess the official Ricoh line is "No" though.

Was thinking so as i see no difference and the infomation is stored on the dev units. Always good to hear what others do.

[Scott_Lewis]

Most guys I know who do these machines (me not included at the moment) only carry one "K" drum unit and one colour drum unit for field repairs, when the PM cycle comes round then they get a PM kit and replace all the colour drum units as a set though.

Doesn't the PCU contain a two-part developer mixture? If that is the case, it seems like you would be mixing colors creating a huge mess for CQ.

[Cipher]

I think he means the drum unit rather that the whole PCU.

Yes the C'M'Y drum units are definitely interchangable.
A empty dev unit where you add your own packet of developer may be interchangable as well.
(But I've never needed to tried that one yet).

[Ollie1981]

I think he means the drum unit rather that the whole PCU.

Yes the C'M'Y drum units are definitely interchangable.
A empty dev unit where you add your own packet of developer may be interchangable as well.
(But I've never needed to tried that one yet).

Yep I meant the actual drum units, as I said I can't comment yet on what I actually do as I am not yet trained on this range of machines, however I have accompanied colleagues to these machines when I've been having a slow day.

I wouldn't have thought that used PCU items would be interchangeable across colours due to contamination with different coloured dev or toner, but new drum/dev units that had never been charged with dev would be interchangeable.

[banginbishop]

PCU'S

My Company now only fits the Black PCU for ALL the units not just the black unit. I havent had to fit the colour units yet but i'm assured with a little modification the m,y and C will fit and work perectly. Have to change the dev manually but works out cheaper than buying the official ricoh route. As far as i know it only works on the DRUM units not the dev unit.

[Steve Perks]

We only use K drum units.

If you look at the connector plug you will notice a chamfer on one edge on the K unit.

Simply duplicate the chamfer on the other side of the connector with a small file.

The K unit is a fraction of the cost of a colour unit.

[zico21]

This is a topic dear to my heart. Rioch has an interesting pricing strutcture with these units. The black drum unit is around $75 (from memory) and each of the color drum units is around $350 each. The developer for each is around $30, yet the complete development unit (with developer in it) is only $45 each.

The printer version, C811, uses end user replaceable PCU's (drum unit & DV unit ). There is a black PCU that cost around $125 and a set of all three color PCU's for a cost of around $350! So, you can buy one copier color drum unit for the same price as a set of 3 complete color PCU's for the printer.

The one catch is that the copier units have the beveled connector while the printer units have a normal rectangular connector. A minute or two with a file and you,ve made the printer units useable in the copier.

Now here's our problem. We've been so busy that we haven't had the time to make sure there isn't any problem with using the printer PCU's in the copier version. Also, I'm embarassed to say I never thought of using a copier black drum unit in place of a copier color unit even though I keep complaining about why there is a cost difference between the black and color drun units since they are mechanically the same.

Does anyone have any personal experience using either technique (printer units in a copier or black drum in color drum position-wtih correct developer unit)? I think this series of copiers is fantastic. The only problem we have at all is the charge roller getting contaminated if the user makes long continuous print runs leading to streaks. While the charge roller can be easily cleaned (not documented in the service manual) the streak often return fairly quickly.

I've rambled on but I would appreciate any comments on any real world experience with these ideas.

p.s. Just noticed the international audience of this forum. Wish my Fulham boys well this weekend. They will stay up!

[Steve Perks]

Does anyone have any personal experience using either technique (printer units in a copier or black drum in color drum position-wtih correct developer unit)?

No problems experienced here using the modified black drum unit with the correct developer unit in a colour drum slot.

Another thing to consider is that the printer fuser is a fraction of the cost of aMFD fuser.
I've yet to try it to see if the SPC811 printer fuser works in the MPC2500 MFD but at least you could buy in a printer fuser for parts only, to use on an MFD

[unisys12]

Just a note to add to this conversation... Nether the drum unit nor the dev unit are customer replaceable units (CRUs) in the MPC series. In this family, all units have to be replaced by a tech.

[banginbishop]

[zico21]

I have alway believed that Ricoh designs good products, but I've also believed that Ricoh always makes sure they are making tidy profits. Some of my piricing questions to Ricoh have been answered with corrections but in response to my questions concerning these color pcu items the response was "printers are printers, copiers are copiers".

On a another note, how many people are using the Type 1027 PCU's in 3025 and later copiers rather than rebuilding the original units with parts. Our experience was that the original units just didn't hold up, even to 60K. Leaking developer, damaged gears (perhaps due to improper dis-assembly, assembly by tech, but it is touchy!) and other issues including time has resulted in our dealership using the Type 1027 PCU's.

A final pet peeve of mine is not being albe to tell if changes in part numbers when a new generation comes out are retroactive to previoius models. Often I'll be told they're not, then six months later a bulletin will come out saying they are. Of course this is after I've created a different custome PM kit for the new model when I could have just updated the original PK kit. I'm conservative about making asumptions on such matters since I think a part (especially items like cleaning blades) that "look the same" may be incompatable due to changes in toner compositionand consequent changes in blade material for example.

Finally, I had gone away from copier forums such as this because too many of the post were too specific or basic, but I'm finding the discussions on this site more interesting.

Any comments?

Cheers

[SGT_Snacks-64]

I've fitted a couple of black Drums as colour Drums, and as far as I can tell, no problems have arisen. I think the idea is to cut the connector to fit the colour slot, but you can actually, quite easily, take the loom out if you want to keep things neat.

[Ricoh-ono]

I have replaced a color PCU with a black one. It seems to work without issue. I did find that it is a lot easier to file the connector with a rotary tool like a Dremmel. There is a metal pin in the corner to be modified, so the process takes a little longer with a hand file.