MP C2050: What am I getting myself into?

[rthonpm]

One of my very good customers has just taken over a business with one of these that's come off service. Since this is the best place for honest information, what am I looking at taking on? I'm familiar with the larger 35/45 and 40/50 colour boxes, as well as the C2500 but this looks to be more of an upgraded 1224c, which I'm hoping it isn't.

Any helpful hints, or pitfalls in design to avoid, are appreciated!

[coolbeer]

Re: MP C2050: What am I getting myself into?

In my opinion, this is a cheaply build alternative to the mpc2500.

Fuser units distort, everything plastic breaks, just very poor machine, but then was sold at a much lower price.

Best place for this machine is in recycling.

[rthonpm]

Re: MP C2050: What am I getting myself into?

Doesn't sound promising. The one advantage is that the machine will be used for a very small group so I should at least be able to keep some limit to its use.

[88hawkfan]

Re: MP C2050: What am I getting myself into?

We have a bank with two of these machines that runs about 15K color and 20K B/W on each a year, after adding the pressure oil supply section to reinforce the fusing unit and having changed the transfer assembly; we haven't had any problems with this model. It's not the greatest, but it is serviceable.

[Ben Around]

Re: MP C2050: What am I getting myself into?

We have a few of these in our area. They are OK as long as the volume is low.

[copyaction]

Re: MP C2050: What am I getting myself into?

Agree, if you can keep it around 2,000 - 3,000 copies per month they are decent

[Debs1964]

Re: MP C2050: What am I getting myself into?

Most of the problems I have with these is when the customer is too heavy handed, if they are not abused then they are a very reliable piece of kit

[slimslob]

Re: MP C2050: What am I getting myself into?

In my opinion, this is a cheaply build alternative to the mpc2500.

Fuser units distort, everything plastic breaks, just very poor machine, but then was sold at a much lower price.

Best place for this machine is in recycling.

I do believe that this is incorrect. I think it is the other way around as the 2500 was replaced the 2550 which was later replaced by the 2551. The 2050 and 2550 are very reliable pieces of as Debs said. I have them out in construction site trailers in the oilfields and other that dust have very little problems. I would though print the SMC report and look at the PM counter data. If anything is getting close to 100% on either pages or rotations, I would replace it before putting the machine under contract.

[Counsel]

Re: MP C2050: What am I getting myself into?

I will add my 2 cents because my territory had about 45 of these units and is still running at least 30 of them today. Honostly they are cheaper machines but they were in my opinion better then the next series that followed the 2051/2551 which is all but the same machine with a different fuser the 2051s fusers sucked in comparison.

Overall for the last 4 years this has been one of my primary models mostly at small town banks, mom and pop type stores and insurance offices, churches and the like. For a 20 ppm machine I really had little issues with them besides their quirks. Here's what to prepare for: carry extra D1054588 Reverse gate pawls because they will get broke due to the heat of the fuser and customers shirt sleeves catching on them. Either reinforce the tray 1 & 2 latches or stock up on extra trays, the pull out latch design worked ok but the frame portion of the tray that the latch sits into on the underside will crack off when pulled open with force essentially breaking the frame of the tray so it has to be replaced completely, there are some mods posted on here but our company used our 3D printer to make 1 inch by 1 inch plastic squares that we just superglued to the tray frame to strengthen it which saved us a lot of new trays. The pcus are rated at 60k replacement for the most part they last between 60-70k I have seen some run more but really the lube bar inside the pcu is pretty much gone by 70k. If customer likes a really really silent machine this is not it, the pcus especially color when not used often squeal a little some are worse then others but in my opinion its a mechanical device it will make some noise. Besides the trays, a little noise, and the gate pawls that break overall i rarely changed any developer, developer units, or rebuilt fusers on these models mainly they were low use most of the ones im still running have under 500k pages on them. The fusers I have rebuilt were mostly because they were so underused the pressure rollers got flat and caused it to click when it rotated. Keep clean and up to date on PMs and empty the waste on both the front and cleaning units and run the User Tools ACC from maintenance menu on each visit and you wont have that much trouble with it.

Dont expect 10-20k pages a month on it without problems though.

[ruben]

Re: MP C2050: What am I getting myself into?

I should add that you should also carry a D1054985, as the previous part D0394985 tends to break and has since been modified.
Drums are universal, so a black can be swapped out with a colour, all you need to do is change the small connector, no screws or mods.
Friction pads on trays wear down quite quickly and can cause noise, pickup rollers do sometimes break but will tend to last a lot longer than the pads.
You should empty the second waste toner bottle on the left side of the machine, behind a small panel, every visit or other visit. The main waste toner bottle can be emptied easily or sent to the customer for replacing themselves.
The small white duplex drive gear (D0394569) can sometimes break or the plastic latch becomes loose and will cause it slide off the shaft.
The shaft that the handle for the PTR can sometimes come loose, we put of small bit of metal across it to keep it in place. The handle is D0396239, the mod we put on sits just to the right of this.
The PTR locing levers (D0396229 for front and D0396230 for rear, as well as their counterparts D0396227 and D0396228) crack and cause the PTR not to sit properly or to become difficult to open.
You will need to clean the ID sensors regularly as they sit facing up on to the ITB, and can easily collect dust and toner. They can be accessed by removing the black plate covering them, then removing the ID board. Or, removing the ITB. On the ITB there is a metal dust guard which the sensor look through, this will need to be cleaned regularly too.
Fusers and belts typically last PM or sometimes beyond, no real issues.

[rthonpm]

Re: MP C2050: What am I getting myself into?

Thank you to everyone! This is all very helpful, I've been able to source manuals for the machine, but one thing not in the download is the Product Support Guide. I generally like to have that as a ready reference for options and basic PM parts. I would greatly appreciate it if anyone has a copy of it they could forward on.

I've advised the customer to treat the machine gently, especially as it will initially be time and materials. It looks as if it will be used as a low volume machine so with a good stock of parts, I should be able to at least baby the box along.

[bryand]

Re: MP C2050: What am I getting myself into?

The rule of thumb with Ricohs is if the model number ends with 50/51/52/53 etc....run away

[Solrak]

Re: MP C2050: What am I getting myself into?

Don't forget those crappy spring clutches (d1051164/1166) at the rear of tray one and two which causes phantom jams and jams at the rego roller. Tray one is a right swine to replace!


Sent from my iPad Air using Tapatalk