Sharp AL-1551 waste fills too quickly

[axyun]

Waste on toner cartridge appears to be filling prematurely the overflowing and making mess. Showed customer how to empty and customer called yesterday after she emptied waste after overfill and just under 2000 pages had been made.Frank

[blackcat4866]

There are only a few reasons why waste toner might fill too quickly:

1) aftermarket or incompatible toner
2) dead or dying developer
3) add toner mechanism won't shut off/won't stop
4) primary charge staying on between copies
5) poor drum discharging (the laser performs drum discharging on this model)

This is also the order of most likely to least likely. =^..^=

[axyun]

Thanks for your input Blackcat.

1. I doubt it is toner as although it is compatible I have been buying from same supplier(Summit ieGraphicTechnologies) for years without incident on this model series. Problem only happening on this one customer's machine.

2.Copies are of excellent copy quality with no indication of developer fatigue or depletion.

3.If the add toner mechanism would not shut off would that not cause overtoned copies as that is not happening? Also if the add toner stayed on customer would remark aboutlong wait between making of copies or I would have witnessed it when there.

4 I could look into this but would this indicate a main board probem?

5. What would I look for on poor drum discharging? Remove Drum unit after copies are made to see if drum is clean?

I may examine the charging sytem and rule out main + transfer for some kind of discharging. I thought I had switched drum unit about a month ago but at the time the spillage though at first thought to be an ongoing problem was due to an actually cartridge almst out of toner with about 5600 copies since it was installed. So though i went there with the intent to troubleshoot a premature filling of waste container I got a surprise and may not have switched drum unit as intended, I was called back a few days ago afte less than 2000 copies and customer had to empty waste because of overfill spillage.
I'll keep you posted on final result + thanks again for your detailed response. Frank

PS ---this is same customer who has issue with being unable to print from bottom tray which has 14" . Machine defaults to top tray with 11" paper. I told customer to check driver setup on trays asd not a mecnaicl or electronic problem. I believe customer downloaded driver form Sharp website.

[blackcat4866]

Thanks for your input Blackcat.

1. I doubt it is toner as although it is compatible I have been buying from same supplier(Summit ieGraphicTechnologies) for years without incident on this model series. Problem only happening on this one customer's machine.

2.Copies are of excellent copy quality with no indication of developer fatigue or depletion.

3.If the add toner mechanism would not shut off would that not cause overtoned copies as that is not happening? Also if the add toner stayed on customer would remark aboutlong wait between making of copies or I would have witnessed it when there.

4 I could look into this but would this indicate a main board probem?

5. What would I look for on poor drum discharging? Remove Drum unit after copies are made to see if drum is clean?

I may examine the charging sytem and rule out main + transfer for some kind of discharging. I thought I had switched drum unit about a month ago but at the time the spillage though at first thought to be an ongoing problem was due to an actually cartridge almst out of toner with about 5600 copies since it was installed. So though i went there with the intent to troubleshoot a premature filling of waste container I got a surprise and may not have switched drum unit as intended, I was called back a few days ago afte less than 2000 copies and customer had to empty waste because of overfill spillage.
I'll keep you posted on final result + thanks again for your detailed response. Frank

PS ---this is same customer who has issue with being unable to print from bottom tray which has 14" . Machine defaults to top tray with 11" paper. I told customer to check driver setup on trays asd not a mecnaicl or electronic problem. I believe customer downloaded driver form Sharp website.

1) I'd still start with an OEM cartridge of toner and an new bag of developer.
2) Depletion wouldn't be the symptom. It would be overtoning, and that doesn't always give an overt quality problem. The first clues are toner dusting on the backsides of the pages and in the transfer corona (and overfull waste toner).
3) Again, you would have serious overtoning. When you remove the top of the developing unit it would be full-to-bursting, and spewing around the mag roller.
4) You could do an emergency stop while copying, pull the drum, and examine the latent image. If the spaces between the copies are black you have a primary problem. Yes, probably the main board.
5) Same test as #4. Look for dirty void areas and areas between copies. It would probably look like a failing drum blade, because the blade would have a lot of toner to gather between prints.

I've had lots of bad experiences with aftermarket toner. That's where I'd start if it were me. =^..^=