DC2060 Image Quality Issues - Help Please!

[GusG]

Hi All,

We have a big image quality problem on my Docucolor 2060 that has just started and my local technician (am based in Uganda) is seemingly at a loss, so I am looking for anything that can help us and him to sort out this issue.

I've attached an image to show what's happening. Basically we are getting a fade that starts 4-5 cms from the edge of an A3 (11x17") or an A4 sent LEF on the edge that goes towards the back of the printer so that if we print A4 SEF the image is fine because it doesn't reach the problem area. It is not happening in the fuser because if I force a jam I can see the sheets on the transport belt before the fuser have the problem already. It also does not happen on all sheets, for instance the bottom sheet in the attached image is art gloss 250gsm and here this problem does not occur (there is another less serious problem I will describe later). All other types of paper I have tried in the machine has the above mentioned problem, the sheet on the top of the attached image is art gloss 90gsm but it also happens with art matt (our most used type of paper) and bond. The problem generally seems to be more pronounced with art matt paper/board.

The paper on the bottom of the attached image is art gloss 250 gsm board and it has a smaller fade on the trailing edge. We have had this problem all the time but it has almost only been on art matt and we have overcome it by printing on bigger sheets such as SRA3 and making a big enough bleed to go beyond the fade. Now it's also appearing on gloss and is apparently getting bigger.

Especially the first problem is seriously hampering us because it means that we can basically only do A4s.

If any of you are familiar with this I would be extremely grateful for any hints/tips/solutions that will help us to overcome this.

P.S. I've cross posted this on PrintPlanet.

[davidj7]

could you elaborate more: like meter 4 of the machine. Did the problem suddenly appear, did you change / adjust anything before this happened.

Does it happen in all 4 colours.in A3 its happening in all colours. Did you check the transfer rollers, 2nd BTR roller .Any part relating to transfer which has exceeded HFSI

[GusG]

could you elaborate more: like meter 4 of the machine. Did the problem suddenly appear, did you change / adjust anything before this happened.

Does it happen in all 4 colours.in A3 its happening in all colours. Did you check the transfer rollers, 2nd BTR roller .Any part relating to transfer which has exceeded HFSI

Thanks for your feedback. Meter 4 (D on my machine) says 2,646,458 prints. I've looked at the HFSI and found two things that have exceeded:
9-822
9-824
I don't know what these are but yesterday when we, for the first time, got the DC2060 connected to my technician's laptop there was some indication that cyan and magenta developer assemblies have exceeded but we did change those recently and I think they were not reset after changing.

Just prior to this happening we have changed a number of items in the fuser:
- Heat roller
- one heat lamp
- 3 thermistors
- finger assembly
- web assembly and web
this because the heat roller had been damaged due to a bad web assembly so that a worn out thermistor or finger cut a groove in the heat roller because the web came out and caused pressure on these items on the roller. The heat lamp was a separate issue.

I don't think the fusing unit is the culprit because the issue appears before fusing. However, due to the above problem we were only running A4 SEF for a couple of weeks as we were waiting for the above mentioned fuser spares, we could do this because A4 SEF bypassed the groove made in the heat roller. For over a week before changing the spares we didn't run the machine at all.

So this problem has appeared immediately after changing the fuser spares and affects all colours. No we have not looked at the 2nd BTR roller but will do so.

[davidj7]

for the problem on the edges i think you should check the transfer roller in IBT assembly which comes in contact with the 2nd BTR and the 2nd BTR, since this issue is shown in all 4 colours. I dont think you would have to change settings as you have not done anything with the NVM 's.

Regarding the smudge mark in the centre of the page . I have no idea.Could be IBT belt but again you have to check.

On second thought since you fiddled with Fuser , could there be some oil contamination in the transfer .Like fuser oil on 2nd BTR or IBT.

Do a force stop before the toner is transfered to the media and check the IBT belt for the same problems. Then you can rule out transfer roller and 2nd BTR.

[GusG]

Thanks fDavid. After advice my technician did have a look at the 2nd BTR roller assy yesterday, he cleaned contacts etc. and the image quality is almost there, the fading has gone on the edges and remaining are just some small spots of white, not very apparent on my photo but there is one you can see on the top image above where it says "50%M", another on the bottom image above where it say "100%C" almost on the right edge.
The smudge in the middle is just a reflection from the paper when I took the photo.

[davidj7]

how much prints have been made on this set of developer for cyan and magenta?
How many prints on 1st BTR roll of cyan and magenta?

[XFather]

NVM

Initiallize all NVMs, restore critical NVM, set NVM for TC sensors, remake machine configuration, proced to maxsetup and registration setup.

Regards

[GusG]

Thanks guys for your help and suggestions so far, I'll get back to the white spots because in the meantime a much more serious problems has occurred. When backing anything, whether duplexing automatically or doing it manually I get a ghost image on the back of the sheet, i.e. the previously printed image which is on the bottom of the sheet as it passes through the printer. The image seems to be a faded repeat of the bottom of the previous sheet.

Any and all help appreciated, I've got irate clients breathing down my neck as I write this.

[davidj7]

Replace 2nd BTR

[GusG]

Replace 2nd BTR

Thanks for the suggestion David, however, it looks like the problem is occurring in the fusing unit since I stopped the printer when there was still a sheet on the transport belt and past the 2nd BTR and it did not have the ghosting effect. Could it still be 2nd BTR?

[xcopytech]

no replace metering blade or donor roll assy

[davidj7]

agrees with xcopy.btw didnt you change most of the stuff in the fuser assembly few days back.Also check if there is enough oil in the tank and pump is working .

[GusG]

On Saturday I realised that the ghost imaging was only on the particular stock I was using for that job which was art paper gloss 115 gsm. Bond 80, art paper gloss and matt 135, art board 250 etc all went through the machine fine. And after printing a job on any of the other stocks I could put a couple hundred sheets of the art gloss 115 through before the problem reoccurred so that's how I finished that job.
I guess it was just bad quality paper.