Designjet 4500ps paper jams

[theengel]

The customer called about dj 4500 print quality problems (lines) but wasn't really able to describe them. As the customer is a couple of hours away, I wanted him to print something out and email it to me. But now, he said it keeps giving paper jams, but wasn't able to give me a code.

If I remember right, the last time I was there (a couple of years ago), the paper kept slipping as it was being fed. I ended up cleaning the paper roller, which was very difficult because I could only reach about 3 mm of surface at a time and it's very difficult to turn, so I didn't do a great job, but the printer did start working properly.

I don't work on a whole lot of these. Does anyone have any sort of trick to getting at that roller and cleaning it?

[Kiran Otter]

Re: Designjet 4500ps paper jams

All I can say is, I've never had to clean the main roller, on any Designjet. If the paper isn't feeding straight through, make sure the spindle the roll goes on isn't broken. Users have a habit of dropping a new roll of paper onto the black spindle end, breaking it and pushing it down, causing the entire roll to sit too far to the right in the printer. Then when loading it, you force it to the left so the printer accepts it.. but now it's loading with a bunch of skew off the roll.. which causes problems. Anyway, may not be the problem but I'd check the spindle.

The printer will also perpetually jam if the vacuum holes in the platen are clogged and the paper isn't being held down flat. Clean them out with a paperclip. Question is; is the printer really jamming on the media or just claiming there's a paper jam? A false paper jam is either the belt, or possibly the encoder strip/sensor.

Lines in the output is either due to a bad print head or a media advance problem. If it's photo paper or something else with a slick backing, and you can move it despite having the handle down (rollers pinching,) then you have to try to convince them to use a different kind of media. The HP High-Productivity Photo Gloss is notorious for being too slick for the rollers to grip. The semi-gloss/satin works perfectly however.

If it's just bond paper though, you can do a manual paper advance calibration. However I'd reset it to the factory default first to make sure someone else hasn't fiddled with it, then test and go from there.

Also make sure they're selecting 'optimize for images' in the driver when/if printing images. This might seem obvious, but I've had people get new PCs, and this was set in the driver on their old PC, so they just assume it's on with the new PC...

Kiran

[theengel]

Re: Designjet 4500ps paper jams

Really? Never?

I can remember 3 different times cleaning that roller solved a problem. One on a 510, where they were just using plain paper and it was slipping. I cleaned the roller and it stopped slipping. One was on a 6100, and you had helped me on that one. Among all the problems it had, the paper was slipping. I don't have a very good memory, and couldn't tell you what kind of paper they were using, except that it was HP adhesive, and that the paper listed in the menu was exactly what the label on the paper box said. And the third was this one, a couple of years ago. I don't know what paper they were using, I just know that it solved the problem they were having.

I'll check the spindles and gears. This particular machine has 2 drawers... kind of complicated for a designjet. From what I remember, you can load 2 different rolls, and keep them loaded, and swap between them.

[theengel]

Re: Designjet 4500ps paper jams

I wonder if it has something to do with climate? Maybe they dry out more in my region. I used to work for a company that specialized in wide format, and they had a lot of wide format xerographic machines. Every now and then, I would get paper slipping in the registration rollers (probably the same type of rubber) and I'd have to clean them.

[Kiran Otter]

Re: Designjet 4500ps paper jams

Could be an environmental thing, sure. What do you clean them with?

Even on the 4500 with the roll drawers, the black spindle end can still break and move around, changing the position of the roll.

It'll probably be something entirely different, like the last person to load the paper put it on the spindle backwards so they're printing on the back of the paper.

Kiran

[Kiran Otter]

Re: Designjet 4500ps paper jams

Btw, I'm pretty sure you can get at the main roller by releasing the small lock levers on either side, then you can pull the upper assembly (above roll 1) out, and I seem to remember this makes a clear shot to the bottom half the main roller.

Let me know exactly what media they're using.

Kiran

[theengel]

Re: Designjet 4500ps paper jams

Looking through the removal instructions in the manual, it looks like the shortest path is through the platen cover on top of the roller... except it lists 79 screws holding that thing in. I'll probably just end up doing whatever I did before (if that's what the problems seems to be). I was winging it then. I'll take a picture of the paper label while I'm there.

In the past I've used Martin Yale roller cleaner on these types of things, but I think that specific time I had used the goo remover that you can buy in Krogers... it seems to work just as well. Although, two months ago I found something really cheap called "Awesome" at the Family Dollar Store, and it seems to do a real job on hard rubbers. I'll have them all with me when I'm there.

[theengel]

Re: Designjet 4500ps paper jams

wow... all that prep work, and it was just the classic carriage jam.