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WhizzMan
11-10-2013, 09:25 PM
Dear copier technicians. I am used to tinkering on laser printers and have worked on the HP Laserjet series mostly from ~1990 to about 2003. This beast however, is a different matter. It belongs to a self employed friend of mine who is struggling along due to the current economy. She needs a copier/printer for her work (she does legal advice) and this C350 is her work horse. She bought it used with about 500K on the clock and it's at 650K now. She has someone (self employed) that comes over to give it repairs/maintenance, since it's not my speciality and he came recommended from the (retired) guy that sold her this unit.

The problem with this device is that it intermittently jams, it has gotten progressively worse and it has gotten to the point that she is now using her desktop scanner and old HP laser printer to make photocopies. The usual technician has taken a look at the machine and his diagnosis is that the transfer belt unit needs to be replaced. (At least, that is what I gather from her rather non technical explanation). This would cost her around 450 euros for the part including sales tax, excluding labour. Since the commercial value of the device is roughly that, he advised her to have it removed (he said he wouldn't give her a cent for it on trade in) and to buy a different copier. Since she's in her 6th "lean year" (lets hope this is a biblical thing and the 7th year will be the last) spending over 1000 euros on another 2nd hand machine isn't an easy decision for her to make.


I've taken a peek in the service manual and it doesn't really describe how to pull the transfer belt unit. I've had a quick look at the machine itself and the amount of parts that I had to remove to get close to the transfer belt unit was so much that I decided to first ask here. I just tried to do a bunch of prints, but the stubborn machine refuses to jam, like the always do when you come over to take a look at something broken. That means I can't really give you guys an error message or the location on the screen where it claims it's jammed.

Would you guys know where to look with this description, or possibly how to fix it without having to spend over 450 euros? Any advice where to look, how to get to the culprit if it's not in the service manual and such would be appreciated. If not, could you indicate what steps to take to figure out what is actually the matter with the machine? I could try and print a whole rim of paper, but that seems rather boring and wasteful, so there may be a better way to get this tested/read out?

Thanks in advance!

nvram
11-11-2013, 10:26 PM
Hi, I very much doubt if the transfer belt is giving you jamming issues, firstly you need to find the location the jam originates from, you can find out in the service mode
it will give you a j code.
si

WhizzMan
11-24-2013, 08:46 PM
Hi, I very much doubt if the transfer belt is giving you jamming issues, firstly you need to find the location the jam originates from, you can find out in the service mode
it will give you a j code.
si


Thanks for the reply. It took me a while to check things. I took the transfer belt out and it appears it was "mended" with 2 strategically placed pieces of scotch tape to fix some fraying on the side of the belt itself. My conclusion now is that the belt is not going to last very long and that it indeed is not related to the jamming. Since the tech deemed the machine not worth replacing the belt, he probably advised not to fix the jams, since any money spent on it would be "wasted".

If I can keep it running for as long as the scotch tape holds with a minor investment in rolls or just cleaning, I think that'd be something to consider. If anyone knows an alternative to buying a brand new OEM transfer belt unit that is more affordable, I'd love to hear about it.

I looked up what jams were logged in the service mode and I came up with these numbers:

1st 2
2nd 16
LCT takeup 9
vertical transport 17
secondary transfer 1
exit 20

ADF rev 1
ADF middle tray 2
Horizontal transport 11
Sorter/finisher trans. 2

It appears the 2nd paper tray and the large capacity tray need their pickups cleaned/replaced, is that a correct assumption? These are sort of known, those trays are usually opened and paper is mainly fed from tray one to keep the machine "reliable".

Vertical transport has me slightly puzzled, which bit would that be and what rolls/pickups would be related to that? Same applies to the "exit" and "horizontal transport". Any hints in this would be much appreciated.

nvram
11-24-2013, 09:05 PM
Hi, the jam data you have is probably historic data, you are better off printing of a management list this will enable you to determine which jams are more recent.
vertical/ secondary transfer, relate to the rhs door, horizontal refers to the conveyance from the machine to the finisher.

WhizzMan
11-24-2013, 09:27 PM
Hi, the jam data you have is probably historic data, you are better off printing of a management list this will enable you to determine which jams are more recent.
vertical/ secondary transfer, relate to the rhs door, horizontal refers to the conveyance from the machine to the finisher.

Thanks for the swift reply.
Horizontal makes sense, the finisher isn't always perfectly aligned with the machine so you would quickly see a lot of errors there. Vertical is where they most of the time had to retrieve paper I just heard, so it all starts making sense.

If anyone knows the ultimate Ebenezer Scrooge method to replace the belt on the cheap I'd love to hear about it. I'll see about the rolls and stuff for the vertical transfer and the pickups. There were some good hints about those elsewhere on this forum so I'll study those before ordering parts.

blackcat4866
11-24-2013, 11:10 PM
I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the tray rollers needed replacing. In addition, take the time to soak the one-way bearings in alcohol, then lubricate with light oil. I am not a fan of scoring of the shafts. In my personal opinion, it only make them worse.

The snagged up transfer belt can, and will cause jamming. And I don't know of a cheap way around it. Without the transfer belt it just isn't a copier any more. And it only comes as an assembly, and only from Konica Minolta.

And yes, the management list will give you a sequential list of jams, so you can determine which of those jams are recent. =^..^=

WhizzMan
11-25-2013, 12:54 AM
I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the tray rollers needed replacing. In addition, take the time to soak the one-way bearings in alcohol, then lubricate with light oil. I am not a fan of scoring of the shafts. In my personal opinion, it only make them worse. The snagged up transfer belt can, and will cause jamming. And I don't know of a cheap way around it. Without the transfer belt it just isn't a copier any more. And it only comes as an assembly, and only from Konica Minolta. And yes, the management list will give you a sequential list of jams, so you can determine which of those jams are recent. =^..^= The snags in the belt should have been taken care of with the scotch tape, for as long as this will last.... I was just hoping that someone would come to mention that the actual belt of some incredibly cheap replacement kit for a non-related printer happened to be the exact same size and you could swap them out or something like that. It wouldn't surprise me at all if there weren't that many different sizes belt used and the real price would be for the rest of the mechanism and the storage/logistics of the whole thing. If you were to replace this thing on your employers/customers hours, you wouldn't want to be tinkering with this for hours, but if it's a no/lo budget thing, that sort of economics change. I figured the tray rollers are prime candidate for replacement and I already read that the one way bearings need looking to as well, thank you for reminding me of that. I'll see how far I can revive this machine for a small budget while we start looking for a replacement. Would the C532 take the supplies we have left for the C350? A quick look on the web looks promising, but it'd be nice to get some confirmation.

blackcat4866
11-25-2013, 01:11 AM
... Would the C532 take the supplies we have left for the C350? A quick look on the web looks promising, but it'd be nice to get some confirmation.

... and I wish I could confirm or deny, but I just don't know. =^..^=

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