I-Series belt cleaning units clogging up

[mincopier]

Konica Minolta has a bulletin about the "Spiral Screw" on the waste toner box becoming dislodged or moved out of place. They say to "Form" the spiral gear into place with needle nose pliers.

This is mainly for noise but if it is out of place it could be a contributor to this problem for some.

[occus]

I decided to start a thread where maybe we can keep track of this. This thread is where I first saw mention of the issue right after I had the same issue on a C550i, the first time we've come across the issue.

Well, today I had a C360i in the field for 10 months with 26K on the meter with the same issue. I spent quite a bit of time trying to find out what caused it but came up with absolutely nothing. I was able to clean all the toner out of the cleaning unit and it seems fine now but not sure why it clogged up in the first place. I thought maybe when the belt was installed at the factory that maybe the shutter didn't open like it should, causing the cleaning unit to fill up. Upon further inspection of the Waste Toner Conveyance ASSY, it had toner in the entrance shutter. If the belt shutter never opened, there would be no toner there.

Then I removed the shutter assy above the Waste Toner Conveyance ASSY and below the belt to see if it was clogged and it had toner in it but wasn't clogged. Once I opened the bottom shutter, the toner just fell out. I even disassembled the Waste Toner Conveyance ASSY to see what might be the issue with it and didn't see anything abnormal. It did have an issue with turning hard and I had to remove the drive assy and lube the second gear with a tiny bit of grease to free it up.

Post if you have had the same issue and what you find if anything.

Is that the same noise you had? Front door open/close


History:
Delivered summer 2020
-after a while maybe 5000 prints customer calls me for a new waste toner box, on visit waste toner box is empty (how can the full allert pop up even the transparent plastic nose is total clear and empty... strange)
-changed the waste toner box, since this i had no calls.
-before a few days i was there to deliver toner and the customer tells me about noise, i checked error counter and made a few tests but i found nothing.
-yesterday the customer sends me a video with the noise.

The noise sounds for me like the problem of the old 220 Series... which we all know. So i expected hardened toner in the cleaning area of the belt and in the auger or in the hole waste toner transport way. But there was only normal toner soft and pulvered, from auger to waste toner.
The gears of the waste toner box and the conveyance assy turned easily.

Now what i have done:

I took out the expansions spring from the old waste toner box to compare with a new orange/blue dotted waste toner box, these were the same length. But why? Anyway i cuttet the spring a bit.

Remember the bulletin: (but i'm pretty shure factory date from this machine is older than the change of the cover)

Since the shape of a plastic cover near the Waste Toner Conveyance Unit
slotting area on the main body was changed, the front end of the conveyance
unit can get angled downwards more than before as it is installed. As a result,
the edge of the shutter may not hit the contact part on the main body side,
and the shutter will not open. When the Conveyance Unit and the Waste Toner
Box are installed together as one assy, this problem hardly occurs.

Shutter on Waste Toner Conveyance Unit may not open.jpg

>>so install waste toner box, take out the bundle together and install again as workaround.
Thanks for feedback.

[srvctec]

Is that the same noise you had? Front door open/close


History:
Delivered summer 2020
-after a while maybe 5000 prints customer calls me for a new waste toner box, on visit waste toner box is empty (how can the full allert pop up even the transparent plastic nose is total clear and empty... strange)
-changed the waste toner box, since this i had no calls.
-before a few days i was there to deliver toner and the customer tells me about noise, i checked error counter and made a few tests but i found nothing.
-yesterday the customer sends me a video with the noise.

The noise sounds for me like the problem of the old 220 Series... which we all know. So i expected hardened toner in the cleaning area of the belt and in the auger or in the hole waste toner transport way. But there was only normal toner soft and pulvered, from auger to waste toner.
The gears of the waste toner box and the conveyance assy turned easily.

Now what i have done:

I took out the expansions spring from the old waste toner box to compare with a new orange/blue dotted waste toner box, these were the same length. But why? Anyway i cuttet the spring a bit.

Remember the bulletin: (but i'm pretty shure factory date from this machine is older than the change of the cover)

Since the shape of a plastic cover near the Waste Toner Conveyance Unit
slotting area on the main body was changed, the front end of the conveyance
unit can get angled downwards more than before as it is installed. As a result,
the edge of the shutter may not hit the contact part on the main body side,
and the shutter will not open. When the Conveyance Unit and the Waste Toner
Box are installed together as one assy, this problem hardly occurs.

Shutter on Waste Toner Conveyance Unit may not open.jpg

>>so install waste toner box, take out the bundle together and install again as workaround.
Thanks for feedback.

That sounds a lot like it except it seems ours were making a faster cadence, almost double the speed of that video.

Sounds like your issue was a bit different than on all ours making that noise. It has always been a completely clogged up shutter pipe on the cleaning unit of the belt. It requires taking it apart and digging out the toner.