Seriously, what is going to be done about fusers!? ALL BRANDS

[copier tech]

OK I get it. These over-engineered fusers are more energy efficient. Maybe they heat up faster.

But for the last 5+ years they have been the single largest point of failure in our machines. Codes, belt meandering, broken gears, seized bearings, noises, noises, noises! They are expensive as shit, get back-ordered, many do not even have a parts list available.

Not even HP printers (im looking at your m477) can make a fuser that lasts a year.

Something needs to be done as an industry to get this figured out. My guess is the belts need to go!

What manufacturer are you guys referring too?

I would have to disagree with you on this, most if not all fusers I see go way over life, especially Konica Minolta & Ricoh.

The only time I need to replace a fuser that has not reached life is my clients damage them.

[mloudy]

Chingada madre, we were actually excited to sell rebranded Lexmarks.

The thing is, we have A LOT of pharma clients and those old Lexmarks are tanks. Just a maintenance kit with rollers and that's it.

I hope sharp has the same warranty, although we deal with OES rather than Sharp Corp.

This is why I like Brother, when their fusers fail, we just create a ticket and boom, new fuser arrives.
Xerox is similar too.
HP is pretty good with warranties, although only for like a month.

Sigh...

When calculating the cost per page for the SharpMarks I would set the yield at 110K, not 150K.

We have replaced 25 of the C4150,XC4140,XC4150 fusers as a PM item with the average yield of 200,734

We have replaced 48 of them for a fuser error with an average life of 61,541. It would be great if we could buy the thermistors and fix them but we can't.

Keep the fusers that have gone to PM and pull the complete wiring harness out of them. If you get a fuser that goes into code and has very few pages on it you can swap the harness. These fusers are a quick swap, two thumb screws.

[mikadonovan]

You know what I'd like to see? A 16oz aluminum teflon coated heat roller with a halogen lamp inside ... maybe 2 or 3 lamps. =^..^=

Yeh, like the old MPC 300/400's. Heavy duty rollers and they last 2 or 3 times the rated lifespan.

[copier tech]

Yeh, like the old MPC 300/400's. Heavy duty rollers and they last 2 or 3 times the rated lifespan.

Yup, I also fit the SPC printer version fuser these are a lot cheaper than the correct MPC version.

[SalesServiceGuy]

I think you need to differentiate this discussion between A3 and A4 fusers.

Most A3 fusers rarely have a problem. The A3 fuser design have the benefit of generations of fusers before it to get the design reliable and long life.

A4 fusers march to different orders. The primary one being low cost and a user replaceable design. It has been the history of A4 product design that if it breaks, do not try and fix it, just replace it.

There is a reason why A4 product cost less. The business model is to sell the mainframe at low costs and make your profits on accessories, software, parts and supplies.

Unfortunately, many salespeople and customers make their sales/purchase decisions based on price.

A used A4 product does not have nearly the value amongst used equipment brokers as does a A3.

To many who herald the A4 revolution sweeping away fleets of supposedly over-spec-ed and oversold A3 product, they rarely focus on the parts aspect.

A3 product will remain in the market for a long time.

[SalesServiceGuy]

When calculating the cost per page for the SharpMarks I would set the yield at 110K, not 150K.

We have replaced 25 of the C4150,XC4140,XC4150 fusers as a PM item with the average yield of 200,734

We have replaced 48 of them for a fuser error with an average life of 61,541. It would be great if we could buy the thermistors and fix them but we can't.

Keep the fusers that have gone to PM and pull the complete wiring harness out of them. If you get a fuser that goes into code and has very few pages on it you can swap the harness. These fusers are a quick swap, two thumb screws.

I would like to drill more into your statistics.

"We have replaced 25 of the C4150,XC4140,XC4150 fusers as a PM item with the average yield of 200,734"

Are you saying that amongst 25x C4140/C4150/XC4150 fusers you average 200,734 prints before the fuser needs to be replaced. Does not these fusers "Code Out" at their factory spec of 150,000?

Toshiba offers very similar Toshmarks to the above mentioned Sharpmarks. I recalculated all of my breakeven cpc costs at 75% of whatever yield Lexmark says.

[mloudy]

I would like to drill more into your statistics.

"We have replaced 25 of the C4150,XC4140,XC4150 fusers as a PM item with the average yield of 200,734"

Are you saying that amongst 25x C4140/C4150/XC4150 fusers you average 200,734 prints before the fuser needs to be replaced. Does not these fusers "Code Out" at their factory spec of 150,000?

Toshiba offers very similar Toshmarks to the above mentioned Sharpmarks. I recalculated all of my breakeven cpc costs at 75% of whatever yield Lexmark says.

The fuser on these can be reset right from the control panel and in certain situations we do after inspection of the fuser. We have an account with a mixture of 48 of the C4150/XC4140. Some of these run 10K-28K per month. If the fuser doesn't throw an error at some point we have seen these 150K fusers go 300K. Others will error out at 10K, these are the ones we rob the wiring harnesses from.

Lexmark now includes a free fuser PM kit with this series machine so there was likely some big dealers putting some pressure on.

[tsbservice]

I think you need to differentiate this discussion between A3 and A4 fusers.

Most A3 fusers rarely have a problem. The A3 fuser design have the benefit of generations of fusers before it to get the design reliable and long life.

A4 fusers march to different orders. The primary one being low cost and a user replaceable design. It has been the history of A4 product design that if it breaks, do not try and fix it, just replace it.

There is a reason why A4 product cost less. The business model is to sell the mainframe at low costs and make your profits on accessories, software, parts and supplies.

Unfortunately, many salespeople and customers make their sales/purchase decisions based on price.

A used A4 product does not have nearly the value amongst used equipment brokers as does a A3.

To many who herald the A4 revolution sweeping away fleets of supposedly over-spec-ed and oversold A3 product, they rarely focus on the parts aspect.

A3 product will remain in the market for a long time.

Very meaningful post. Very very rare sales guy understands technology that deep. There are some unicorns still alive I guess.

[SalesServiceGuy]

Very meaningful post. Very very rare sales guy understands technology that deep. There are some unicorns still alive I guess.

... also most A3 manufacturers allow you to order individual parts for their fusers enabling you to rebuild the same.

... most A4 manufacturers, who come from the printer world, have the universal solution of replacing an entire unit to resolve any problems.

So, it is obvious, if you are stressed out about A4 fusers, sell A3.

[BillyCarpenter]

... also most A3 manufacturers allow you to order individual parts for their fusers enabling you to rebuild the same.

... most A4 manufacturers, who come from the printer world, have the universal solution of replacing an entire unit to resolve any problems.

So, it is obvious, if you are stressed out about A4 fusers, sell A3.

I never sell A4 when I can sell A3. However, sometimes footprint becomes an issue and I have no choice.