ricoh aficio 650 developer

[Shadow1]

I've been working on Ricoh's for 11 years, and I've never seen the 1 year thing either. (stumbled across the soft reboot in a service manual years ago, but AFAIK it's never been taught in any of the classes - pity.)

I can see pressure rollers going bad after a year in service, but I've had drums and developer sitting in my car stock longer than that (oddball machine) and had zero problems with them.

I have had drums get light fatigued in analog machines when the customer leaves the plated open, but that's not gonna happen in a digital. I've also had feed rollers and transfer rollers dry rot, and developer for some of the new machines REALLY doesn't like being left in a car in the Mississippi summer heat. I'm just wondering what could possibly age a drum or developer inside a barely used machine as opposed to in the back of my hot/cold bumpy car.

[KopyKat]

I've been working on Ricoh's for 11 years, and I've never seen the 1 year thing either. (stumbled across the soft reboot in a service manual years ago, but AFAIK it's never been taught in any of the classes - pity.)

Cuz most of the instructors hardly ever see the real world. Though I have had some great instructors who have taught little extras like the soft reboot and other goodies...depends on who's teaching and how much you want to learn the little tricks. I've been in classes where there has barey been time to fit in the basics let alone extras. Usually due to that "one tech" in the class that "knows everything" and tells everyone how good he is.

I have had drums get light fatigued in analog machines when the customer leaves the plated open, but that's not gonna happen in a digital. I've also had feed rollers and transfer rollers dry rot, and developer for some of the new machines REALLY doesn't like being left in a car in the Mississippi summer heat. I'm just wondering what could possibly age a drum or developer inside a barely used machine as opposed to in the back of my hot/cold bumpy car.

In the color machines...auto color calibration. In the B&W process control running at intervals. Cycles on the units not necessarily pages output.

[Shadow1]

Process Control certainly eats revolutions off a drum, but only when the machine is actually used - if it's not turned on or sitting idle, no ProCon. I can see that factor cutting a PM in half but I never heard of it in terms of a 3 month or 3000 mile oil change. Maybe because I work mostly print shops and HV machines - sometimes I PM a machine 4 or more times a month...

[KopyKat]

Process Control certainly eats revolutions off a drum, but only when the machine is actually used - if it's not turned on or sitting idle, no ProCon. I can see that factor cutting a PM in half but I never heard of it in terms of a 3 month or 3000 mile oil change. Maybe because I work mostly print shops and HV machines - sometimes I PM a machine 4 or more times a month...

Most of my HV (60ppm or more) machines run much better when they are 'run hard and put away wet'. I think because they weren't designed to be sitting on the sidelines waiting for a user to walk up an make 3 copies now and then.

I've got a couple 90ppm machines that are barely used at all...1-2K monthly at best...and I see them more often (based on copies between calls) than the 90ppm+ that run 500-700K and up per month.

[schooltech]

Hehe----rode hard----


There are still customers that cannot understand when I've talked to them about having an 'appropriate' machine for their environment.

Right, that's why there are little Toyota minitrucks that are pulling a 38' 5th wheel toy-hauler. Oh, I'm sure some have tried!!!

KopyKat, I totally agree with you. At least now I am in control of who gets what, and not a salesman, so the 'appropriate' machines are placed into their respective environments. Damn, what a concept.

[Shadow1]

Absolutely Correct - I see a Pro1356 machine once a month to PM it when it's running 500-700k in that month, but when they don't have any jobs for it and they only run 10k I'll see 3 or 4 times for oddball stuff.

It's actually better to push a smaller machine than to underabuse a big one.

[Klydon]

It really can depend on the machine model and environment as far as how long it will run. I used to work on a pile of 6750's back in the day and you were going to visit that machine around once a month and it didn't matter if it was running 2500 a month or 50k+ a month. For 4418's, it was not uncommon to have those go 1 year plus and be working perfectly fine and they would also hold up under a heavy workload as well.

5733 with less than 20k a month was a fairly good machine. More than that and you started taking a chance on it becoming the biggest piece of crap going. (350/450 family is much the same way really).

It really does come down to using the right tool for the job.

For developer life, I don't know that it there is official info on it, but I have talked to a lot of Ricoh people over the years, be it the hot line, instructors, or RTMs and that is pretty much their take. Drums do have a finite age and what changes with them is their sensitivity to charges. Having process control helps, but it doesn't fix the drums overall sensitivity and the result is CQ is just not as sharp as it would be with a new drum. There might be a quick blurb on it in the service manuals from back in the day dealing with organic based drums, but I don't recall any recent schools talking about it either. Bottom line is for normal use, it "should" not come into play and normal use is what most Ricoh schools are based around. Anything outside of that is of course outside recommended manufacturers guildelines and should not apply, so they won't necessarily talk about it these days.

I should add this is not something (drum sensitivity) that is unique to Ricoh, but it is something any organic drum based system has to deal with.

One final note on the developer. While in a car (or elsewhere) it is sealed. Once open is usually when your 1 year guildeline starts. I am guessing it has to do with what the developer is made out of that when exposed to the elements, it eventually will get to the point it will not perform like it should.