MPC 6000 / 7500 Inverter warps & Loses image density.

**turbojetboy** · 08-27-2009

Hi Folks, this is my first post, I am a Ricoh tech in Australia. We have sold hundreds of the above model in our locality and we are seeing a very large percentage of these machines exhibiting jaming in the inverters as a result of the quite obvious warping of the plastic frames within this assy. I have logged a "case" with our national support and they do admit to "some problems" with this area of the machine. We have found that the plastics become so warped as to cause problems within 3 months or 200,000 pages. I would like to know how widespread this problem really is??

The other problem that is also very frequent and affects more than 50% of our mif is the identified problem of losing density - particularly with the black. We have case logged with this as well. The machines always start off nice and strong and after only a few weeks or 20,000 approx pages the K density is about half or less! We have been following advice from national and have tried new dev, drums, entire assys, id sensors etc - all to no avail, they just keep on doing it. I have looked at all the threads here on this model range and have seen others having this problem - but with no answer in sight. Does anyone have any idea what causes this and what may fix it?

What a great site this is and i look forward to being an active member of it. Cheers.

**Vulkor** · 08-27-2009

I can agree with you on the Density. We've got two in the field and the Black just isn't very deep. I've got 9040s and 4045 Savins that make better and richer blacks.

**Shadow1** · 08-27-2009

This seems to be a VERY common problem - a large number of my machines have this problem, and I haven't found a good solution yet.

I'm sure the majority of the problems we have with these could easily be fixed with firmware, but so far they haven't done it.

Well maybe - The most heavily used box I have is set up with an 8100 Fiery and there's a tech bulletin warning if you upgrade to the latest firmware you also need to update the Fiery System Software which hasn't been released yet. (to me at least - some of you may have access to it.)

To the machine's credit, when it works it does make a better image, and it stays a lot more consistent. On the other hand I'd like to tar and feather the engineer who redesigned the PCU and made it take 3 times longer to rebuild - That was definately NOT an improvement.

**turbojetboy** · 09-01-2009

Here are some pics trying to show some of the warping I see so often on the inverters. The guide with the screwdriver next to it has been removed and placed up against a straight edge to try and show how bad it warps, this guide is the swinging one on the underside of the inverter and seems to be the one responsible for most of the jamming. Time and again I have replaced this assy and checked back with the customers and they invariably tell me that the machine has been "transformed" - jamming gone.

**Shadow1** · 09-01-2009

I've seen that guide warped, but never enough to cause a problem. Usually what I see is the duplex/invert gate is warped, but that's on top. Sometimes the D4 guide is bent and fell off the hinge pins.

That's warped worse than I have ever seen them even after several PM's. I suspect you may have some unusual heat buildup - Check your filters and make sure none of the fans are blocked. The install guide will have clearances from the back and sides of the machine. I had an old analog machine that gave me jamming problems going into the fuser until I realized it was shoved flat up against the wall and the exit for the transport and fuser fans was blocked.

**jarhead2020** · 09-02-2009

I have talked to our regional rep about the density. He said it is a known flaw in the machine and they have not come with a fix yet. A B132 machine has much better black density. About the warping that is bizzare I have never seen that much before and I service some with 600,000 pages on them or more. You guys must have got a bad lot or have overheating problems like was mentioned before. If I hear of any thing new on the density I will post it. I tried to make the machine do process control more frequently so it could keep up but that can be dangerous because the toner can explode inside of the color pcu's. On some machines it has helped however. I should have wrote down what SP's I changed.

**msaeger** · 09-02-2009

I have seen that part of the B132 warped like that and it didn't really cause a problem. Maybe you could set the auto off timer shorter ?

I don't really think the PCU's are that much harder to rebuild than the B132 was. I just wish they used coronas instead of charge rollers in all the colors.

I haven't had people complain about density just lines on the copies. I wonder if the pro c550 would be any different they did change the toner.

**stephend** · 09-09-2009

Originally Posted by turbojetboy

Hi Folks, this is my first post, I am a Ricoh tech in Australia. We have sold hundreds of the above model in our locality and we are seeing a very large percentage of these machines exhibiting jaming in the inverters as a result of the quite obvious warping of the plastic frames within this assy. I have logged a "case" with our national support and they do admit to "some problems" with this area of the machine. We have found that the plastics become so warped as to cause problems within 3 months or 200,000 pages. I would like to know how widespread this problem really is??

The other problem that is also very frequent and affects more than 50% of our mif is the identified problem of losing density - particularly with the black. We have case logged with this as well. The machines always start off nice and strong and after only a few weeks or 20,000 approx pages the K density is about half or less! We have been following advice from national and have tried new dev, drums, entire assys, id sensors etc - all to no avail, they just keep on doing it. I have looked at all the threads here on this model range and have seen others having this problem - but with no answer in sight. Does anyone have any idea what causes this and what may fix it?

What a great site this is and i look forward to being an active member of it. Cheers.

Welcome to this website and welcome in the wonderful world of C6000.
No problems with inverters here in W Canada bu yup black it will start fading after 20K. Try to determine what is the coverage and the environment of your customers and increase the toner supply clutch rotation for K if this the only one that cause this problem. Good luck

**Timmytronic** · 10-28-2010

Hiya. This has been covered under another thread, copier blowing toner, but to keep the density up remove the dev one way orga arm bearing at the end of the drum unit it stops the machine from dumping the dev in the system and thus can keep up with the measley 10% dev in the toners. With the lines, also in another thread under lines in copies. Solved by putting the black unit springs, different part number, onto the CMY units. Replace the wax bars first tho. 3 x the life before lines appear.

E Winter · 10-29-2010

It's funny but all our MPC6000 and A5560 are running under low volume condutions, that's why I haven't recognized any temperature problems at this guide plate. But I can confirm the MPC6000 has indeed weak color and black levels - even on color copy papers. Fortunately I have only one customer who has a problem with this issue but I have my own opinion and compared to most other MFPs (like the smaller MPCs or other brands) the solid colors sucks on this machine.

I also recognizes that the machine is producing way too much waste toner. Recently I had a MPC with a full waste tone box after ~35k b/w and 35k color prints (within a year). Hard to image how much $$ is literally wasted for good.