Streaking on 7045

[zedturtle]

Okay got a KM 7045 that I'm now supporting for a customer... dealing with image quality issues, I got a new drum and put it in. I couldn't get anything out of the new drum other than ridiculously light prints, so I replaced the developer (the grid voltage was already at it's lowest possible value and I couldn't get the developer test to complete, so figured this was a good call). And I get the machine up and run test prints (forgetting that the grid voltage was already down to minimum). The prints come out black and get jammed/wrapped in the fuser. I clean out that mess, turn the voltage up and am getting good prints out of the machine. I run a few different tests off the glass and show it to my customer. He's happy and away I go. This was several weeks ago.

Friday, he calls me and says he can't get the machine to run collated sets. I figure this is a simple key-op setting thing (I had previously set it to default to collated sets and figure he wiped it out somehow). Sure enough, getting it to run collated sets is easy enough but he's been running for a while now and he's now got spots/streaking on his output. It's about 3/4 of the way down the page (closer to operator) and about an 1.5-2.0 inch wide running from lead edge to trail edge. They're intermittent, sometimes appearing as dots, sometimes as wavy patterns inside or outside of print areas, and there's one more recurring mark that seems darker and more defined than the others. I turned the grid voltage up, thinking that might help, it did but after you run 50-100 impressions, the stuff comes back.

Other things to know:

1. The machine is at a site where they're refurbishing an old building. Every time I come there it's a new place. While my customer does have a plastic tarp he puts over the machine, the running environment is far from ideal and the paper he's running is not in any better shape.

2. Other than replacing a broken fuser gear, the above stuff is the only work I've done to the machine. He is aware that it's an older machine with a lot of clicks on it, but doesn't seem to be too interested in getting a new machine.

3. Going to point #1, I did look at the filter and it was pretty dirty. I turned it around, but don't have a replacement one at hand.

4. I think the darkest spot may have to do with a small scratch I see on the fuser heat roller... it's about the right place but I don't think the frequency's right. Plus there would have the a ton of loose toner floating around, right?

Help?

[Luther]

reset the drum count and the machine will do an auto adjustment to compensate for the new drum, also when i replace the drums i always replace the blade and charge corona, but resetting the drum count will make a major difference, hope this helps

[zedturtle]

reset the drum count and the machine will do an auto adjustment to compensate for the new drum, also when i replace the drums i always replace the blade and charge corona, but resetting the drum count will make a major difference, hope this helps

Luther, sorry for leaving it out but I reset the drum count once I put the new drum in. It actually kept throwing an error code until I did. Sorry for skipping over it.

I will look at getting a cleaning blade, that does make sense.

[Coptech]

That machine is old enough that any parts will be tough to find. Cleaning blade failures were common as they were a simple bolt in, no spring pressure disign. Charge coronas are also a weak area. The dev unit top seal would go bad and the charge corona would get badly clouded with toner. You should be able to see a bad area on the fuser hot roller if that is where it is coming from.

[RRodgers]

That machine is old enough that any parts will be tough to find. Cleaning blade failures were common as they were a simple bolt in, no spring pressure disign. Charge coronas are also a weak area. The dev unit top seal would go bad and the charge corona would get badly clouded with toner. You should be able to see a bad area on the fuser hot roller if that is where it is coming from.

One the left side of the copier there are a couple of filters that get dirty and need to be cleaned. They pull toner AWAY from around the charge corona area, if they are dirty (filters) then it won't suck away the toner and the toner will stick to the charge corona. (Check the grid, shell and wire) I'm sure they are dirty (again if you cleaned it last time)

HTH as I've ran into this on the same box that I had to go out on a couple of times.
PEACE!

[Mick01]

Hi,
This issue sounds like a clogged "ozone filter" at the back of the machine. The charge unit will soil and the mirror just above the drum unit will get "ozone" build up.
Was a common problem on these models. The filters need to be replaced "especially in a dirty environment" quite frequently.

[zedturtle]

In case anybody cared or was curious it ended up being a couple of things...


the cleaning blade was caked but in good shape once I got it clean.

There was developer/toner in the "lip" between the developer housing and the drum (totally my fault for not catching it when I did the developer change)

there was a small gap in the foam around the toner return and toner was getting on top of the developer housing by this.

and yes, the filters were dirty.

Thanks to all for the help!