KeepItPrinting.com

[TMLguy]

I have a KIP 3000 that will have light areas in prints, but only when the customer prints large banners with bold text. The light areas appear inside of the letters, and are in the shape of the text that is 13" above it. The first 13" of the print is perfect. The light areas will repeat all of the way down. Line drawings and the internal test prints are good. The problem on appears on prints of large banner-like text documents.

I have tryed a new drum, and replaced the image corona and transfer corona. I have checked the corona heights and the voltages on the HVPS. The drum ground checks out and I have replaced the conductive grease on the contact. I have also checked the erase lamps and they do come on.

I have been dealing with KM and they are stumped also.

[KIPDOCTOR]

Text book developer issues. How much mileage on the dev unit?
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What we have gained in technology, we have lost in humanity.

[eboucher]

I've had this issue and it turned out to be fuser temp. If you drop it a bit that might improve your problem.
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I'll have a tech give you a call shortly.

[TMLguy]

The whole machine only has 74K on it and the Dev roller and toner supply roller only have about 30K.

[phan6622]

how old in age though? These dev units "go bad" faster if they are not used a lot. Our highest maintenance dev unit in the field is the lowest volume machine. Just something to keep in mind.

[TMLguy]

The machine is about 4 years old and the dev roller was about 2 years old. I just replaced the Dev roller again and still have the same problem. A few other things I have replaced that have not fixed it: LED head, Drum, image corona, transfer corona, and erase lamps. I belive I posted earlier that the voltages check out on the HVPS and I checked the heights on the corona wires. The drum ground also checks out good.

[phan6622]

Replaced the dev roller... Did you replace the supply roller? Sounds like you have a nice supply of parts to swap. Have you swapped the whole dev unit with a known good one?

You can stop a print mid cycle and inspect the toner in the letters on the paper after drum / before fuser to rule out a fuser issue. You may be able to inspect the toner on the drum to potentially rule out a transfer issue with the same test.

If the supply roller was also replaced, then it's an interesting problem and the fuser / transfer tests will tell us a lot.

[TMLguy]

I did not replace the supply roller. I was able to stop the print and see that it was light before the fuser, however I could not get the timing right to see it on the drum.

I have a hard time believing it is from the dev unit since it is not a whole area that is light. I will try to re-explain it.

Internal prints are good, no matter what size. Most of what the customer prints is good, such as line drawings. We only see the problem when they print a sheet of just text for a large banner. The test banner we were using was a 36" x 24" sheet with three rows of 4.5" block letters. The first 13" of the sheet was perfect. The first two rows of text were dark and solid. The third row would have light areas inside the letters in the shape of letters from the first row.

EX: If there was the letter "A" on row three then you would also see the letter "S" inside of it from what was printed before. The letter "A" would be dark exept for the light letter "S" inside of it.

It is like reverse ghosting. It is worst in the center but it is across the whole page. The problem does not get worse on longer sheets and the shapes of the light letters do not seem to stack.

If the dev unit was the problem, wouldn't the light areas be from top to bottom and the whole area light, not light areas in the shape of an image?

KM and I have worked at it thinking it is transfer or erase. I have replaced and checked everything along those lines.

I do not have a whole dev unit to try swapping.

This machine is driving me nuts. I have been working on it for almost 3 weeks. KM has no idea and KIP won't help. This site has saved me so many times before, I am hoping you guys can pull it off again.

[KIPDOCTOR]

Sure sounds like developer to me. Does this unit have a brush type supply roller or the older foam roller?
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[Chazbo]

to me this issue is toner sticking to the fuser roller, becoming sticky, and pulling toner off of the letter image that follows on the print. measure the distance between occurrences and see if it equals the circumference of the fuser roller. fuser rollers do run hotter toward the center. you may have paper lint build up on the fuser thermister.
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[scott]

I had an 8000 do the reverse ghosting trick. The image was not transferring completely which was blocking the printhead from writing the image to the drum on the next revolution. I tried everything I could think of, I finally had to raise the transfer wire height and cleaning roller voltage.

Having only dealt with this once, any of the following advice is pure speculation and should be treated accordingly.

If you pull the left side cover off you can look in and watch the paper as it crosses the transfer assembly. You want to stop the paper after the first 13" are through, maybe more. If you look at the top of the drum, I bet you will find you can see the letters on the drum, after the cleaning roller.

The causes could be: LED writing too dark, the developer unit putting down too much toner, insufficient transfer, insufficient discharge or cleaning roller problems.

Double check your HV outputs. All of them. With a voltmeter.
Check the cleaning roller voltage and continuity between the board and the cleaning roller shaft.
Clean or replace the cleaning roller.
Rebuild or replace the T/S assembly.
Check the discharge LED's.
Check your density with a grayscale print. You need to have a good gradation or you will have problems. Kip usually includes "kipcolor.plt" which makes a good grayscale test. If you don't have it, I can get it to you.

If everything checks out and you still have the problem, you are going to have to go out of spec.
In no particular order try the cleaning roller voltage, transfer and sep wire height, the transfer voltage. Maybe sep voltage.




I hope this helps, if I think of anything else I will post it.



Scott
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Any resemblance to reality is purely coincidental.

[TMLguy]

The dev unit has the older foam supply roller.

The light area occurs before the fuser, plus there is no toner build up on the fuser roller.

I have raised the transfer wire by 3mm and it didn't chage so I put it back. The voltages are in spec. I did increase the transfer voltage a little and the machine would either still have the problem or code out. I have not tried changing the cleaning, so I will look into that.

If I have to replace the supply roller I will try that too. (manager getting pissed over the money we have spent on this thing. ) How do you guys remain profitable with some of these machines? This one has been killing us for a long time.

[slyman]

My opinion...and no other else talk about it, the fuser speed....it's look like the fuser run too fast so the paper don't touch the surface of the drum after a while ( 13" of the lead edge print is correct as your original post ). I had similar problem and slowly the fixing fix my problem. you can see it when you remove the left panel.

Otherwise, the other guys are right about supply roller, the brush style improve the transfer of toner to the dev roller. I suggest to replace it too.

[phan6622]

TMLguy wrote:

The dev unit has the older foam supply roller. The light area occurs before the fuser, plus there is no toner build up on the fuser roller. I have raised the transfer wire by 3mm and it didn't chage so I put it back. The voltages are in spec. I did increase the transfer voltage a little and the machine would either still have the problem or code out. I have not tried changing the cleaning, so I will look into that. If I have to replace the supply roller I will try that too. (manager getting pissed over the money we have spent on this thing. ) How do you guys remain profitable with some of these machines? This one has been killing us for a long time.

Others try to operate with the philosophy that they will lose money one one machine and make profit on another 20 to compensate. We are not a huge dealer, so we try to make money on every machine. When the service contract is up you can try to increase based upon specialty printing as stated above. Depending on how competitive your market is, you just may be able to do it. Be honest with the customer and explain why it will cost more and that you want to provide good quality service...

[crump]

I'm curious ..