Troubleshooting Guides

Review our technical support manuals to gain tips on proper installation and maintenance of components and machines.

General Cleaning Of Machine

All toner cartridges whether new or recycled, will leave minimal amount of toner in the machine. If the toner residue is left to accumulate, it could lead to printing problems. Regular cleaning of equipment with a vacuum or cloth is essential. A professional cleaning is needed at least once a year depending on printing capacities.

To prevent marks on paper, window cleaner can be used to clean or remove dirt particles from the glass copy board of a copier.

OPC Drum

An OPC drum is a cylinder with an organic or synthetic photo conductor coating. To ensure that the drum can be used again, clean it with dry filtered air or a drum cleaning solution. Ascertain that the unit is protected from long period of light exposure at all times.

Rollers

Charge rollers: Clean the surface with a primary charge roller cleaning solution to remove any embedded toner.

Feed rollers: Clean the surface with a damp cloth to remove paper dust.

Gears

The gears should be vacuumed where loose toner is visible. Too much toner accumulation on the gears would result in improper copying function.

Wiper Blade

A wiper blade is used to remove excess toner from the charge roller after each rotation. Regular checking of the wiper blade for wear or damages is essential. Replace when necessary.

Corona Wire

Corona wire is a very thin and delicate part found in a metal trough just below the paper. Be cautious when cleaning as it could easily be broken. Below are ways to clean the corona wire:

Vacuum the trough as thoroughly as possible, and clean with a cotton swab dampened with water.

After the toner is removed from the trough, gently brush the length of the corona wire with a dry cotton swab to remove any dust or debris.

Charge Wire

Charge wire is found inside the toner cartridge and used to charge the drum. Your equipment will have a corona cleaning tool that is located either on the floor of the machine or next to the corona wire, or under the copy board cover on the copier. Insert the tool into the slot on the cartridge and move the length of the slot about 5-10 times. Removing dust from the cartridge’s charge wire will prevent most vertical streaking problems.

Solutions to Common Printing Problems

Light Or Dark Copies

  • Adjust the exposure settings accordingly.
  • Check the toner supply to prevent low toner concentration.
  • Adjust the primary corona wire height accordingly.
  • OPC drum could be reaching the end of its lifespan
  • Clean dirty optics, lenses and mirrors.
  • Replace the developer to prevent improper toner concentration.

 

Blank Copy

  • Replace broken or missing corona wire.
  • Replace faulty corona block contacts.

 

Lines On Paper

  • Issue with fuser roller
  • Exposure lamp with blackened cell has to be replaced.
  • Foreign substances on the scanner glass or mirrors
  • Drum or developer unit malfunction (only applies to multi-component copier systems)
  • Drum blade malfunction resulting in large lines vertically down the page

 

Smudges On Paper

  • Replace fuser lamp, temp fuse or thermistor to prevent low fusing temperature.
  • Lubricate or replace springs or rollers to prevent low fuser roller pressure.
  • Replace spent upper fuser cleaning roller.
  • Replace blown lamp, thermistor or thermo-fuse.

 

Dots Or Spots On The Page

  • A random array of spots repeated throughout the document could be a defect in the drum. Replacing drums should fix the issue.
  • Clean or replace the contaminated corona wire to prevent white spots on copy.

 

Deletions On Copy

  • Clean or replace contaminated corona wire
  • Replace scratched or damaged drum
  • Replace scratched or damaged fuser roller

 

Latent Image On Copy

  • Replace faulty drum cleaning blade.
  • Replace faulty upper fuser cleaning blade.
  • Replace faulty upper fuser cleaning roller.

 

Uneven Image Density

  • Adjust corona wire height accordingly.
  • Replace scratched or damaged drum.
  • Replace developer to prevent uneven toner concentration.
  • Replace exposure lamp that has blackened cell.

Wiper Blade Flip

Improper or lack of lubrication can lead to blade flip, where the centre of the blade edge stick to the drum during rotation.

When this happens, the entire blade flips backward at once, possibly producing deep scratches in the drum coating. In addition, the blade may be torn out of its holder, causing blade adhesive to stick to the drum.

It is highly recommended to apply Magworks Wiper Blade Lubricant to the edge of the wiper blade and at the same time, pad some Drum Padding Powder onto drum surface to provide enough lubrication.

Damaged Recovery Blade

If the recovery blade is rippled or nicked, toner that is scraped from the drum by the wiper blade will fall onto paper. The amount of damage to the recovery blade will determine the amount of toner that will drop onto the page.

Dirty Mag Roller

Mag roller is an important component that determines the amount of toner being supplied to the drum. If the mag roller is not cleaned along with its contacts, the supply and transfer of toner to the drum is greatly affected. Dirty mag rollers and mag roller contacts are responsible for many print quality defects such as light print, backgrounding or shading, etc.

These defects can be greatly minimised by simply cleaning the contacts and mag roller itself.

Remove mag roller from the cartridge. Wipe down with a non-abrasive lint free cloth. If any toner is embedded in the surface of the roller, clean the entire roller with 99% isopropyl alcohol. The spring contact plate should be free of old dried conductive grease, and a fresh dab of grease can be applied.

OEM spring contacts do wear down, causing resistance to the bias charge on the mag roller. We recommend replacing the OEM spring when necessary.

Worn Mag Roller End Felt or Mag Roller Sealing Blade

Another component that greatly affects yield performance is a worn or deformed mag roller end felt or sealing blade. A deformed end felt or sealing blade will cause a build up of toner at the end of the active section of the sleeve. This excessive accumulation of toner piles up close to the drum and may even come into contact with the drum surface and then transfer into the waste hopper. You may notice more toner accumulated inside the waste hopper of a used cartridge. Since this occurs outside the print region or off page, it is not detectable in a print test. However, it is depleting the supply toner, thereby reducing page yield and accelerating drum wear.

Bad Wiper Blade

This will show as either a grey line approximately 1/8 inch thick or as shading across the entire page. In either case there will be a film of toner on the drum surface that matches the defect. The slightest little nick or scratch will allow unwanted image to pass through and may result in a ghosted repeated image, scratch marks, or lines on the page.

Worn Out Drum

This will usually show up as shading on the right side of the page. It will usually start right from the edge of the page and work in towards the centre. The pattern will normally look like tyre tracks.

Light Damaged Drum

This will show up as shaded area on the test print that should be white. It will repeat three times per page.

Chipped Drum

This will show as a dot or series of dots that repeat three times per page. Any drum defects will repeat three times per page based on the drum circumference of 3.66 inches.

Scratched Drum

This is shown by a very thin, perfectly straight line that runs from the top to the bottom of the test page.

Dirty PCR Connection

This will show as horizontal dark black bars, across the page, or as shading throughout the page.

A Dirty or Defective Primary Charge Roller (PCR)

Located inside the cartridge, this will show on the test print as vertical grey streaks down the page or as a gray background throughout the page, or as ghosting where part of a previously printed area is repeated.