Thin Straight Lines

Discussion in 'Xerox iGen3, iGen4, & iGen5 Digital Presses' started by richman, Feb 9, 2012.

  1. richman

    richman Senior Member

    Joined:
    Nov 2011
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    Location:
    Rochester, NY USA
    I've always wondered about this and never got a straight answer from anyone. I've been told it is one of the igen's weaknesses, but I'm not sure what even causes it.

    What I am referring to is the very thin perfectly straight lines that always occur in process direction. It looks like someone took a colored pencil and a straightedge and made these short, thin lines that occur in seemingly no particular pattern...could be every 50 sheets or more or less. The line could be black, cyan, magenta (not sure if I've seen yellow). It could be anywhere from 2mm in length up to an inch or so.

    They are not horrible enough to require service. Just a light, short, thin line. And their occurrence rate is so infrequent that it really doesn't matter if I can prevent them or not. I'm just curious.


    Anyone know?
     
  2. drea567

    drea567 Member

    Joined:
    Jul 2008
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    Location:
    Seattle, WA - USA
    I know exactly what you are talking about. My techs have told me that it is a stray piece of toner/developer that has gotten caught on one of the wires that causes it (I can't remember if it was the wire mod or the charge wires). The reason it can be different colors is the clump will be on different stations, and it only lasts a few sheets because the vibrations and vacuum takes care of it eventually. To help prevent this I would ask your tech about cleaning the baffle above each developer housing; it is the flat black plastic piece that covers the whole area above the wire mod, and has a thin opening all the way across. These baffles can get clogged up with chunks of old developer that the machine can't vacuum away well and it ends up spitting back into the machine. One way to test if the baffle is getting too full = pull out the developer housing, take a screwdriver handle or something like that and tap on it. If developer/toner comes flying at your face, it may be time to get a tech to take it apart and do a deep cleaning (err, you may want to wear eye protection for this test).
     
  3. RMiGen

    RMiGen Senior Member

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    Location:
    USA
    This problem happens to me as well. In all separations.

    Ive had it go on for 20+ sheets before, and WAY more frequently then "randomness". Turns out it was a bad toner batch.

    I do what you do, just deal with it since it usually is only an inch or so and does not last for very long./
     
  4. Anderson Moreira

    Anderson Moreira Member

    Joined:
    Jun 2013
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    Location:
    Porto Alegre - RS - Brazil
    Hi Folks,

    I got the same problem today running 1000 prints getting a light, short, thin magenta, cyan and sometime black lines over the print on the left side.
    I thought that was a dirt wire mod and developer housing too but I had cleaned both before running the job and no success at all till finished the job.
    I'll let you guys know if I have any news about it.

    Regards,

    Anderson
     
  5. MarkD

    MarkD Senior Member

    Joined:
    Apr 2012
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    Location:
    UK
    If it is clumps sticking to the wire mod these will produce what you have described. The "only" sure way of removing them is to strip the developer housing down and thoroughly clean it out. Messy and takes approx 2 hrs to do. Just performing a dev change cannot guarantee that you have removed the offending bits

    If your lucky the debris will get purged eventually into the dev waste

    --
    Mark
     
  6. Anderson Moreira

    Anderson Moreira Member

    Joined:
    Jun 2013
    Messages:
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    Location:
    Porto Alegre - RS - Brazil
    Hi MarkD, How r u?

    Im going to talk to my tech Support about it and once again thank you very much for your help.

    Regards,
    Anderson Moreira
     

  7. peels

    peels tree killer :)

    Joined:
    Dec 2010
    Messages:
    1,113
    Location:
    southeast iowa, usa
    not a chance its the ole' "blobs of junk on the magnets" issue?

    I seem to get that often. it will start as a thin line, then turn into a huge line.

    just wipe those magnets off occasionally, cant hurt.

    it started for me as the electrical tape covering the magnets becoming brittle and flaking off, then getting toner and developer buildup....eventually touching the belt....

    it was a hard one to diagnose, because it was random and changed color.

    also had a hair stuck to the roof of the igen, hitting top of belt once.
     
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