Banding and Streaking Issues

[LazyTony]

Hello all. New to the forum here. Been lurking for a while and taking advantage of your fault code wiki. So thanks a bundle for that. I have an issue we have been dealing with here for a few months and thought it was enough for me to register and present the issue to the collective mind.
For the past few months, maybe even six months we have been having issues with out machine banding during runs. Sometimes it takes longer than other times but it happens all of the time. It shows in any color we do. Almost like thing white lines throughout the whole sheet, long edge. Stock type doesn't matter either, if we are running a saddle stitch book with 60# offset text and an 80# gloss cover it shows on both in the same place on both consistently once it has started.
When it occurs, we typically do a restart, a cleaning, a cmt, and sometimes a 951 and it will resolve the issue for a while but it will come back. The techs haven't been able to figure it out, and from what I understand they aren't taking the issue very seriously anyway. I am not here when they are normally, I am the weekend operator.
I saw somebody post something similar with color not staying and they had the middle etac sensor. Maybe this is the same issue and a possible solution. I will try to get more info from my week guy and my manager, seeing what has been tried already, etc.

I had one more thought. The only thing that has really changed since this started happening on both of our machines is the paper we use to run our CMT. We got a new manager around January and shortly after he requested we start using Mowhawk 80# gloss text. It is a good bright sheet, but we switched to it and then the problem started consistently. On both machines, and that is the only common denominator I can think of. New cmt stock on both machines and both machines get the issue. My manager dismissed this thought after I suggested we switch stocks for about a month and see if it improves. But maybe if I get enough feedback on it, possibly people having a similar issue with CMT stock I can present it to him.

Sorry for such a wordy introduction but I am hoping to maybe get a little insight into this situation.

 

[Milo Wilson]

The paper would be the first thing to try since that is the only common denominator. I can't see it being an ETAC sensor because that is only used for density measurement and would affect the overall print density.

 

[richman]

Hi Tony, does your streaking problem look similar to this? (see attachment) This was the problem I was referring to in my post. It turns out the faulty ETAC sensor was not the cause of the problem. I didn't follow up on my post, but I'm curious if you're having the same issue.

 

[Neess]

Richman! That looks like a problem we are dealing with everyday, but only when running silk stock, xerox says it something in the paper wich gets on the PR belt.

did you find a solution?

 

[MarkD]

That is Fuser Oil contamination on the PRB by the looks of it. Main cause is paper stock. It needs replacing to a better known stock.

--
Mark

 

[Neess]

MarkD, it appears on our photoreceptor when we only run simplex silk stocks.. We see it on our nuvera100 aswell, wich does not use fuser fluid

 

[richman]

Hmm, now that I think of it we do run preprinted stocks a lot. Could be talc from the paper transferring to the belt. But strangely, all I do to fix this is run CMT a few times and it goes away. Maybe it just cleans itself up? It never has been a huge problem since we are just printing K-only addresses on the preprinted stock (so it doesn't show up on that). When I go to a higher coverage job, I have to run CMT to clean it up. Very interesting though, all this time I thought the machine had a problem, but it was our paper. This was helpful, thanks guys.

And Neess, I guess in your case you'd have to keep cleaning the belt. What a pain. Have you tried other paper manufacturers for your silk stock? We run silk once in a while, never had a problem.

 

[Neess]

What is CMT?

Well i just ask my onsite technician to clean the belt with car wax, if he isnt there i just change the belt.

We have tried another silk stock with same outcome, and we wont pay for xerox silk stock.

 

[richman]

Oh I see. Well that's no fun haha. CMT is color maintenance tool (for igen4).

 

[Shibi TVM]

print will come like above scan copy if we change new PR Belt and start prints
with out running xerographic-setup and calibration

 

[Shibi TVM]

alos check you toner purge value

 

[RMiGen]

Any time we run a large amount of masters, our belt gets destroyed like this.

I do not have CMT because I am on an iGen3. What is the equivalent of a CMT on and iGen3?

Usually I just replace the belt. I have noticed my belts have those "streaks on them" more often then not about 2 months ago. Then for some reason this last belt I got 1.6m out of. (usually was only lasting 500k)

 

[LeeB]

A operators best friend is a full page halftone of CMYK at 60% and at 30%

Have your art department set up a pdf for you. I page cyan, 1 page, magenta, 1 page yellow, 1 page black.

Run that pdf anytime that you have a problem and you can see if you issue is isolated to one color or all of them.

If its all of them chances are it is your belt or something related to all four colors.

If it is only regulated to one color then well you go to that colors charge station and trouble shoot.

You can also swap one charge station with another so see if the problem moves. Say if Magenta looks like crap and you put the magenta into cyan and now cyan looks like crap then you have now isolated the problem.

This may not pertain exactly to the streaking that you are having but it may help you in the future with other problems.

I have had a ton of oil contamination on both of my igen 4s.
And yes certain papers will absolutely destroy and contaminate the print engine.

The cleaning housing is always a good place to look and see what is going on. If your flicker bars are all crusty and chunked up full of toner then chances are you are experiencing oil contamination.

And if you are changing belts without cleaning our your cleaning housing and replacing contaminated flicker bars, cleaning blades, and cleaning brushes then you are just transferring all of that oil right onto your new belt.

Technically operators are not supposed to deal with the cleaning housing but it is really easy and sure beats waiting for the tech to come in and do it.

Hopefully some of that info will help you stop yourself from pulling some hair out.

 

[richman]

Hi Tony, does your streaking problem look similar to this? (see attachment) This was the problem I was referring to in my post. It turns out the faulty ETAC sensor was not the cause of the problem. I didn't follow up on my post, but I'm curious if you're having the same issue.

To follow up on the streaking issue, as MarkD pointed out, the cause of this is indeed fuser oil contamination on the PR Belt. It occurs mainly when we run preprinted stocks. Some stocks have difficulty absorbing fuser oil and will carry it throughout the machine. On long runs, the oil will get to the STAB when duplexing which will transfer to the PR then to the cleaner housing. My technician thought ETACs were failing or there was a DFE communication issue. After further investigation I found the problem to be fuser oil. Because changing the paper is not an option, the fix is to fully clean the cleaner housing, and run a few hundred clean up sheets through the machine. Clean up sheets will do the trick. Also, cycling the machine down and up a few times will allow the cleaner housing to clean the belt even better.


LeeB summed it up pretty well.