Desperately need help with my OKI printer

[Dazzle]

Hi there. I am new to this forum and fairly new to laser printing. I am a wedding stationery designer and I print some of my work in-house on my little OKI c612n. I've had it for 10 months. I ran into a lot of issues and I am really stuck, as with the lockdowns (I'm in the UK), an engineer will not come to look at my printer. Therefore, I've been trying to fix it with some help from OKI technical support over the phone but they haven't been able to help much and it's taking ages as well.

Here's what's wrong with the printer:

1. The prints suddenly started looking very faded (about 50%) but after 2 weeks of talking to OKI, I've finally been sent two new drums (Y & M) and it helped improve the quality. I am now supposed to buy the other two drums, as apparently although the printer is covered by a 12-month warranty, the drums are only covered for 90 days...

2. The other issue is that the entire page comes out slightly dirty with Cyan toner. I've been told that buying a new Cyan drum will help. Would you say that is correct? I am afraid that I'll spend £400 on two new drums and toners and the issues won't be fixed.

3. Currently my main issue is the toner is rubbing off the paper, when the gsm is above 180. My printer is supposed to handle up to 250gsm and it does, but the toner can be rubbed, which obviously shouldn't be happening. This happens with any uncoated card over 180gsm. I've been sent a fuser replacement and it didn't help.

4. Lastly, at the top of the page there seems to be a registration issue. Again, this only happens with paper above 180gsm. Text appears blurry due to this and it only affects the 1/5th top of the page.

Any advice will be GREATLY appreciated. I desperately need my printer to work in order to run my small business and it's been not useable for three weeks now.

Thanks so much,
Daria

 

[Biggs]

As for the cyan contamination I would have to say I new drum/developer assembly should fix this issue. Especially if the drum is past it’s replacement period.

uncoated card stock is tricky even on production digital presses. The sheets density, or gsm, doesn’t account for everything. And unfortunately that’s how they spec the machines. It’s the sheet caliper or thickness that’s the problem. Take a 100# coated sheet and gauge it, then take a 100# uncoated sheet and do the same. The coated will mic in at about 9-10pt and the uncoated will be 12+pt.

my only advice would be to set the machine for its highest possible coated sheet setting and try the uncoated. If there’s fuser speed or transfer voltage settings, set the fuser to the slowest possible setting and transfer voltage to its highest

 

[Dazzle]

As for the cyan contamination I would have to say I new drum/developer assembly should fix this issue. Especially if the drum is past it’s replacement period.

uncoated card stock is tricky even on production digital presses. The sheets density, or gsm, doesn’t account for everything. And unfortunately that’s how they spec the machines. It’s the sheet caliper or thickness that’s the problem. Take a 100# coated sheet and gauge it, then take a 100# uncoated sheet and do the same. The coated will mic in at about 9-10pt and the uncoated will be 12+pt.

my only advice would be to set the machine for its highest possible coated sheet setting and try the uncoated. If there’s fuser speed or transfer voltage settings, set the fuser to the slowest possible setting and transfer voltage to its highest

Hi @Biggs thanks so much for replying, I appreciate that!
The drum's remaining life is still at about 90% (according to estimated supplies graphs) and it's only 10 months old. I would be happy to replace it but I realised I need a different printer. This printer doesn't work with 250gsm well enough (toner is rubbing off) and I can't manually adjust the temperature and the speed. I realised that spending £400 on a printer I bought for £300 and that I am not happy with is not the best plan. I'm thinking of trying another brand (not OKI) that offers print on thick cardstock – is there something you would recommend? Would Xerox VersaLink C7000DN A3 be a good choice? Or Xerox VersaLink C8000? I haven't able to find any other printers that print on cardstock under £1000 so any help would be appreciated.

Thanks so much,
Daria

 

[Biggs]

Those Xerox models are business class printers. They can’t even get you to 100# cover. I can almost guarantee you’ll have the same issues, if not perhaps worse issues

 

[Dazzle]

Those Xerox models are business class printers. They can’t even get you to 100# cover. I can almost guarantee you’ll have the same issues, if not perhaps worse issues

Hi @Biggs I am really grateful for your advice. I could have wasted a small fortune on a printer that wouldn't meet my needs...
Is there a better alternative under $1200? OKI c612 would have been perfect if it wasn't for the fact the toner is not adhering to 250gsm..
If there isn't a better printer in that price range, maybe I should start considering an inkjet? I print mostly on 250 and 300gsm and in 10 months I printed 900 sheets of cardstock and 400 of plain 80gsm paper. Perhaps I don't need a laser printer?
I really appreciate your expert advice!!!
Thank you so much,
Daria

 

[Biggs]

With Inkjet you wouldn’t have to worry about fusing or transfer voltages. However you may run into issues with certain coated media if they’re not inkjet approved, and frequent and expensive ink replacements.

also print heads clogging could potentially be an issue.

that aside, you could probably get a nice Canon or Epson fine art printer that’s within your budget. It’s definitely worth looking into.

 

[mrheidelberg]

Hi @Biggs I am really grateful for your advice. I could have wasted a small fortune on a printer that wouldn't meet my needs...
Is there a better alternative under $1200? OKI c612 would have been perfect if it wasn't for the fact the toner is not adhering to 250gsm..
If there isn't a better printer in that price range, maybe I should start considering an inkjet? I print mostly on 250 and 300gsm and in 10 months I printed 900 sheets of cardstock and 400 of plain 80gsm paper. Perhaps I don't need a laser printer?
I really appreciate your expert advice!!!
Thank you so much,
Daria

Just also bear in mind what models are available in the USA may not be available in the UK.

 

[Dazzle]

Hi @Biggs and @mrheidelberg thank you both for your replies.

Could you please advise on a registration issue I'm having? Colours are misaligned which results in small text and lines looking blurry. I have attached some tests I printed today. What can be causing this top-to-bottom registration issue?

Thank you,
Daria

 

[Dazzle]

I forgot to add that this happens both on 250gsm and 80gsm, although to a different extent.

 

[OkiTech]

what do you mean, you cant manually adjust paper weight setting? You totally should be able to. There must be controls of you media type and weight heavy/ultra heavy from your driver. try to install PS Driver if possible - it should give better, more broad controls VS PCL.
As stated above, it can be tricky sometimes to print certain media, like Linen or Laid cardstocks, but possible. As far as I remember, I was having best results printing on Linen textured cardstock using Gloss Cardstock setting - go figure...
As guys said earlier - if you have Cyan background, I guess it is time for Cyan Drum.
The way this machine is designed - paper gets in to contact drums unlike many other printers use intermediate belt, while this printer is relatively simple and has straight paper path, any paper dust, lint and other contaminants it may carry, can get inside of Imaging unit and affect print quality.
Xerox printer you're referring to has one major issue if used for commercial printing - every printed piece has to pass two 90 degree turns - horizontal - vertical and horizontal again.
If printing cardstock, that created huge issue and sheets will never lay flat after that - good luck with cutting and other finishing/post press steps.
It is tough choice but OKI printers are kinda unique in that retrospect as they have straight paper path which rare configuration.
As far as Ink-Jet, forget it... Coated stocks compatibility is half of the issue, bigger one are uncoated cardstocks as ink will seep in and never ever give you vibrant color, it is highly unlikely that you'd be able to produce saleable product with inkjet, in my opinion. Look, in wide format printing all paper are specifically designed to take that ink and if you put regular uncoated cardstock, colors will always be dull, you can do backflips, they will be dull.
Besides being a copier/printer tech, I also owned a printing shop and did a lot of experimenting...

 

[EliaAlexsta]

hi OKItech I have some issue with my Oki Pro9431, the yellow and magenta colour is faded on printout even though yellow image drum is 61% whiles toner is 80% and magenta image drum is 12% and toner is 50%, black and cyan are okay even cyan drum is 0% but when i do a test print cyan and black comes out well more like the yellow and magenta....please i need help.

 

[OkiTech]

Would you please add a sample page with print quality flaws.
Generally, did you try to clean LED arrays?

 

[EliaAlexsta]

yes I have cleaned the led, is the lead head same as led arrays?

 

[OkiTech]

Yes, LED Head is the same as LED Array. If you cleaned them, the next step would be replacing Yellow Drum also called Imaging Unit.
I see that it has descent amount of life left but often elements inside get contaminated with dust/toner and fail prematurely. Unfortunately it is not a serviceable unit, at least it was not designed to be.

 

[EliaAlexsta]

Okay Tech i will soon order for the yellow drum and see how it goes ....do you know any site with cheaper prices.

 

[OkiTech]

OKI has habit of programming RFID chips according to the market where printer is being distributed. Even if I may know some US Based site that sells these at a good price, Drum purchased out of US may not be recognized by the printer sold in Africa/Asia/Europe etc. This is not 100% but just keep it in mind. You may be better off shopping locally just to be on the safe side. Also, if you're using aftermarket toners - that could be the reason why the Drum had failed. What I am trying to say is that if aftermarket toner is of bad quality and caused drum to fail, it will do the same to your new drum. If I am right and you're using cheap refills / generic toner, please get Original one as as well otherwise these issues may never stop.

 

[EliaAlexsta]

yes I notice there are some after market consumables, actually I bought it as a used product with under 200k impressions . even though I was able to use it to print 300 paper bags which I was impresses with the quality, it was bought from UK , that means all consumables should be bought from UK, the consumables some were made in China which the previous user was using with some originals. I am in Africa Ghana precisely. Thank you for the advice