Anatomy of a Maintenance Kit  By Bill Tucker 2/6/2007

Many businesses purchase a maintenance kit and they don’t quite understand why they need one or what there purpose is.  I will explain the purpose, definition and results of installing and not installing the maintenance kit at recommended intervals in laser printers and copier machines.

Definition

An assembly of Consumable parts and supplies that are replaced at regular intervals in many types of office equipment.  Copier and Laser Printer are most likely to have a kit that needs to be replaced.

Common Replacement Items

•Fuser assembly- heat and pressure

•Feed and PU Rollers

•Transfer rollers

•Corona wires

•Cleaning felts

•Grids

•Filters

•Sep pads

Purpose

•Keeps machine running at optimum performance.  Toner yields decrease while machine is not running at optimum. 

•Copy and print Quality may be affected.  Fuser wear will cause toner to not be fused as it passes through the fuser assembly.  Double imaging and streaking is the print defect.

•Eliminates down time.  Feed rollers wear out and cause misfeeding.

Installation

Just replacing the items of a maintenance kit is not enough.  You must first clean the machine inside and out.

•Inside: Vacuuming the paper dust and toner out of the inside of the machine is critical.  These contaminates can find their way in to the photoconductor area and cause premature drum blade wear.  This exhibits itself as streaking, double imaging and ghosting.

•Cleaning toner, and paper dust in the paper path with a cloth.  This help make sure toner does not build up and create jamming.  This is especially true on the fuser guide. 

•Cleaning mirrors, glass and slit glass.  Dirty mirrors can cause back grounding.  Dirty platen glass can have spots and a copier will copy this on to your original.  Keeping the slit glass clean can prevent lines on the copies.  I have an entire article on this subject entitled, “Why are there Lines on my Copies and How to get rid of them.”

•Cleaning all rubber rollers that are not replaced with the maintenance kit.

•Clean all corona blocks and corona assemblies.  By cleaning corona assemblies consistently you will keep them from arching.

Skipping Installation interval. 
Some think they are saving money if they skip a Maintenance kit at recommended interval.  You may get buy with it but you will sooner or later pay the price.  Your machine will go down at the most inopportune time.

The equipment will slowly deteriorate and will become less than what it should be.

Think of it as a car.  When things start going bad and you skip replacing them eventually it gets out of hand and it becomes junk.  This is loss of your investment.

Where to get maintenance kits

Buy far the best place to purchase maintenance kits would be from your own service provider.  My point is that you should have your machine cleaned at the time you replace the kit.

•Can I install it myself?  Yes, but you really should spend the time and give it a good cleaning.  You could purchase a 3m vacuum.  I advise never to blow your machine out with canned air, unless you strip off all of the covers and assemblies.  The reason is that you never know what you are blowing on to a circuit board.  By blowing it out the toner and dust will go into the bearings and gears and cause unnecessary wear and damage.

Example of a Laser Printer Kit

Hewlett Packard LaserJet 4000 Printer Maintenance Kit

Replaced every 200,000 pages

Equivalent Part Numbers: C4118-69003, C4118-67909, C4118-69001, C4118-69001, C4118A, C4118-67902 C4118-67909-BU 

LJ 4000/N, 4000T/TN, 4050/N/se, 4050T/TN
LaserJet 4000 series Maintenance kit (120V) - Includes (new) 120VAC fusing assembly, transfer roller, six pickup/separation rollers, MP Tray/Tray 1 pickup roller, vinyl gloves, and instruction guide

Example of Copier Maintenance Kit

Toshiba 6570 Digital Plain Paper Copier

Periodical Maintenance every 400,000 copies

Drum Blade

Drum Separation Claw

Fur Brush

Drum

Ozone Filter

Charger wire

Charger wire cleaner

Grid

Developer material

Toner filter

Upper heat roller (Teflon roller)

Lower heat roller (rubber roller)

Upper separation claw

Lower separation claw

Cleaning roller 1

Cleaning roller 2

Cleaning roller 3

Cleaning roller 4

Transfer belt

Transfer belt power supply roller

LCF pick-up roller

LCF feed roller

LCF separation roller

I recommend replacing maintenance kits at recommended intervals, but I also agree with others that the interval may be longer or shorter that the OEM recommends.  If you follow this pattern of cleaning and installation I believe you will save money and down time, which of course the old saying is true, “Time is Money!” 

If this article has helped you, please drop me a line and let me know. 

I am available to answer questions by e-mail.  I enjoy helping others and will return your e-mails and questions as time permits. 

Our website sells maintenance kits, toner and supplies for many different makes and models. www.tonerovernight.com

Bill@TonerOvernight.Com