enx magazine

Of all the problems we encounter in the field, I think fuser jams are the most annoying, only because they seem to come back when we think they are fixed. I have had my fair share of phone calls and e-mails concerning fuser wraps and fuser jams and I always try to encourage the tech to use the Repair Analysis Procedure (RAP) as a starting point. Sometimes the complaints are the same, “the RAP’s don’t fix the problem”. And for the techs that don’t have the technical information, they try to rely on what they see happening and base their repair analysis on that. It’s almost like flying by the seat of their pants with no road maps or compass. If you have a complete and up-to-date service manual at your disposal, I would strongly urge you to use it. And if the RAP doesn’t work, make darn sure that you didn’t make a wrong turn as you go through the RAP. Don’t be afraid to go through it two or three times before you lose faith in the RAP.

As the machine population in the field started to decline, I was always wondering who, if anyone, was servicing the 5090 and Docutech family of copiers. Was it a third party service company or was it recently separated technicians that were picking up the slack? In a way, I was kind of shocked to discover that there were more “self maintainers” doing what we technicians were trained to do. I never really paid much attention to the key operator when I was at an account, but he was watching and absorbing technical information about the maintenance of the copier. So, when service contracts were lost (for one reason or another) they would be able to maintain their copier to some degree. What truly saved the “self maintainers” was the parts support companies. Not only did they sell parts and supplies but they also had a technical support team that was always willing and able to talk the “self maintainer” through most common problems, and all they had to do was purchase their parts from them.

As an independent service provider, the only time I saw a self maintained machine was when they could not fix the problem or if they somehow made matters worse by trying to fix it themselves. This always amazed me to some degree because my initial training was a solid two months at the manufacturers training facility in Virginia. After the training, I was in the field for about 6 months before I was able to say that I was fully trained on the 5090 copier. How a self maintainer became so proficient was beyond me. In all actuality when the machine is properly set up and all fine adjustments are within factory specifications, it could conceivably run for months with little or no maintenance. Occasionally a photoreceptor belt may have to be replaced; Dicorotrons fail and optics get dirty. The electronics that the 5090 and Docutech family employ are very reliable and almost never fail. In my experience, it was rare that Circuit boards actually failed and were the leading cause of a machine malfunction.

A field engineer once made a remark that lasted over 37 years. “When troubleshooting a particular problem (paper jams), don’t waste too much time in the actual area where the jams are occurring. However, troubleshooting should start in the component or area just before the trouble spot”. For fuser jams, it is a good idea to start at the prefuser transport assembly (PL3-B13) 22K14501. Turn off the copier and remove the power cord from the wall to insure safety. Remove the Prefuser Transport Assembly by removing the retaining plate (5mm screw) and sliding the transport out of the copier. There are three areas of

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