OKI ES problems

[andy1]

Hey guys, finally got the es9410 installed and it's amazing, top quality, fast and very reliable (once medias and settings are sorted that is!).
I am having some problems though; wonder if anyone can shed some light? OKI and re-seller tech support haven't managed to help today and they're now closed.

Attached is a 1600dpi scan of some toner mottling I'm having on glossy prints only. This only appears down the centre part of the print and usually only happens for the first few inches, but occasionally it re-appears at the bottom of the page. Clearly this is not supposed to happen. I've tried Xerox and Condat (recommended media) in various weights and both acclimatised and sealed papers, from trays and multi-purpose feeder. Adjusted all the settings the printer has with no improvement or worsening, tried "Glossy - Heavy" and "Heavy Paper" settings...so I'm left thinking it's a faulty consumable, but which one?

Another minor issue as I'm on contract, but still confusing is my black toner just dropped from 70% to 20% then to 0% over the course of 40 A3 full coverage prints. The prints were 100K and 100C with a touch of orange but the black toner is rated at 375 100% A3 prints, so this is strange. The cyan which was equally used only dropped 10%, and weighing the toner cartridges proves there is at least 200g of toner in the black cartridge. More a curiosity than a hindrance, but anyone had this issue?

Thanks again,
Andy

 

[Massy]

We always had the toner mottling problem with an OKI ES3640. It's a lot worse than what's showing on your scan. That happens only when your print on coated stock (gloss & silk).
The service engineers always blame the stock. The only cure we found is to wipe clean the LEDs but that doesn't work all time.

Did you try with new drums?

Our permanent fix was to get a xerox dc242, it will print on whatever you throw at it.

 

[andy1]

Thanks, what's confusing me is the issue didn't appear when I printed a large run of flyers before, they were magenta only with a hint of black. I'll give the LED heads a clean and have another go.

The media used is Condat digital 135gsm, which was actually in the OKI sample book when I viewed the machine in the showroom but it does get worse with Xerox media so maybe that is the issue.

To put it into perspective the letter 'n' in the image is 2 inches tall, so the mottling is a major issue. Besides switching to a Xerox machine are there any solutions if it is the media? Have you ever tried UV varnishing toner prints, or did you find any good media?

Thanks again,
Andy

 

[Happyprinter]

Massy, what is the heaviest gloss cover that your running thru your Zerox DC 242 and how reliable of a machine has it been?

 

[Massy]

Andy: We've tried different samples of digital coated(gloss & silk) paper from all the major paper suppliers and none of them worked. My conclusion was that these OKI machine are not production machines and they are good only with plain uncoated paper so that's what we decided to use it for now. We also use it to print banners up to 1.2 metres long, that's a plus. The fact that there is a direct contact between paper & drum (the toner is transferred directly from drum to paper) that reduces the life of the drums . This system is not as stable as the transfer belt system on the xerox.

Happyprinter: the heaviest gloss card we put through the bypass tray is 350gsm without too much trouble, especially if it's digital stock. The only major problem we encounter sometimes is the image drift from sheet to sheet. Front-to-Back registration can be adjusted easily.

 

[tread]

oki-ni price drops

 

[easiprint]

Common problem on OKI machines. We've just got out of a contract after 6 months because of these quality problems. OKI machines are now being sold as production machines, but they are not - they are office machines at best. Quality of prints varies so much as the life of the drums changes. We were on a contract, and the only way we could keep the quality good enough was to change the drums after only doing 20% of their life - until OKI moaned that we were using too many consumables. Now we have managed to get shot of the OKI, we have installed a Xerox DC250. So much better than the OKI.