Running BW on a color machine

[j_sinclair]

Does anyone have any input on using a color machine to run black and white?

Besides the speed issue, is there any other reason why I shouldn't? Will it break my machine?

 

[inoxx]

It will cost more then on a BW machine.

 

[GJOHN]

Are we talking about a color copier or a digital printer?

 

[damfino]

I can only comment on lower-end, office printers.

As a general rule, running only black on a color laser printer will cause no damage, but it will potentially wear out the color imaging drums. On an Okidata (Xante) it is even more of an issue as the sheets make contact with the drums. On most other printers, contact is only made with a transfer belt.

 

[msaeger]

What brand / model ? It's going to vary by machine. If you have a contract and you are happy with the BW rate I wouldn't worry about it that's the service providers problem.

Stuff I am familiar with only has the ITB touching the color drums when printing color. If you just run a ton of BW and not much color the color parts may not reach life expectancy due to them going bad just from time. If you have a contract you don't need to worry about that though.

 

[SteveL]

With some colour machines the colour devs are continuously "topped up" with fresh toner and if you are only printing in black, the colour toner is not being emptied or used.
This will lead to problems with the colour dev units becoming too full.

The best advice is to ask your service provider.

 

[GusG]

With some colour machines the colour devs are continuously "topped up" with fresh toner and if you are only printing in black, the colour toner is not being emptied or used.

Something like this happens on a DC12 so although it looks tempting with its 50ppm in B&W you have to stop it every so often and print some colour to avoid a breakdown.

I've printed a lot of B&W on a DC3535 and a DC2060 with no apparent issues other than the fact that the quality is much better than most dedicated B&W machines I've seen.

 

[LoneGoose]

I can comment specifically on the NexPress... Running too long a job without it drawing toner from the colour imaging units / developer tanks will upset the toner-developer mix in those unused units. The toner concentration, in other words, will come out of kilter.

Also, you can't physically disengage the colour units while the black unit is running (or vise versa), so even printing black they're still turning against each other and that wears them out just as much as if they were printing. (Wear printing b&w = wear printing CMYK.)

 

[j_sinclair]

What brand / model ? It's going to vary by machine. If you have a contract and you are happy with the BW rate I wouldn't worry about it that's the service providers problem.

I have an inplant right now with a xerox color and bw, and Richo came in with a proposal for 2 c901s. The bw click charge on the color machine is better than my xerox is now, so I am happy with that. I do between 50,000 - 80,000 / month bw, and right now I am always backed up on one or the other machine, never both at the same time, so if I had 2 color machines it might solve most of my bottleneck.

I just want to see what others think of that solution.....does it make sense, or am I asking for problems down the road?

 

[Keness]

Something like this happens on a DC12 so although it looks tempting with its 50ppm in B&W you have to stop it every so often and print some colour to avoid a breakdown.

I've printed a lot of B&W on a DC3535 and a DC2060 with no apparent issues other than the fact that the quality is much better than most dedicated B&W machines I've seen.

Actually with the DC12 it is the exact opposite of what the original guy said... The DC12 can only "top up" black toner when the assembly in question is on the carousel 's (I believe) 3 o'clock position. The "in use" position is the 6 o'clock position. When printing color, the carousel is constantly rotation and it can top up each time it cycles. When it is printing B&W only, though, it never rotates to the "top up" position and therefore it will starve of toner, with your prints getting lighter and lighter. (I may have my position's wrong, but the idea is the same.)

This seems kind of ridiculous to me that they never fixed it. It would be easy to, just in the software, have the machine pause when the toner concentration drops, rotate the carousel to the "top up" position, then rotate back and continue printing. They pause for so many other reasons anyway, what's one more?! haha Sure pauses are a bummer, but it's better than creating a fault!

 

[msaeger]

I have an inplant right now with a xerox color and bw, and Richo came in with a proposal for 2 c901s. The bw click charge on the color machine is better than my xerox is now, so I am happy with that. I do between 50,000 - 80,000 / month bw, and right now I am always backed up on one or the other machine, never both at the same time, so if I had 2 color machines it might solve most of my bottleneck.

I just want to see what others think of that solution.....does it make sense, or am I asking for problems down the road?

Running a lot of black and white won't hurt the machine. The image transfer belt only hits the CMY drums when doing color. When doing B&W only the black drum turns each drum is driven by it's own motor. It won't add toner if you don't use any so if you aren't doing color it won't add color toner.

I wish some of my customers would just have two c900's instead of one and a B&W. They will run color on the c900 then insert that into the rest of the job being run on the B&W it would be easier if they just ran the whole thing on the color.

 

[salecha]

If it is c901 and not c900, will it be same.
What is the differance in Black click charges for c901 & 907.
Thanks.
Salecha

Running a lot of black and white won't hurt the machine. The image transfer belt only hits the CMY drums when doing color. When doing B&W only the black drum turns each drum is driven by it's own motor. It won't add toner if you don't use any so if you aren't doing color it won't add color toner.

I wish some of my customers would just have two c900's instead of one and a B&W. They will run color on the c900 then insert that into the rest of the job being run on the B&W it would be easier if they just ran the whole thing on the color.

 

[einstein999]

If it is c901 and not c900, will it be same.
What is the differance in Black click charges for c901 & 907.
Thanks.
Salecha

Often the click charge has more to do with the sales person and less to do with the printer, so not always a good indicator. It also has to do with the fusing mechanism and paper handling parts of these machines are more complex than a normal B/W only copier/printer. Fusing four layers of toner (CMYK) in different saturations across a page are also a lot different. (edited)

 

[che.c]

Often the click charge has more to do with the sales person and less to do with the printer, so not always a good indicator. (of course some color machines like KM don't even have a black toner, so the black clicks are much higher than a "standard" black toner machine.

Which model doesn't have a black toner?

 

[einstein999]

edited post

 

[[email protected]]

which model?

which model?

Which model doesn't have a black toner?

Is that a trick question ?

The both have black toner!

 

[che.c]

Is that a trick question ?

I haven't heard of any modern full colour printing process that doesn't use black..

Wanted to see if einstein999 had