Xerox DC260 with light production finisher - does it need cleaning??

[AJeffrey]

Hello,

I have a problem with my Xerox machine. I know that I am working out of spec, but the production finisher is having problem adding a pre-printed 300g cover to lesser weight pages. What happens is the cover skews considerably, and inconsistently, so each booklet produced is different to the previous.

I have tweaked a levelling piece in the machine that would appear to adjust the skew. But adjusting this piece to its end limit either way, still produces a skewed booklet. I can occasionally get a good booklet, but its at a 1 in 3 ratio.

Even though the machine is only 3 months old, it is not something that happened in its early life, which makes me suspect it needs a service (roller clean, all adjustments tweaked).

I have had a Xerox engineer out, who wasn't really willing to help, once he realised I was working outside the machine's spec. When I asked him about cleaning the rollers etc. he said no, the machine was not old enough to merit cleaning.

So my question is - would my rollers need cleaning? And what can I do to fix the skew problem? And how much could I expect my Xerox engineer to do?

Many thanks

Antony

 

[TimP]

Re: Xerox DC260 with light production finisher - does it need cleaning??

Are you folding the cover against the grain?

 

[AJeffrey]

Re: Xerox DC260 with light production finisher - does it need cleaning??

Tim,

Not sure. How would I know? I have cut down an SRA3 sheet to A3, and am feeding it short edge into the Xerox.

Antony

 

[TimP]

Re: Xerox DC260 with light production finisher - does it need cleaning??

If it doesn't say on the package it's the second number. 11x17=grain long / 17x11 = grain short.

If your book is 11x17 folded to 8.5x11 your cover should be grain short.17x11

 

[TimP]

Re: Xerox DC260 with light production finisher - does it need cleaning??

maybe this will help

 

[AJeffrey]

Re: Xerox DC260 with light production finisher - does it need cleaning??

Tim,

Many thanks for the PDF. I understand now. My heavyweight stock appears to be short grain, and yet my lightweight stock is long grain.

Thanks again for your help.

Antony

 

[WillG]

Re: Xerox DC260 with light production finisher - does it need cleaning??

Jeffery,

Several months ago we got our first digital press, a xerox 242 with the same inline binding line that you have. Ours was working great at first, as you had mentioned with yours. Then in the middle of a job it just crapped itself and can't do anything. Xerox gave me the run around, saying it can't do coated sheets etc... etc.. basically they responded with the classical "this is what my manual says to say to customers when this happens." Was running a 40 page 80# Diamond Silk (coated) Funny thing is, it can't fold a 4 pager..

The problem with the 242 is that Xerox uses their "regular" copy machine repair people to service the 242 - 260... my repair guys usually work to repair office coping machines.. not machines in a "printer" environment. They couldn't fix the issue... Luckily we bought our Xerox through Fuji Film, they own 75% of Xerox and are actually the maker of the machine.. not Xerox.. Xerox just slaps its name on it. They said that it can fold and stitch coated sheets... 5 techs later, it still won't fold and stitch (without skew no matter what paper I use or what page count) .. to make a long and messy story short... we haven't used the stitcher since I first job.

Is your machine working like it should now?

 

[AJeffrey]

Re: Xerox DC260 with light production finisher - does it need cleaning??

Will,

Xerox told me the same thing they are telling you, "that machine doesn't support that stock". Yet, he still knows I am going to use the heavyweight, coated stocks I require.

What I did was produce an A4 booklet on 100g uncoated to see if that skewed. Luckily it did so the engineer HAD to do someething to sort this out. After that, when producing booklets on "un-supported" stock, I just have to cross my fingers.

The Xerox does still have a problem folding A3 sheets to produce an A4 booklet, but it does an excellent job of folding A4 to make an A5 booklet. This is just something we are going to have to learn to live with.

But the best tip I can give is to produce your required booklet on recommended stock (eg. 100g uncoated) and see if that has a problem. If it does then at least you have your engineer's attention - which, for me, was very difficult to get. Whenever I mentioned coated stock, they would look blankly at me and quote the machine spec.

Good luck.

Antony