Remanufacturing
the
Brother HL-5150
“DR-510” OPC Cartridge (DR-3000 outside North America.)
0348
First introduced in April 2004, the HL-5150 laser
printers are the next generation of Brother's newer higher quality
engines. The 5150 engine replaces the 1650 (TN-560) engine in the
Brother line. As with all previous Brother engines, it has its
quirks but is better than the previous engine. Last month we went
over the TN-540/570 toner cartridges, this month we finish up with
the DR-510 drum cartridge.
The HL-5150D printer is a 21ppm, 1200 dpi machine
that comes standard with a duplexer built in. With a list price of
$241 including the duplexer, these machines are going to be very
popular. In the HL series, only the HL-5140 does not come with a
duplexer at this time. In a recent PC magazine test, the HL-5140
came up as the Editors Choice for a personal printer, beating
another recently tested 35ppm printer in print speed! Their only
problem with this machine, and I have to agree is that the graphics
are not what you would expect from a modern monochrome printer.
In June 2004, I found pricing on the DR-510 ranging
anywhere from $98.70 to $149.88 on the internet.
Currently there are quite a few machines based on the
HL-5150 engine:
DCP-8040
DCP-8045D
HL-5130
HL-5140
HL-5150D
HL-5150DLT
HL-5170DN
HL-5170DNLT
MFC-8820
MFC-8440
MFC-8840D
MFC-8840DN
When it comes to the DCP and MFC machines be sure to
note the correct model number of your customer’s machine. There are
several machines with very similar model numbers that use different
cartridges! For example, the MFC-8420 uses the HL-1650 engine
(DR-500), but the 8440 uses the new HL-5150(DR-510) engine!
The OEM stated yield is ESTIMATED at 20,000 pages.
There are disclaimers in the manual that basically say you will not
get anywhere near that yield. The following is taken directly from
the HL-5150 user manual:
"Under ideal conditions, the average drum life is
estimated at 20,000 pages. The actual number of pages that your drum
will print may be significantly less than this estimate. Because we
have no control over the many factors that determine the actual drum
life, we cannot guarantee a minimum number of pages that will be
printed by your drum."
Also keep in mind that this is a duplex machine. If
the user uses this feature, they may think the yield appears less
than it is.
Because of the nature of these machines we have
included the cartridge theory here again. It is basically the same
as the TN-460/560 cartridges. If you familiar with those cartridges
and how they work, you can skip to step 1. If not however, we highly
recommend that anyone doing these cartridges read the next section.
It can save you hours of needless troubleshooting.
The cleaning
section of the drum cartridge consists of a "cleaning brush" and a
recovery blade. The cleaning brush has two opposite charges placed
on it during the print cycle. The first attracts any remaining toner
off the drum. The second repels the toner off the brush back onto
the drum where it then transfers back into the toner cartridge. This
is all done in a timing sequence that does not interfere with the
printing process. If the cleaning brush becomes contaminated with
bad toner that will not charge, the brush will not be able to clean
itself, and back grounding will occur. It seems to be the nature of
contaminated toner that it will accept most of the charge to be
cleaned off the drum, but it will not accept the charge that would
allow the brush to clean itself off at all. A properly working
cleaning brush will at any given time have only a small amount of
toner on it. Once contaminated, toner will accumulate, which will
only cause the problems to get worse.
Since the
developer roller actually contacts the drum, some toner is
transferred back into the supply of the toner cartridge. Once you
print with a bad toner cartridge, the drum unit will become
contaminated. Even when you change out the toner with a good
properly recycled or new OEM cartridge, the drum unit will transfer
some of the bad toner back into the good toner cartridge, which will
again cause back grounding. Both cartridges will be contaminated
again.
The remaining
80g or so of "toner" in the toner cartridge is just below the bare
minimum that can maintain the proper charge level. When the change
toner light comes on, the toner will not charge up to the proper
level and will cause the back grounding. As the toner cartridge
reaches the end of its useful life, the printer senses the low
charge level in the toner supply and will try to keep the charge
level up. This constant charging keeps an almost "empty" cartridge
from back grounding. Once the printer cannot get the remaining toner
up to the minimum charge, the change toner light comes on. The
cartridge at this point will still be printing properly. If you were
to take that same cartridge out of the machine for a few days, and
then put it back in the printer with out doing anything to it, the
cartridge will shade. This will happen because the charge level that
the printer was trying so hard to keep up has dissipated out and the
materials left can no longer accept a proper charge.
What does
this all mean?
1) Make sure
that your cartridge technicians thoroughly clean out the supply
chamber of the toner cartridge.
2) In the event
that they forget, and you have a shading cartridge. The toner must
be completely cleaned out again. (Do not use the toner over!!), and
NEW fresh toner MUST be installed.
3) The drum unit
has to be taken apart and cleaned out with emphasis on the cleaning
brush area. This is a very simple process but very necessary once
contaminated.
Figures 1
through 12 show the physical differences between the DR-400, DR-500
and DR-510. Note the difference in the bottom slots for the toner
cartridge, the different contacts on the side of the cartridge, and
the plastic extension at the rear of the cartridges.
These
differences make them NOT interchangeable.
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Figure 1 |
Figure 2 |
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Figure 3 |
Figure 4 |
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Figure 5 |
Figure 6 |
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Figure 7 |
Figure 8 |
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Figure 9 |
Figure 10 |
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Figure 11 |
Figure 12 |
1) Remove the
top two screws See Figure #13
2) Lift the top
cover up and remove from the cartridge. See Figure #14
3)Remove
the E-ring from the Non Gear side of the drum axle shaft. See Figure
#15
4) Remove the
opposite E-ring. See Figure #16
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Figure 13 |
Figure 14 |
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Figure 15 |
Figure 16 |
5) Remove the
drum axle from the Non Gear side of the drum. If you try to pull it
out from the gear side, the shaft will jam up on the drum ground
contact and damage the contact. See Figure #17
6) Be careful
not to loose the round drum spacer. See Figure #18
7) Carefully
remove the drum. Note that the gear side actually has two gears. One
attached, one not. The opposite side has a separate hub and spring.
Do not loose these parts! See Figure #s 19, and 20.
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Figure 17 |
Figure 18 |
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Figure 19 |
Figure 20 |
8) Carefully
lift out the transfer Roller. Be very careful not to touch the
roller with your skin. As with any transfer Roller, the oils
naturally present in your skin will be absorbed by the roller and
interfere with the transfer process, causing light print. See Figure
# 21
9) IMPORTANT:
Note the small piece of black plastic spacer on the right side of
the roller, (side opposite the gear). This spacer keeps the transfer
roller touching the electrical contacts on the left side of the
cartridge. Be very careful not to loose this spacer! The cartridge
will either print very light or 1/2 pages if it is missing. It is
best to remove this spacer while cleaning the cartridge. See
Figure's 22 and 23
10) With
compressed air, blow off the Transfer roller. Unless you have a
statically grounded vacuum, do not vacuum this roller.
11) Vacuum or
blow off the cleaning felt assembly. Make sure you remove any
remaining toner from the felts, or the brush itself. Be very careful
not to damage the recovery blade located next to the cleaning brush.
Vacuum any remaining toner from the rest of the cartridge. The
entire assembly can be removed by removing the two screws, but this
is not normally necessary. See Figures 24 & 25
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Figure 21 |
Figure 22 |
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Figure 23 |
Figure 24 |
12) Reinstall
the small black transfer roller spacer. See Figure 26
13) Install the
transfer roller. Make sure the U-shaped holders fit into their
respective slots. See Figure 27
14) Check the
outside of the cartridge to make sure that the small black spacer is
correctly positioned. See Figure 28
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Figure 25 |
Figure 26 |
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Figure 27 |
Figure 28 |
15) Install the
drum and associated gear, hub, and spring. See Figure 29
16) Install the
drum axle from the drum gear side of the cartridge. See Figure 30
17) Install the
black drum axle spacer. See Figure 31
18) Install the
two E-rings on each side of the drum axle. See Figure 32
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Figure 29 |
Figure 30 |
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Figure 31 |
Figure 32 |
19) Clean the
primary corona wire and grid with a cotton swab and alcohol. See
Figure 33
20) Install the
top cover, hook the back edge over the tab, and press down. See
Figure 34
21) Install the
top two screws. See Figure 34
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Figure 33 |
Figure 34 |
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Figure 35
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If the machine
is saying to change the drum unit, do the following. If the drum
unit was cleaned because of contamination, the reset is not
necessary.
After replacing
the drum unit, keep the front cover open (make sure the power is
on). Press and hold the "GO" button until all four LEDS are lit.
Once the four LEDs are lit, close the front cover. Make sure the
Drum LED is off.
The counter is
reset!
Back
grounding:
(Gray Streaks) This is usually caused by contaminated toner. See the
explanation at the beginning of this article for more information.
Dark Black
Vertical Streaks:
This is normally caused by either a dirty primary corona wire, or
the blue corona wire cleaner is not in its "home" position on the
left side of the cartridge.
Light Print:
Can be caused by a dirty or worn Transfer Charge Roller. These
rollers are located inside the cartridge. So far in our tests, they
should last at least 2-3 cycles. See next section also.
Light or 1/2
page prints:
This is caused by a missing transfer roller spacer. The spacer is a
small piece of black plastic that sits next to the right end of the
transfer roller. This piece keeps the transfer roller touching the
electrical contact on the opposite side of the roller. If missing,
the roller will move and can cause light or 1/2 page prints.
Black or white
horizontal Lines:
Black lines normally appear when there is a build up of toner, White
when there is a dead spot, or contamination of the roller. I the
lines repeat every 94 mm (approx. 3 3/4"); the drum is bad, or
dirty. If they appear every 39mm (approx. 1 9/16"), the developer
roller in the toner cartridge is bad or dirty.
Solid Black
Pages:
Bad drum ground contact. Probably from the drum axle shaft to the
contact gear inside the drum.
Perfectly
straight thin black lines down the page:
Scratched drum.
Black dots that
repeat every 94mm (3 3/4"):
Chipped drum or something is stuck to the drum surface.
© 2003-2004 Summit Laser Products, Inc.
Any attempt to reproduce any part of these instructions without the written
consent of Summit Laser Products, Inc is prohibited. All registered trademarks
are the property of their respective owners.
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