Check out Intravia's Guide

THE COPIER MANUAL:. This is a manual that any copier technician will find of use. Helpful for training, reference, explanations of how things work and misbehave. There is a section of electrical trouble shooting written specifically for people with no electrical training. Available with optional technical help package. Detailed descriptions of disassembly of all sections of copiers, toner feed systems, overtoning, undertoning, problems - causes and effects, explanations of schematics, circuit board trouble shooting, copy quality adjustments, what not to touch. Illustrated. Table of contents available upon request. Jim Intravia’s 25 years of copier experience crammed in a book. ($45.00)

In some machines, the entire paper feed unit can be removed for servicing. This is usually done from the side of the machine. Remove the side cover and look at the frame. If you see one frame overlapping another, try loosening the screws and wiggling it. If the whole paper feed area moves, you may be in luck. Look carefully to see if there are connectors, drive chains or drive belts. Disconnect these, being careful of their routing. Remove the appropriate screws. You may be able to lift out the whole unit and work on it and manually test it on the bench. If so, you're job is easier. If not, you will have to work on the components in the machine, down on your knees, with a flashlight and toner in your face. It just doesn't get any better than this. Typically, feed tires wear out and/or get dirty. Without even bothering to remove the unit, first try cleaning them. Use a mild solvent, or Windex or alcohol. If the machine now feeds consistently, that is your problem. But sometimes, cleaning is only a temporary solution because the wetting of the roller increased its traction. But when it dries out, an hour or a week later, it acts up again. You can either recoat the tires with "recoat tape" or you can replace them. Recoating is easier. All you do is clean the surface, peel the backing off the tape, and wrap it around the roller. To replace the rollers usually means removing all the hardware and bushings at both ends. In some cases, the clutch must also be removed. Then the entire shaft is pulled out. The set screws or snap rings that hold the rollers in place are removed, the rollers are slid off and new ones are slid on. Be careful of one way bearings. If there is a roller that turns in only one direction, be sure the new one goes on in the right direction. Reassemble the feed section.

It is usually attached to the back side of the paper feed shaft, sometimes by a set screw, sometimes by an E-ring. In some cases, when the tires are half moons, there is an exact spot that the clutch is aligned to on the shaft. Generally, when the tires are not rotating, the flat part is parallel to the paper in the cassette. If the feed tires are cylindrical, it does not matter.

Remove the set screw or E-ring. Try to pull and twist gently. The clutch hub may come off in your hand. The wrap spring may come with it or it may stay on the shaft. In some cases, the entire assembly; hub, spring, collar, inner hub, all comes off at once. In any case, you want to disassemble it. Be very careful of how they came apart. There are several ways to reassemble, but only one that works, the way it came apart. Examine the spring. It should be perfectly smooth, with no loops sticking out. If there is any deforming of the spring, you will have feed problems. Clean the spring with solvent or lubricant. Clean both hubs. Clean out the inside of the collar. It varies from clutch to clutch; some manufacturers say to grease, some say to leave them dry. I generally prefer to put a small amount of lubricant on my finger and wipe onto the spring and hub surfaces. Take the hubs that the spring goes over. After cleaning them, take a mild abrasive, such as scotch-brite and polish the edge slightly. If there are any tiny burrs or nicks here, they can cause problems. If everything looks good, reassemble and test by hand. Rotate the gears in the normal direction, actuate the solenoid by hand and see if everything feels right. If you've done something wrong, you want to find out now, not when the motor drives and does damage to something. When you reassemble, push the hub up to its stopping point, but don't try to jam it. If you push too hard, it could interfere with the normal operation of the clutch. The clutch pieces are supposed to be independent of each other, not forced against each other except when the solenoid causes drive. Sometimes there is no solenoid. There may be a lever or other device operated by some other means. It is extremely rare for a solenoid to fail. However, the solenoid can be installed wrong. It can be misadjusted, misaligned, dirty. The plunger must be able to move freely in the coil. It must be able to pull on whatever lever it is working on. In some cases, if the collar (usually plastic) on the clutch is worn, it can cause the solenoid's pawl to kind of hang up on it and not release. In this case, sometimes, you release it by hand and the machine works fine for quite some time after that, like maybe a week or two.

This is a device which uses electrical current to pull two disks together. Often, these will work fine for one copy, but may start to misbehave on a multiple run, sometimes not disengaging. You can remove the set and slide the outer section off its shaft. Then clean the plates with something like alcohol and reassemble. But usually, when these act up, they have to be replaced. Repairs are usually only temporary. Sometimes, if you disassemble an electromagnetic clutch, it is worse after you put it back together.

Removing circuit boards is pretty straightforward, but there are mistakes to be made. First, be sure power is off and machine is unplugged. There have been cases of boards being damaged if disconnected with power applied. When removing connectors, look at them carefully to see how to remove them. Some are clipped on by little ears. You may have to push or squeeze the ears to remove the connector and will have to do the opposite to reinstall it later. Most just push on and pull off. When removing, be sure to pull on the connector, not on the wires. You don't want to pull any wires out of the connector. Also, when removing, wiggle back and forth as you're unplugging. .. ,

Removing the glass to clean the optics usually requires no explanation. In almost all cases, simply remove some or all of the screws that hold down the trim around the edges of the glass and lift it out. In some cases, you might want to look carefully. scan rail to the frame. Then you lift off the glass and scan rail all as one unit.

Whenever you remove the platen glass, note carefully which way you did. There are some obvious clues, like labels, size markers etc. But in some cases, there are important differences that are not so obvious. For example, there is often a white tape or white paint at the lead edge. In some cases this is underneath, and sometimes on top. If it is wrong it will probably cause a line or gray area. In many cases, there is a black or gray "patch", usually a square or rectangle, about the size of a postage stamp. If so, this must face down. This is a reference mark that the machine uses to calibrate toner density. Many technicians have seen some extremely overtoned Panasonics, when they failed to position this glass properly.

In most case, the glass must be removed to gain access to the exposure lamp. It is usually held in by two spring loaded electrodes, one at each end. Sometimes (with power off, and the machine unplugged) all you need to do is spread one electrode slightly with a finger tip, screwdriver or spring hook. Doing so allows you to lift the lamp out. But it is not always so easy. Sometimes the electrode is built into a plastic insulator which is screwed down. This must be removed to allow enough room to wiggle the lamp out. In some cases, the section of the scanner (on stationary top machines) that holds the lamp can be moved to a particular location that provides easier access to the lamp and/or electrodes. Some machines will have an access hole in the frame, which will probably have a removable cover over it. In some cases the entire top cover of the machine must be removed to get to the lamp. This may require removing the document feeder.

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