Maintenance kits for printers and photocopiers

Printers and photocopiers are subject to natural wear.

Worn parts should be replaced as quickly as possible in critical cases. Regular maintenance and care are important, so that your printer and photocopier can function without any problems, without any interruptions and with the same permanent quality.
With a maintenance kit you can prolong the service life of your printer or photocopier considerably. One thing should be clear though: Maintenance kits are mostly offered for larger, more professional photocopiers and printers.

What is a maintenance kit?

Many parts, such astoners and drums, are often replaced as a matter of course, yet the wear can also affect many other components of the inner workings of the printer. A maintenance kit, also called a service kit, contains the most varied spare or wear parts depending on the device type.

Which spare parts does a maintenance kit contain?

The manufacturers of printers and photocopiers often perform extensive tests in order to find out which parts typically wear out or have to be replaced as well. Correspondingly, the content of the maintenance kit can be very different. The following parts could be included:

• Transfer, pick-up and feeding roller
• Fixation unit
• Transfer Roller
• Plastic tool to remove the transfer roller
• Fusing assembly (exchange unit)
• Separation pad
• Feed-roller-unit
• Transfer corona unit
• Cleaning rod for the fusing assembly
• Feeding unit
• Cooling fan
• MP pick-up roller
• PC pick-up roller
• LC pick-up roller

There are definitely also wear parts though, which do not necessarily have to be included in a maintenance kit.

How often is a maintenance kit needed?

In most cases, a corresponding warning appears automatically according to a predetermined number of pages. Often you can still use your device even after receiving this notification, but the printing quality can decrease and the device will age more rapidly. For the permanent functioning and the long service life of your device, the incorporation of a maintenance kit can only be advantageous.

Worn toner, dust in general and dust on the fed paper, paper dust as well as paper fibres can not only dirty the inner parts, but they can also accelerate the wear of the inner workings.

Sometimes sheets that were drawn in remain stuck on the sensible surfaces of different components, which must then either be cleaned tediously or even replaced. Toothed wheels can be worn, because among other things they are not synchronised correctly.

The paper feeder roller, in its brand-new condition, disposes of a raw surface so that the paper can be gripped well. This becomes smoother and smoother after much use and thus it does not pull the paper anymore at one point.

In a large device, a lot of mechanical and partly very sensible parts intertwine. It is therefore predictable that some parts will have to be replaced at regular intervals.

Are there maintenance kits for every printer?

Such sets do not normally exist for devices of the home and small office sector.
Although it is also definitely possible here to obtain individual spare parts, due to their costs their installation only makes sense though if you can do it yourself. Or else here unfortunately the whole device must be changed, as soon as certain damage or wear has occurred.

Maintenance kits are available for a lot of professional and semi-professional printers.
You can carry out the maintenance of your printer or photocopier at regular intervals or have it done.

How often maintenance is due and whether a maintenance kit has to be installed every time, this depends on several factors:

• Print application
• Operating environment
• Toner thickness
• Printing media

For small printers, maintenance can be due after 20,000 pages and for larger ones often after 100,000 pages. For instance, the HP LaserJet 4250 requires a new maintenance kit after 225,000 pages. In this special case, a new fixation unit, a transfer roller and nine paper feeding rollers are included.

For some printers, there are also variousmaintenance kits, this meansmaintenance kits,with different contents. Usually the device shows you which set is required. In many cases, the printer/photocopier issues a corresponding error message or warning, which requires “scheduled maintenance”.

What printers are there maintenance kits for?

We know of maintenance kits for the devices of the following manufacturers or series:

• XEROX
  Xerox Phaser 8550
  Xerox Phaser 8800
  Xerox Phaser 8860
• Compuprint
• Compuprint Pagemaster
• HP
  HP LaserJet 4300
  HP LaserJet 4200
  HP LaserJet 4100
  HP LaserJet 9000
  HP LaserJet 9040
  HP LaserJet 9050
  HP DesignJet Z
• KYOCERA
  Kyocera KM
  Kyocera FS
• NEC
  NEC Nefax IT
• OLIVETTI
  Olivetti D-Copia
• Olympia
  Olympia Omega D
• IBM
  IBM Infoprint
  IBM Infoprint Color
• Lexmark
  Lexmark C
• SHARP
  Sharp AR
  Sharp AR-M
• Konica Minolta
  Konica Minolta Pagepro 4650 EN
• Develop
  Develop Ineo 40 P

Can a maintenance kit be used without a technician?

Whether you can carry out yourself the replacement of the parts contained in the maintenance kit depends greatly on the device and your personal skills.
Sometimes the entire replacement can be completed in 45 minutes, whereas for some of the parts you must dismantle half of the printer. In such cases it is advisable to contact a service technician. If your device is still covered by the warrantee, you should look up the corresponding stipulations to see whether the installation of a maintenance kit is possibly covered by the guarantee items. In most cases, the maintenance kits include extensive instructions which you should heed.