Remanufacturing the DR-600 OPC Cartridge for the Brother HL-6050
Introduced in April 2004, the HL-6050 laser printers are the next generation of
Brother?s higher-quality engines. Last month, we covered the TN-670 toner
cartridges (see Recharger Magazine, August 2004). This month, we finish up with
the DR-600 drum cartridge (DR-4000 outside North America).
The DR-600 drum cartridge.
The HL-5150D printer is a 24-page-per-minute, 1,200-dpi machine that comes standard
with a built-in duplexer. With a list price of $241 (including the duplexer),
these machines are going to be very popular. In July, Internet pricing on the
DR-600 ranged anywhere from $93.88 to $149.99.
Currently, there are four machines based on the HL-6050 engine: the HL-6050, HL-6050D,
HL-6050DN and HL-6050DW.
The OEM stated yield is estimated at 30,000 pages, but there are disclaimers in
the manual basically stating you will not get anywhere near that yield. The following
is taken directly from the HL-6050 user manual:
At 5 percent print coverage (A4 or letter size), the actual number of printed
pages will vary depending on the average type of print job and paper. There are
many factors that determine the actual drum life, such as the temperature, humidity,
type of paper, type of toner used, number of pages per print job and so on. Under
ideal conditions, the average drum life is estimated at up to 30,000 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.?
Last month?s focus on TN-460/560 cartridges included the theory associated
with those cartridges, which is basically the same for the HL-6050 cartridges.
The difference here is that instead of a cleaning felt, the HL-6050 cartridges
use a cleaning roller assembly. This assembly returns the toner to the toner cartridge
? as the felt did ? but the roller also has a chamber that collects
paper dust and small amounts of toner that did not charge. All this must be removed.
The best way is with compressed air.
In our tests, the cleaning roller system seems to work better than the felt,
but testing is still ongoing. Time will tell. ...
Supplies Required:
1) OEM DR-600 drum in good shape. (New drums should be available soon.)
2) Cotton swabs.
3) Isopropyl alcohol.
4) Zinc stearate drum padding powder.
Tools Required:
1) Toner-approved vacuum.
2) Phillips-head screwdriver.
3) Small common screwdriver.
Remanufacturing Instructions
1) Remove the top two screws. See Figure 1.
Figure 1.
2) Lift the top cover up toward the empty toner cartridge cavity and remove it
from the cartridge. See Figure 2.
3) Remove the e-ring from the non-gear side of the drum axle shaft. See Figure
3.
Figure 2.
Figure 3.
4) Remove the opposite e-ring. See Figure 4.
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 5.
6) Be careful not to lose the round drum spacer. See Figure 6.
Figure 4.
Figure 5.
Figure 6.
7) Carefully remove the drum. Note that the gear side actually has two gears;
one attached and one not. The opposite side has a separate hub and spring. Do
not lose these parts. See Figures 7 and 8.
8) Carefully lift out the cleaning roller assembly. Be very careful not to touch
the roller with your skin. As with any cleaning roller, the oils naturally present
in your skin will be absorbed by the roller and interfere with the cleaning process.
See Figure 9.
Figure 7.
Figure 8.
Figure 9.
9) Lift out the transfer roller assembly. Again, be very careful not to touch
the roller, as the oils in your skin will be absorbed by the roller and interfere
with the transfer process, causing light print. See Figure 10.
10) Important: Note the small black plastic spacer on the right side of the roller
(the side opposite the gear). This spacer enables the transfer roller to keep
touching the electrical contacts on the left side of the cartridge. Be very careful
not to lose this spacer! The cartridge either will print very light or print half
pages if it is missing. It is best to remove this spacer while cleaning the cartridge.
See Figures 11 and 12.
11) With compressed air, blow off the transfer roller. Unless you have a statically
grounded vacuum, do not vacuum this roller.
Figure 10.
Figure 11.
Figure 12.
12) Reinstall the small black transfer roller spacer. See Figure 13.
13) Install the transfer roller. Make sure the U-shaped holders fit into their
respective slots. See Figure 14.
14) Check the outside of the cartridge to make sure the small black spacer is
correctly positioned. See Figure 15.
15) Install the drum and associated gear, hub and spring. See Figure 16.
16) Install the drum axle from the drum gear side of the cartridge. See Figure
17.
Figure 13.
Figure 14.
Figure 15.
Figure 16.
Figure 17.
17) Install the black drum-axle spacer. See
Figure 18.
18) Install the two e-rings on each side of the drum axle, gear-side first. See
Figure 19.
19) Remove the three screws that hold the cleaning roller assembly together. Pry
the cover off, then vacuum or blow off the cleaning roller. The dust inside is
a combination of toner and paper dust, and all of it must be removed. Make sure
you don?t loosen the gears. See Figures 20 and 21.
Figure 18.
Figure 19.
Figure 20.
20) Install the cleaning roller assembly and two screws. Check to make sure the
two contact springs are not dirty or bent. See Figure 22.
21) Clean the primary corona wire and grid with a cotton swab and alcohol. See
Figure 23.
22) Install the top cover, hook the back edge over the tab, and press down. See
Figure 24.
23) Install the top two screws. See Figure 25.
Reset Procedure
Figure 21.
Figure 22.
Figure 23.
Figure 24.
Figure 25.
Press the cover release button, and open the front cover.
With the cover still open, press and hold the GO button until ?Drum Clear?
is displayed. Release the GO button.
The counter is reset.
Troubleshooting
Backgrounding (gray streaks): This is usually caused by contaminated toner.
Clean all remaining dust from the cleaning roller assembly and blow the cleaning
roller clean with compressed air.
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 two or three cycles. Also, see next section for possible causes.
Light or half-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 enables the transfer roller to keep touching
the electrical contact on the opposite side of the roller. If missing, the roller
will move and can cause light or half-page prints.
Black or white horizontal lines: Black lines normally appear when there is
a buildup of toner. White lines appear when there is a dead spot or contamination
of the roller. If the lines repeat every 94 millimeters (approximately 3.75
inches), the drum is bad or dirty. If they appear every 39 millimeters (approximately
19/16 inches), the developer roller in the toner cartridge is bad or dirty.
Solid black pages: Usually indicates a 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 94 millimeters (3.75 inches): Drum cartridge.
Bad drum, or something is stuck to the drum surface.
Contact Mike Josiah and the technical staff of Summit Technologies at (631) 218-8376,
fax (631) 218-3285 or visit www.summitlaser.com.
This article originally appeared in the September 2004 issue of Recharger.