RICOH AFICIO 401
Service Manual

IMAGE TRANSFER AND PAPER SEPARATION

9 May 1997

8.5 TRANSFER BELT CLEANING MECHANISM

[A]

[B]

A195D529.wmf

Some toner may adhere to the transfer belt under the following conditions: � When a paper jam occurs. � When the size of the paper on the by-pass table is different from the one determined by the width sensor on the by-pass feed table. The machine always assumes that the paper on the by-pass table is lengthwise. For example, if the sensor detects A3 width, the machine scans the full A3 area of the exposure glass. However, if the paper was actually A4 sideways, the part of the platen cover after the original�s trailing edge will be scanned and excess toner could be transferred. The adhering toner must be removed to prevent the back side of later copies from being stained. The cleaning blade [A], which is always in contact with the transfer belt, scrapes off any toner remaining on the transfer belt. Paper dust on the transfer belt is also scraped off, and is disposed of with the waste toner from the transfer belt. A counter blade system is used to clean the transfer belt. The surface of the transfer belt is coated to make it smooth and to prevent the cleaning blade from being flipped by the transfer belt. To remove toner and other particles that are accumulated at the edge of the cleaning blade, the transfer belt turns in reverse at the end of every copy job like for the drum cleaning blade mechanism. The toner and paper dust that is scraped off fall into the toner collection coil [B] which then carries them to the toner collection bottle.

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