3300 Daily Setup Banding

[Liz]

For 3 months now we have been suffering loss of hours (about 3) and loss of customers to this problem of trying to get our Noritsu 3300 up and running in the morning.  I have been told my Kodak and Noritsu techie that no-one has seen this problem before, not even Noritsu Japan. :  So I thought I'd post the problem world-wide   and see if anyone out there can shed some light on the problem.

The banding started intermittently about 2 years ago.  Then for months it would be good, then come back.  Then it went to Monday's (after the weekend) which made me think it was a power problem which the techie has rejected.  All the OAM's have been replaced last year, and he thinks the laser is faulty.  Software has all been reloaded, everything that could be cleaned has been cleaned.

After continual set-ups and turning the machine on and off, the lines gradually become further apart then disappear.  Well used to, now they don't.  It seems to take time rather than effort.  That makes me think its a temperature problem.

Anyhow....what say you?

[NeilT]

Blimy.. from my memory, that is a duff AOM, can not rember of the top of my head... but sure it was a AOM problem...

[Dave S]

It could be an AOM driver problem, though the banding looks a bit too consistent for that.

I would swap the blue AOM driver around with the red one to see if anything changes.

If no difference swap the blue and green laser driver PCB

[Steven Deverill]

I don't know anything about the tech bits of the machine, but for what its worth..... looks to me like the paper advance is stuttering as it passes the laser! if there is any value to that train of thought, then it could be either mechanical or power supply (as was mentioned elsewhere)

with other machines I had it would have been something really stupid, like a faulty ribbon cable.

just my thought when I saw the thread, hope you get it resolved.

steve

post if you find a solution

[Peter Thornton]

Presuming that it happens to prints as well as the setup? Does it appear equally on prints from film and prints from digital sources?

Try creating single coloured prints in photoshop. i.e. Sheets of yellow, blue, magenta, green, cyan and red and see what happens to them.

I'm sure you've tried turning off the digital ice?

Does it happen equally with all paper widths? That might give a clue as to a tranport problem (If it wasn't, that is)

[Liz]

Thanks Neil, Dave, Steven, Peter for your comments and support.  Peter, it was across all paper widths and made no matter if film or digital.  Techie turned up to-day with a new/reconditioned laser unit.  Have been waiting awhile for its shipment from Japan.  He'd pretty well tried everything.  So..... ;D......we're up and running again after nearly two years of this problem.  Techie explained to me that in the end he thought it was the motor for the "blue" (we talking AOM here? I don't know  ??)).  Prints look great again.  Have been complaining about the colour for quite some time, so it looks like it was all connected to the same problem.  Wish I could be a bit more technical for you, but, there you go........  Machine now 3.5 years and as you say, Neil, duffed Laser!

[NeilT]

Machine now 3.5 years

That is grim, just 3.5 years and the laser to zap...  

[Photographis]

That's why I havn't got a laser yet. the replacement of my dcpm cassette is less than one aom.

So glad you have it sorted at last, Liz, but 2 years!

These machines are advanced enough to carry diagnostic software that can record and log critical data from all the main components, this software is available for all sorts of cnc machines as well as the humble pc, it is amazing to me that major manufacturers such as Noritsu do not include it in their machines (if only to help their field techs). After all, it is being used in their manufacturing plant.

[frenchman]

look the reverse unit maybe the arm have bab level.this problem is a combination beetween the exposur unit and the reverse unit  that all

is a mecanical problem not Aom or laserunit

Bye frenchman

[ProC]

   What are you guys talking about???!!!!! 3.5 years only!!!! and the laser to zap!!!! After a little more than a year!!!!! we had to replace an AOM, then 2 DAYS later we'd call our tech again and he said laser has to be replaced!!!!! After we replaced laser (two month later(waiting for ship it in)) we had to change another AOM, because it wouldn't work!!!! And right now another AOM went dead!!! PLEASE! tell me I'm stupid and I do something wrong that cause all this problems. Besause I'm about to break that mashine with a slegehammer.

  P.S. Model - F****G  Noritsu 3301.

[frenchman]

your problem is not the laser or AOM driver is mechanical

bye frenchman

[Dave S]

ProC

I'm not familiar with a F****G  Noritsu 3301 is that the late Friday afternoon manufactured QSS-3301 model   ;D

There have been a lot of problems with some types of the AOM signal processors. I guess your machine had the problematic AOM signal processors fitted, so failure of all them one by one was probably to be expected.

[ProC]

  To Dave S.

      You see what the problem is, it is NOT one by one. It was B first, then G, and then G again. Even with replaced laser! And after the last time we've replaced it,  it worked for one month only. So this is not a FRIDAY I mean. I really enjoy working on 2901, but as a tech in my company I'm responsible for all equipment we use, and this is such a terrible feeling when something breaks down over and over again and you can not even prevent it in any ways. And we had problems with AOM's in ALL of our mashines. So I s'pouse it says something about Noritsu quality these days. Sorry if it was offensive in any ways.

[Dave S]

No offence taken at all.

I know exactly where you are coming from; it looks bad on you when a piece of equipment keeps breaking down.

What is even worse is when the cost to repair it is higher than the value of the machine (as in the case of a new replacement laser).

This topic covers exactly what you are talking about http://www.minilabhelp.com/forum/Blah.pl?m-1200266911/

[ProC]

  Thank you very much, but that topic was created after I've posted "why is it happening". But thank you any ways. http://www.minilabhelp.com/forum/Blah.pl?m-1197883741/