Remanufacturing the Ricoh SP4100 Toner Cartridges

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Remanufacturing the Ricoh SP4100 Toner Cartridge

By Mike Josiah and the Technical Staff at Uninet Imaging

Mike Josiah Mike Josiah is the Technical Director at UniNet East Coast office, a global distributor of toner, Smartchips, OPC drums, and other toner remanufacturing components. Mr. Josiah is an industry veteran since 1987, and a member of ASTM committee F.05, the STMC Technician Certification committee, as well as an STMC trainer. He and his support team at UniNet contribute with technical articles to industry trade magazines, and conduct seminars at association meetings and tradeshows worldwide.

The Samsung Ricoh SP4100 series of printers are based on a Ricoh 31-36ppm, 1200 x 600 dpi engine. All models have a first page out in less than 6.9 seconds. (Not 7 seconds… 6.9 seconds, how’s that for being specific!)

These are not the easiest cartridges to do, but if care is taken they are not too bad and the profits are nice! Care must be taken not to disturb the doctor blade as it is very difficult to set back properly. The entire Db assemble can be removed though so it’s not a problem. These cartridges also us a chip that must be replaced each cycle. There is a HY and a LY cartridge and both have a different chip. To install the replacement chips you will need to unsolder the old chip and solder on the new one. The HY cartridges only work in the 4100N and 4110N, the LY only in the 4100NL The models in this series are: Ricoh Aficio SP-4100N KP (Uses HY cartridge and chip only!)

Ricoh Aficio SP-4100NL (Uses LY cartridge and chip only!)

Ricoh Aficio SP-4110N KP (Uses HY cartridge and chip only!)

The Ricoh Low cartridge (403073) is rated for 7,500 pages at 5% coverage and the High Yield cartridge (402809) is rated for 15,000 pages at 5%.

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Required Tools 1) Toner approved vacuum.

2) A small Common screw driver 3) #1 Phillips head screwdriver 4) Needle nose pliers 5) Soldering Iron and associated tools/ supplies

three small screws and one large screw. See Figure 1 3) On the right side, remove the 2 small screws and 1 large screw. See Figure 2

Required Supplies 1) Ricoh SP-4100 toner LY or HY load 2) Ricoh Sp-4100 Developer Same for both LY & HY 3) Developer sealing strip 4) Toner hopper sealing strip 5) LY or HY Replacement chip 6) Drum padding powder 7) PCR Cleaner 8) Conductive grease 1) Clean the exterior of the cartridge.

2) Place the cartridge with the handle facing you. On the left side, remove the

Figure 2 4) Remove the gear side end cap, 2 gears may stay on the end cap when removed.

See Figures 3 & 4

Figure 3 Figure 1

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5) Remove the four loose gears. See Figure 5

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11) Remove the wiper blade shield. Slide it over from the bent side See Figure 12

Figure 4

Figure 8 8) Remove the drum. See Figure 9

Figure 12 12) Remove the 2 wiper blade screws and wiper blade. See Figure 13

Figure 5 6) On the opposite side, carefully pry off the end cap. Leave the contact plate alone.

It looks like it must be removed, but it does not. See Figure 6 & 7

Figure 9 9) Remove the PCR. See Figure 10 Figure 13 13) On the top of the waste chamber sides, pull out on the tabs and remove the waste hopper. Clean out all remaining waste from the hopper. See Figures 14 & 15

Figure 10 Figure 6

10) Remove the PCR holders. See Figure 11

Figure 14

Figure 7 7) Separate the two halves. See Figure 8 58

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Figure 11

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14) Clean out all the waste toner from the cleaning roller and lower waste section. See Figure 16 15) Install the upper waste hopper. It should snap in place. See Figure 17 16) Coat the wiper blade with your preferred lubricant and install the blade.

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sure the blade slides back and forth on the spring when done. The plastic tab in the center should fit into the rectangular slot of the shield. See Figures 19 & 20

Figure 15

Figure 22

Figure 19

Figure 16

Figure 23

Figure 20

Figure 17

18) Install the PCR holders and Cleaned PCR. If they do not fit easily, they are on the wrong side. The side of the PCR with the pointed shaft should go to the black holder. See Figures 21 & 22

Install the 2 screws. See Figure 18.

Figure 24 21) It is best not to remove the doctor blade as it is very difficult to get back in the right place. The entire mag roller section will be removed in the next few steps to it is possible to clean all the old toner/ developer out. See Figure 25

Figure 21 Figure 18 17) Install the wiper blade shield left (Bent) side first through the hole on the side the cartridge. Slide the flat side out the slot, making sure the spring is engaged. Make

19) Install the drum and place the waste chamber aside. Put the large gear to the gear side of the cartridge. See Figure 23 20) Remove the fill plug from the toner hopper. Dump out any remaining toner.

See Figure 24

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Figure 25

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22) Lift up plastic bar next to all three tabs, remove the developer hopper. See Figures 26 & 27

remove the gear. See Figures 28 & 29 24) Remove the sealing tape from the bottom of the hopper. See Figure 30

26) Vacuum/blow out all remaining toner/ developer from both sides of the hopper.

See Figure 34

Figure 26

Figure 30

Figure 34

25) Pry up the tabs on both sides of the cartridge to remove the upper magnetic roller section See Figures 31, 32 & 33

27) Fill the developer section with the new developer. Make sure you keep all chambers evenly filled! See Figure 35

Figure 31

Figure 35

Figure 27 23) Remove the metal bar from the large white gear, Press in on the locking tabs and

28) Install the seal on the developer hopper as shown, Make sure the tail is over the non gear side. To snap the hopper in place, line up the top 3 tabs and press the hopper down to lock in place. See Figures 36 & 37

Figure 28

Figure 32

Figure 36

Figure 29

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Figure 33

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29) Install the seal on the toner section as shown. Make sure the tail is over the non gear side of the hopper. See Figure 38 30) Snap the magnetic roller section in

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Figure 40 32) Fill the hopper with Ricoh Sp-4100 toner. Replace the fill plug. See Figure 41

Figure 37

Figure 44

Figure 41 33) Replace the large white gear and the metal insert. See Figure 42

Figure 38

Figure 45

place. See Figure 39

Figure 42 34) Install the gears as shown. See Figure 43

Figure 46 Figure 39

37) Install the chip assembly, back holder and two screws on the gear side end cap.

See Figure 47

31) Replace the bottom tape seal. If it does not stick, activate the glue with alcohol or use black electrical tape. It’s best to use the better rubber kind, not vinyl tape. See Figure 43

Figure 40

35) Remove the two screws on the gear end cap. Remove the back holder and remove the chip assembly from the end cap. See Figure 44 36) Unsolder the old chip from the holder and solder the new chip in place. Be careful not to use too much heat! See Figures 45 & 46

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Figure 47 38) Place the two halves together. Fit the waste chamber tab over the post on the

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toner hopper. See Figures 48 & 49

Figure 50

Figure 52

Figure 51

Figure 53

Figure 48

Figure 49 39) Install the gear side end cap. Rotate the drum a little so that all the gears mesh

41) Install the contact end cap and 3 screws, 2 small and one large. See Figures 52 & 53 Repetitive Defect chart

40) Install the 3 small screws and one large

Upper Fuser Roller: Lower Pressure roller:

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94mm 50mm

Error Codes

properly. See Figure 50 screw as shown. See figure 51

OPC Drum: Transfer roller:

105mm 100mm

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The error codes used in this series are all in plain English so there is no need to list them here.