Copiers and Thick Paper — Quality Issues

What You're Copier Company Won't Tell You!!

Do you have a copier in San Jose that is running think paper and you’re fighting to keep consistent quality?  We have a Kyocera 5050 copier experiencing issues with flaking, etc and we were tasked with figuring out what was causing this copier issue with this San Jose Copier.  Here were the details:

• 70lb paper stock
• Fairly glossy perforated paper
• 8.5 X 11 Paper

The first 50 to 300 pages are looking great and then the quality gradually would get worse and worse.  The customer asked us as their San Jose copier expert, what’s up?  We’ll break this down fairly simply…  In order for an image to bond to a piece of paper, the toner is fused (melted) into the piece of paper.  The thicker paper requires higher temperatures.  Why?  Because the page absorbs more heat and this is the crux of the issue with the poor adhesion.  If the company would run shorter runs, they wouldn’t have any issues…  The problem is if they run 1,500 at a time on their copier…  the paper will absorb much of the fuser heat causing it to be too cool which means the toner doesn’t fuse properly.

How to fix?

• Make sure the copier setting is on the heaviest card stock setting — or
• Run smaller runs so all the heat doesn’t escape the copier’s fusing unit.