Greases for printer thermal units. Silicone oil PMS

Once upon a time, a terrible misfortune happened to a working MFP (printer-scanner-copier) - a rupture of the thermal film. From what? Yes, everything is simple - sheets held together with a paper clip were sent for printing. Of course, no one began to look for the culprit, but the printer requires repair - this is what we will do now.
Replacing a thermal pad in a laser printer is not a difficult task, and it can be done even at home - if only you had tools and replacement parts, as well as cleaning fluids and lubricants. However, as elsewhere, there are pitfalls and nuances here, for which it is advisable to be prepared in advance. In this article we will try to reveal all the secrets - how thermal film changes, and also touch a little internal structure laser printer.
So, here he is - standing in front of you. We take a Phillips screwdriver in our hands and let's get started!

First, for convenience, remove the paper tray by pressing the two latches on the sides. We press them in (carefully, do not strain them too much - they are small and fragile!), and pull the tray towards you.

Set aside.
Deploying the printer-MFP back towards you, unscrew the two screws holding the side covers, remove them by prying them up with a screwdriver and helping with your fingers

We disconnect the cables leading to the scanning unit, trying not to rip anything out of the board, lift the cover, remove the fasteners, pressing the latches on top

Bend and pull out another fastener

Remove the levers that lift the pressure roller

Pull out the cables, unscrew the grounding bolt

Remove the front cover. To do this, bend the fasteners on the left and right, and, prying from above with a screwdriver, pull it towards you

We unscrew the four screws, turn the MFP with its back towards you, and unscrew the holding back cover screw, unhook it from below, remove it.

We unscrew 2 more bolts holding the top cover and dismantle it. Unscrew the two screws and remove the thrust plate

We disconnect the wires to the stove, remembering where the red wire is attached!

The oven is ready for dismantling! Oh yes we are! Unscrew the screws and gently remove it.

We put aside the body that is unnecessary for now and work on the stove

We see (or not, depending on your luck) a significant piece of thermal film sticking forlornly between the pressure rollers. Here it is, a breakdown. It needs to be changed.
Let's get started!

Remove the fuser cover of the laser printer (in simple terms, “oven”)

We hook the spring on the right, remove it carefully - we protect our eyes and insure ourselves from long searches! It can gallop so far that you will be surprised to find it in a place where, in principle, it cannot be! (we know - we tried it).

We remove the gear on the left and release the next spring with the same precautions. Now you need to get the white power cord of the oven, and then remove the shaft with thermal film.

Remove the leaky thermal film. We take out the thermal heating element itself by carefully removing the black fuser bushing from the side of the power wire. Use a napkin or cloth with a specialized cleaning liquid (you can also use acetone) to remove any remaining burnt toner and grease.

Now there’s not much left (honestly, honestly!), take a new thermal film, return the thermoelement to its place, apply a thin layer of grease for thermal films (less than a millimeter thick), and also lubricate the bushings, having previously cleaned them of the old grease

Let's collect!

The thermal film with its denser end, marked with a black line, is attached to the white power chip so that the rubber roller with its soft gear does not damage it. We wipe the thermal film with isopropanol alcohol to remove fingerprints or grease. We insert them into the grooves, insert the left and right pressure triggers, press them with the plates and tension the springs.

We insert the gear, scroll - the thermal film should rotate! If it does not rotate, check the correct assembly, or you may have to trim the springs by one or two turns.

If the inside of the printer is dirty and filled with toner (this often happens), then it would be great to clean it thoroughly. Glass cleaning spray and wipes are quite suitable for this. We use a vacuum cleaner with a special filter - do not under any circumstances suck up toner with a home vacuum cleaner, small particles of toner, flying through the filter, will float in the air, and this will negatively affect your health!

You can also change the pickup roller if it is worn out and wipe the brake pad, as we do at our company SIT-Master. At this stage, it is advisable to keep track of all the minor but unpleasant defects in the operation of the printer.

The brake pad is removed by unscrewing two bolts from the rear bottom of the printer.

So, we insert the oven, tighten it, in general, we do everything the opposite of how we removed it. In this case, we collected all the important components together, leaving only the side covers on.

Test print... and... oh, horror! The toner bakes VERY poorly. Lubricated with your finger.

No need to panic! Unfortunately, it often happens that the cause of such a defect during printer repair is Lithuanian (non-original) thermal film. In such cases, it helps to either replace the defective thermal film with an original one ( SIT-Master recommends using original parts when repairing printers), or setting the printer driver to a thicker type of printing paper (this option is the least acceptable, due to unnecessary inconvenience on the part of the client). There is a little trick that will help you cope with this problem without having the original thermal film on hand for the printer you need.
So, this is quite easy to fix. Again you need to disassemble the stove (yes, when disassembling it for the first time, you have repeatedly mentioned the inconvenient disassembly and assembly with strong words, but this is not the most difficult stove, you are very lucky), and put about 3 layers of pieces of thermal film on the thermister and thermal fuse, the width of the frame groove for the thermoelement and a length of 2 centimeters.

Let’s assemble (now you are more experienced, and you will assemble it much faster! But don’t get carried away, be careful about assembling, because disassembling it again because you forgot to connect some important component will not make you happy))

We assemble, check the print quality... HURRAY! Everything is perfect!

Congratulations, now you know how to do it)

Replacing the thermal film in the HP 3030 laser MFP

Thermal film is an important element of the printer's thermal unit. It is a flexible tube with thin walls. It is made of a special polymer, which is coated on the outside with a Teflon layer. It is also made of brass alloy, which is also coated with a Teflon layer on the outside.

Terpomelka has a limited resource. And after a certain mileage of prints it loses its properties and is destroyed. Failure may also be caused by foreign objects entering the thermal unit. Most often these are staples from a stapler left on reused paper. A sheet of paper with such a bracket, passing through the thermal unit under the pressure of the rubber shaft, damages the thermal film. First, a small hole appears on it, through which the toner gets to the heating element, worsening the friction of the film on the surface of the heating element.

Today on operating table HP3030 MFP with a printing defect “smears the image on the side”

First you need to unscrew the three screws on the back panel. Then remove the side panels. You need to press the lock on the bottom to remove the side cover.

To remove the upper module with the scanner, first separate mechanism 1 and 2.

Disconnect the cartridge drive tab from the upper module

Disconnect the scanner unit cables from the control board.

The scanner unit can now be removed
Then remove the back panel.
To remove the front panel, you need to use a screwdriver to pry it slightly up and pull it forward.
Now we unscrew 6 screws to remove the top cover. (two were not included in the frame) they are behind
Here are the two that were not included in the first frame of the cog.
Before removing the thermal unit (stove), disconnect it from the printer board. The photo shows the thermal unit control connectors
The thermal unit is secured to the printer chassis with three screws. They are indicated in the two photos below.

Once the screws are unscrewed, you can remove the thermal unit by pulling it up.
The photo below shows the image fixing unit (stove, thermal unit). To replace the damaged thermal film in it, it needs to be disassembled. Nothing complicated. Unscrew the two screws to remove the top casing

This is damaged thermal film.

Next, remove the heating element block. Disconnect the presser feet by removing the springs with pliers


When the paws are removed, remove the heating element block with thermal film.


Stuck toner should be cleaned with acetone and a cloth.

This is toner adhering to the area where the thermal film was originally damaged. If the printer is used with damaged film for a long time, it will cause damage to the surface in the rubber shaft (pressure roller). Therefore, the thermal film should be replaced immediately after it is damaged.
There are remnants of thermal film on top, and new on the bottom.
Before installing the thermal film on the heater, it must be lubricated with a special thermal lubricant for printers.

Remove the pressure roller (rubber roller) to check for any remaining pieces of caked-on toner or debris. If necessary, we clean and remove them.
Carefully place the thermal film on the heater block and begin assembling the entire assembly in reverse order.

After the thermal unit is assembled, begin assembling the device in the reverse order.

The principle of replacing thermal film in HP and Canon printers is largely the same. It differs only in the design features of the printer or MFP. Thermal film is a rather fragile element and work on replacing it and assembling the stove should be carried out especially carefully.

This is a sample print before repair. In the place where part of the film moved off the heater, the image was blurred, and the toner from the paper stuck to the heater.
If the film is damaged or destroyed, you can hear extraneous noise in the printer in the form of a rustling bag.

Thank you for your attention.

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The article discusses the causes of the most common printer malfunctions. The advantages of using heat-resistant lubricants Molykote and EFELE for repairs and after-sales service laser printers.

Laser printers, being complex electronic-mechanical devices, are characterized by high productivity and are used quite intensively.

The moving units of these devices operate under severe friction conditions, and some of them, in addition, at high temperatures.

If foreign objects (for example, paper clips) or liquids get inside during unqualified attempts to clean adhered toner, laser printers will fail. However, most often the need for repairs or maintenance is due to wear and tear of the thermal unit elements. In this case, as a rule, it is necessary to replace the thermoelement, thermal film, plastic drive gears of the thermal unit, and a rubber pressure shaft with plain bearings.

Reliable and long-term operation of laser printers directly depends on the quality of lubricants used during their assembly, maintenance and repair work.

The range of special materials EFELE and Molykote includes special high-temperature greases, which are ideal for repair and maintenance of office equipment.

Advantages of EFELE and Molykote lubricants

• the formation of an effective lubricating film, facilitating smooth and silent movement of mechanism elements;
• ability to operate at temperatures up to +250...+260 °C;
• long-term work;
• high resistance to chemicals and solvents;
• low volatility;
• compatibility with plastics and elastomers.

Thermal lubricants Molykote HP-300 and Molykote HP-870 is recommended for use by such major laser printer manufacturers as Canon and Hewlett-Packard. Thanks to their exceptional properties, they ensure reliable operation of the thermal unit and help increase its service life.

The lubricant is supplied by the manufacturer in various packaging options, the minimum of which is 500 g. The minimum lubricant packaging is 100 g. EFELE printer lubricant can be purchased in plastic dispensers of 10 grams.

To maintain office equipment in service centers, a much smaller amount of lubricant is required (up to 2 grams are consumed per printer for home use), so sometimes it can be found in retail sales, packaged in syringes of 20, 10, 5 and 2 ml.

When purchasing, you need to be sure of the originality of the lubricants.

The use of low-quality counterfeits or lubricants that do not meet operational requirements leads to the following malfunctions of laser printers:

• accelerated wear of the thermal film and thermoelement;
• wear of plastic gears of the thermal unit drive;
• paper jam in thermal unit.

For example, insufficiently heat-resistant lubricants for elements of a thermal unit (stove) quickly oxidize and dry out, causing overheating and local destruction of the thermal film. In this case, the print quality irreversibly deteriorates (see Fig. 1).

Ill. 1. An example of poor print quality caused by damage to the thermal film.

The use of special lubricants for printers allows you to increase the working life of office equipment several times and reduce maintenance and repair costs.

Printers are complex electronic-mechanical devices that allow you to quickly produce text and graphic prints on paper. Intensive use of inkjet, matrix and laser printers can negatively affect the condition of their moving parts operating under severe friction conditions or at high temperatures.

One of the common causes of printer breakdowns is their unqualified maintenance: for example, cleaning stuck toner with foreign objects or liquids. However, more often the need for repairs is due to wear of the thermal unit parts: thermoelement, thermal film, plastic drive gears, rubber pressure shaft, and plain bearings.

When assembling, maintaining and repairing all types of printers, special lubricants are used. The reliability and duration of operation of office equipment depends on their quality and compliance with the operating conditions of thermal units.

It must be remembered that the use of low-quality or unsuitable lubricants in most cases leads to malfunctions: accelerated wear of the thermal film, thermal element and plastic gears of the thermal unit drive, paper jams.

Insufficiently heat-resistant lubricants for thermal unit (oven) elements of laser printers quickly oxidize and dry out, causing overheating and local destruction of the thermal film. In this case, the print quality deteriorates significantly (see illustration below).

Ill. Example of reduced print quality due to thermal film damage

Special high-temperature greases EFELE and Molykote are ideal for repair and maintenance of thermal rollers, thermal films, bearings and printer guides.

Greases for printer thermal units

Thermal lubricants have a number of advantages:

• form an effective lubricating film that promotes smooth and silent movement of elements;
• retain properties at temperatures up to +250...+260 °C;
• have low volatility;
• Compatible with plastics and elastomers.

Heat-resistant lubricants Molykote HP-300 and Molykote HP-870 is recommended for use by the largest laser manufacturers Canon printers and Hewlett-Packard.

EFELE printer lubricant is not inferior in quality to Molykote lubricants, but has more low cost. It is more advantageous when used both on thermal shafts and on components not exposed to high temperatures.

Lubricants for printer bushings, gears and guides

Versatility Lubricants for EFELE printers, Molykote HP-300 and Molykote HP-870 allows them to be used also for plastic and metal rolling and sliding bearings - bushings.

Many technicians make the mistake of not applying lubricant to the bushings. This leads to premature wear and destruction of the bearings, which subsequently results in extraneous noise, and the print quality decreases due to the uneven fit of the shafts.

Using EFELE and Molykote lubricants for printer bushings allows you to reduce friction of these parts and increase service life. During maintenance, the bushings are cleaned of dirt, and a special printer lubricant is applied to them in a thin layer.

Plastic printer gears are also subject to high friction and high speed conditions. Without the use of lubricant, gears wear out faster, creaking and extraneous noise appear, and smooth operation is disrupted, which leads to printer failure. The wrong choice of lubricant can cause even more damage and destroy parts much faster.

Original lubricants Molykote HP-300 and Molykote HP-870 are supplied specifically for servicing office equipment in service centers in syringes of 20, 10, 5 and 2 ml.

EFELE printer lubricant is available in convenient dispensers weighing 10 grams.

Grease for EFELE printers, Molykote HP-300 and Molykote HP-870 meets all lubricant requirements for thermal films, gears and printer bearings. Tests have shown that they can withstand high temperatures, exposure to chemicals and solvents, and are ideal for repair and maintenance of office equipment. Lubricants provide reliable protection metal and plastic elements, reduce friction, and with regular maintenance significantly increase the service life of printers.