Z3100/3200 Tan Rollers

[deanwork]

I'm inquiring as to whether you guys who installed the tan replacement transport rollers on the Z3100 have noticed any difference. I have always had the gray hard rollers that originally came with the machine and recently had the new adjustable star wheel assembly installed.

I've run into almost no issues in the last year with all the papers that I need to use.

For that last 6 months or so I've been using some Photorag Baryta and find it a great fit for the Z with the new Hp Baryta media preset. But I am seeing some roller pressure marks across the surface of prints where I have large smooth areas like sky or especially in large areas of pure black. This is not scratching or star wheel issues, but rather smooth rippes in the surface of the entire sheet. Interestingly enough if I wait long enough, a few days or a week it goes away. But that's not good when clients are picking up work the next day.

Do you guys think replacing the hard rollers with the tan ones is a good idea? I had the HP guy over here last week and he had never heard of the tan rollers and said that the Z3200s have the hard rollers installed. I do have the installation doc and part number here for the tan rollers, just don't know if replacing them myself is a good idea or not, since I'm 100% happy with everything else.

John

[Colorwave]

Absolutely worth it if you are under a maintenance contract;  perhaps a little more difficult math if you have to pay for the upgrade.  I previously had issues with Harmon Gloss, and now have none.  Occasionally I had issues with other papers, but not anymore.  HP had the option of installing the new rollers when I called them several times before moving from San Francisco, where they could have done it with a drive across town.  Since they never got around to it, mine required a plane flight from Oahu to the Big Island and a rental car for the technician to get here.  Whoops.  That alone was worth the service contract for me.  

[deanwork]

Absolutely worth it if you are under a maintenance contract;  perhaps a little more difficult math if you have to pay for the upgrade.  I previously had issues with Harmon Gloss, and now have none.  Occasionally I had issues with other papers, but not anymore.  HP had the option of installing the new rollers when I called them several times before moving from San Francisco, where they could have done it with a drive across town.  Since they never got around to it, mine required a plane flight from Oahu to the Big Island and a rental car for the technician to get here.  Whoops.  That alone was worth the service contract for me.

Thank you sir. The only other media I had issues with was the Harmon but preferred PR Baryta anyway. I'll look into it. I have the doc describing installation. Should I have a Hp guy put them in?

john

[Colorwave]

Hard to say about the installation.  I certainly read some stories early on about parts shooting across the room and technicians having to come back a second day to finish the job, but I think they have significantly improved the installation protocol since then.  Believe it or not, I have the first set of directions from HP from when these were still beta parts and they suggest a cap from a Bic pen as an alignment tool.  I believe they now send an inexpensive custom installation tool with the parts, as well as a few extra rollers and plastic carrier brackets.  It only took my field tech about an hour to do.   One advantage of having them do it, though, is that you may get lucky and have a tech like mine that requests a pinch roller alignment tool in addition to the roller upgrade kit.  It is a milled aluminum block that makes sure that everything is parallel after pulling it all out and reinstalling it.  It aligns the black plastic carriers that support each roller on the track they mount on.  Mine proactively researched it and ordered the part on his own.  If you ask about it, you may be able to have a tech show up with one, too.  I don't think it is necessarily required, but is a nice extra measure of safety.

Keep us posted on how it works out for you.