The HP Designjet 4500 Stacker can fail after one month due to
a defective part
Date: May 06
Attention: Post Sales
Impact/Severity: High
Support area: Product
Level: Restricted
Region: EMEA, AP, NA
Applicable products:
HP Designjet 4500 Printer series
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by ICD Customer Assurance
There is a risk of the HP Designjet 4500 Stacker having a
high paper jam rate after 1 month of usage; this is due
to a defective component
Issue:
There is a risk of a high failure rate (20%: in total 177 stackers) of paper
jams between the printer and the stacker. This is after one month of use.
There are also three other symptoms:
The stacker starts making a noise, there is contact between the
heater element and the inner part of the black roller.
The stacker does not grab the media.
There is a power cut (very unlikely to happen).
Regions and numbers affected
The number of Stacker which will be affected by this problem can be
predicted: 51 in the North American region. 126 in the EMEA region,
there may also be a few in the Asia region.
Stackers with serial numbers higher than DEA6200408 will not be
affected, as an update has been worked into the machine to solve the
problem, there will also be stackers with serial numbers lower than this
that will never show the issues described above.
Cause:
There is a heater element that expands within the black heater roller, if it
expands sufficiently the roller can deform and touch the inner part of the
black heater drum, this can lead to the heater roller being unable to
rotate, which will create a paper jam between the printer and the stacker.
The heater element is expanding due to heat, one side of the element is
touching the metal box, the element deforms so that it can continue to
expand. As the electrical supply cables are connected on each side of
the resistance, these cables could get damaged, and create a direct
short between the cable and the chassis.
In the event of a power short, in environments with a good electrical
installation (a ground wire) the facility protection switch will operate and
disconnect the current, if the electrical installation is without a ground
wire (2-wire power), the stacker fuse will melt within a millisecond of the
power short. The stacker will remain without current.
All newer shipments of the stacker will not show this high failure rate.
The total of stackers affected is thought to be only about fifty.
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Solution:
Short term:
If this failure appears, replace the Heating Assembly and the left and right metal cover. Refer to the service manual for the
removal and installation procedures. Note that there are two different types of Heating Assembly depending on the
electrical source:
Q5677-60021. Heating Assembly 220V serv (Q5677A)
Q5677-60040. Heating Assembly 110V serv (Q5677B)
Q5677-60042. Heatingtube covers SERV (Contains the Left and Right Heating Covers)
There is NO plan to do proactive replacement of the 177 Stackers shipped (30 to 60 should show the failure).
Long term:
From mid March 2006 all new Stackers shipped from the HP distribution center will include the long term solution
described below.

More detailed description of the long term solution

The long term solution involves two design modifications to the left and right sides of the Stacker. The part number
Q5677-60042 already contains the design modifications.

1. The Cable inlet has been inverted to give more room inside the cavity of the left and right Heating Lamp Covers for
the expansion of the heating lamp, the Cable inlet is part of Q5677-60042
2. The Grounding spring has been redesigned so that it doesnt prevent the Heating Lamp from expanding and
contracting, the new Grounding spring is also part of the new covers Q5677-60042
Heating lamp Heating Lamp Heating Roller
Cover Heating
Lamp Cover
Cable inlet

Cable inlet

Figure 1: Show the cross section of the Black Heater Roller with the Heating lamp inside

Heating Lamp

Heating Roller

Figure 2: Shows the location of the Black Heater Roller with the Heating lamp