60Hz / 50Hz Copier Problems

"Antony N. Lord" wrote

A friend has just bought an American 3M 4550 Copier (110v / 60Hz).

Even if we put it on a large step-down transformer (the plate on the back reads 115v / 11A so we're going to need something in the 1300W+ range) are we likely to encounter problems with the frequency difference?

I know many motors (60Hz) are no go on 50Hz power...

And if so - anyone know if there are sinewave UPS systems available in Australia that can have their outputs reconfigured to 110v / 60A?

Cheers, Antony.

Brian Goldsmith.

The wide range of brands I've seen had transformers with a range of international voltages they could be set to inside the copier. Unless it's a very old copier it should have stepper motors or DC motors that are mains frequency independent as they run off a DC supply internally.

On Thu, 26 Jan 2006 18:04:36 +1000, Mark Harriss put finger to keyboard and composed:

How heavy and expensive would an internal 1300VA transformer be? Would it power the entire copier or just parts of it?

AFAICS, if the copier has a switchmode PSU, then it should be quite easy to accommodate a 240VAC or 115VAC supply (two mains filter caps instead of one, plus one SPST switch). As for the fuser, I would think that you could use dual 115VAC heating elements which could be wired in series or parallel according to the line voltage.

Is it economically feasible for a mains driven motor to give you the type of control that is required for precision (>200lpi ?) scanning and paper feeding? AFAIK, even treadmills use DC motors.

I suppose the copier could have an AC fan motor, though.

- Franc Zabkar

Well for a start they were autotransformers so they'd use less copper and were quite big. Late eighties was about the time copiers started to slim down and lose weight as the chassis went from diecast to pressed steel and then plastic.

As far as I can remember you could buy the various lamps in voltages to suit the line voltage, very expensive though.

Some older Konica's were driven from a single mains motor where everything was synchronised with chain drives everywhere to keep it all working together. The motor ran everything except the scanner which was stepper driven and could be adjusted to match the rest of the mains motor driven machine.

My friend bought me a fax/copying/t.a.d machine in usa and i was not able to run it. I needed to go to authorized panasonic service and pay for resetuping internal power supply to meet european power specifications.

Peter.