HP P4014, P4015 and P4515 Paper Lifter RM1-4585.

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One of the benefits of bigger printers like the P4014, P4015 and P4515 is bigger paper trays holding 500 sheets of paper. In offices with shared printers it can be difficult to get people to take ownership of problems, so that when the printer runs out of paper people wait for someone else to act.   This may even be desireable, because people who are unfamiliar with things like paper trays sometimes break them. A bigger tray means paper needs loading less often. A 500 sheet tray is enough to take an entire ream of paper in one go, so there isn't paper lying around in half-used packs. However a ream of paper weighs 2.5 kilos and that is too much to be pushed up against the pickup rollers reliably by a spring. Each tray therefore has a lifter motor which lifts the paper up as it is used. The lifter motor is moderately powerful because when the tray is pushed back in it needs to get paper back in position quickly, in line with user impatience.

Paper Lifter

This particular paper lifter motor RM1-4585 is apparently only used in the LaserJet P4014 series and Enterprise 600 M601 series although there isn't much visible difference with that used in the LaserJet 4200.

The paper lift is an independent little assembly in the bottom right of the printer. With the cassette tray removed the drive cog can be seen poking through into the drawer space and the matching pair of cogs are on the right side of the cassette. When the cassette is pushed home as it nears the end-stop the small cog at the top engages that on the paper lift. The paper lift assembly is hinged at the base and is pulled up and forward by the spring RC1-0198 so that it has a bit of flexibility on where it engages the cog in the cassette tray.

The motor runs when the printer sees a cassette in place until the top of stack opto sensor, a WG8-5624, mounted on the metal bracket behind the paper feed Z shaft sees the sensor flag being pushed up by the Z-assembly as the motor lifts the paper. The motor should be heard whirring when a cassette is put in place.

Faults are likely to be evident with the printer simply not feeding paper - 13.30 errors and suchlike with no visible paper jam and no movement of the paper in the tray at all. Two obvious faults are that the spring RC1-0198 might get dislodged so the motor won't engage, or damage to the cogs.

This kind of problem will be evident because the cog that protrudes into the drawer space will simply push back and forth with no resistance from the spring. The spring will need to be found and reseated or replaced. The paper lift motor will be likely to whirr for a while when a tray is inserted but have no effect - the indicator on the front of the tray won't move as the machine attempts to lift the paper stack.

Another possibility is damage to the cogs on the tray or the paper lift motor by user violence - or over enthusiasm in shutting the tray. the damage would be visible.

Paper that fails to feed at all can be the pickup Z assembly RM1-4562. In particular check the roller RM1-0036 (white core) because if it is bald it wont be able to start the paper feed process. the roller just clips onto the shaft. Take both this and RM1-0037 (blue core) off their shafts and look for the cog that goes between them on the end of the Z-shaft assembly. There should be a white plastic circlip holding the cog in place against a spring so that rotating the blue cored roller anti-clockwise also rotates the white cored roller. Rotating the roller the other way disengages the intermediate cog. If the rollers do not rotate correctly, immediately look for the little white circlip, spring and cog because they are not available as an HP spare! You may need to replace the pickup z assembly RM1-4562 and that is not easy.

The RM1-4562 assembly contains a small DC motor driving a worm-screw and step-down gears. The motor runs for a couple of seconds to lift the tray then intermittently as sheets are taken off the paper stack. This is not a complicated part and if the gears are undamaged most problems can probably be fixed. Damage to the gears probably can't be fixed because spares aren't available. The motor can be tested with a DC power supply; if it runs smoothly under load that suggests it is good. This specific motor has its driver on the DC controller RM1-4582 so if there is an inexplicable problem about motor action look there.


RM1-4585

The RM1-4585 paper lift motor and cog

HP Information

HP Partsurfer says:

Web Research

A Google query on the part number gave About 14,800 results- The first 30 were all from vendors:

Amazon (Zar-systems) £30 (dispatched in 2-3 weeks), eBay (FLP) £12, More, £28 (including delivery usually dispatched within 4 weeks) lambdatek (£12.33), Printerworks $13.50 new or $9.95 refurb), Partshere $18.05, eBay (tradepriceprinters) £19.95 or $30.24 with £14.95 shipping, eBay (astrocomputer) $20 shipping $2.55), sparepartswarehouse $17.64, impact $24.95, printscancopyfax $25, feedroller $19.51 and just for a laugh memory4less at $89.19 specially discounted to $75.81

Prices noted are for a new item without tax. The list is as encountered. We haven't bothered with currency conversion - half of our readers are outside the UK and are more interested in dollar prices.

As so often happens with parts there was no information on any of these sites beyond a short description and sometimes a photo. Most seem to be list-driven catalogue vendors who will have no knowledge of the item or the printer. The price spread from £12 to around £30 is not unusual in spares.

Fitting instructions for this part are not likely beyond what is in the service manual. These parts are usually handled by technicians with experience of printer and not intended for end users.

Other Research

Our research in UK distribution lists suggested 3 distributors list the components and one had refurbed stock in July 2013.

Supply Situation

This kind of device has one global manufacturer, probably a subcontractor making parts for HP and Canon. The printer is specific to HP but the part-number suggests involvement by Canon and these printers have a heritage from the LaserJet 4000.

In July 2013 these parts are available new and refurbished. Refurbished in this case will mean clean pulls from a working printer. It does not mean that the vendor has done anything beyond put one page through a decommissioned printer and then visually inspect parts recovered. That might not be good enough for this part in every case because the motor has to be able to lift 2.5 kilos of paper and a broker is unlikely to do anything like that. However the innards of the assembly are easily inspected and fixed - the only likely source of problems is the motor.

Three UK distributors list the part with a price around £12 but only one holds actual stock and they only have refurbed units. This suggests there is some demand, but not much.

We can provide these parts new when required for about £12.50 on 5-7 day delivery. Refurbs will probably be available next day at a slightly lower price. These are guidelines, our prices change with distribution lists - see the catalog. Research indicates there is not much call for the part.