HP Original Cartridges
500 Sheet Input Tray Feeder
Reliable Remanufactured Cartridges
Reliable Remanufactured Cartridges
One of the merits of the P4014 against a new printer is the low cost of good re-manufactured cartridges.
At the moment we don't sell in the US, but we hope to soon
HP CB518A for HP P4014 Series Printers.
HP Part CB518A is the 500-sheet Feeder/Tray for the HP LaserJet P4014 Printer series (P4014 itself, P4015 and P4515). In 2011/12 part number CB518A was withdrawn from production in favour of CE998A, intended to match the LJ-M601 printer but backward compatible with the P4014 series. The right part number for new cassette feeders for P4014 and M601 series printers is now CE998A.
CB518A is not forward compatible - it won't work with the M601 series.
In spring 2015 a new feeder unit F2G68A has been introduced for the M604 series. This has a new design (a changed tray front) and won't be compatible with any older models - although the technical principles, rollers and most parts remain the same.
CB518A was intended for the P4104 series but mechanically the CB518A and CE998A are very similar and probably identical. CE998A will work with the P4014 series - for instance Printertechs say so, and so do. Printerworks. Printerworks are explicit that CB518A wont work with the M601 series (We keep meaning to test things both ways ourselves).
The reason something can be mechanically the same but not compatible is firmware. HP makes firmware changes in the way accessories work and that can mean new designs work with old printers - but old accessories (and old firmware) won't work on new printers. HP sources like Partsurfer aren't always explicit about equivalence (We periodically check partsurfer; in August 2013 and June 2015 it does say "Part CB518-67901 is no longer supplied. Please order the replacement, CE998-67901".
There is generally no harm in trying an accessory on any system it will mechanically fit because HP use a fairly constant electrical design based on an I2C bus. A wrong device just won't respond. In terms of new items that is probably academic because the earlier products are being withdrawn - so its a matter of interest to refurbishers and corporate tech support with both types of machine.
Accessory feeder units bring several advantages:
- Easier working … The ability to use different kinds of paper without swapping what is in the cassette. Where there is one user to a printer they can reach out and put something different in the multipurpose tray. These big printers aren't usually intended for a single person and asking them to change the paper will interrupt their work. Coloured second copies, different sized sheets and form stationery are well suited to extra trays. Envelopes should use an envelope feeder
CB524A.
- Letterhead … A fairly frequent use for a third tray is to allow a quantity of letterhead to be loaded alongside plain paper. If typical piece of correspondence runs to 2 or 3 pages page 1 comes from tray 2 and pages 2 and 3 come from tray 3. One tray holds letterhead, one or two others hold enough paper to make up the follow-on sheets. It might take two or more extra trays to achieve balance. A 1500 sheet feeder supplies bulk paper.
- Uninterrupted working … extra trays are often used simply to provide 3,100 sheet paper capacity. The P4515 prints at 60 pages per minute and doesn't slow down for much (if it does it needs CE483A extra memory)so it will use 3,000 sheets per hour. There are installations doing things like billing, mailing and book printing where printers work continually and if it is down for 6 minutes whilst paper is reloaded that is a 10% loss in productivity. Big trays can pay for themselves by keeping the printer going for a greater percentage of the time, with much less disruption to other work.
Tray or Feeder
If you ask for an extra tray there is a danger you will get just that - a cassette tray and not the entire feeder unit with the cassette inside. Every dealer and distributor has the same experience. It is best to ask for an "accessory feeder unit" - a clumsy phrase but less ambiguous. Or order online, where there should be a picture.
Non-standard paper sizes like photographs and postcards are best handled using the CB527A HP LaserJet 400-sheet Custom Media Tray in the tray-2 position. The reason for using this position is that the paper-path is kept short.
Feeder units are accessories intended to go under the printer turning it into a stack of machinery. If you want the cassette tray itself (because you want one pre-set to a different size or because an existing one got broken) then look for RM1-4559 which is just the tray.
Operation
The CB518A 500-sheet Feeder has a cassette tray in a drawer assembly. Drawers simply stack on one another, there is an interlock to hold them together if several are used. The drawer is partly powered by the paper feed drive chain on the front right of the printer but controlled via electronics through a connector on the rear right. This controls the paper lift motor and the feed roller solenoid. Paper exits through a slot at the front of the feeder and goes through the cassette above to arrive in the printer feed-roller and registration assembly. Feeders under the printer can't work without the cassettes above them in place.
The printer is expandable to four extra trays: normally that is two or three 500-sheet CB518A and one 1500 sheet CB523A but a third and fourth CB518A are a possibility although some combinations give a machine which should probably be floor-standing a curious height.
Faults and Repair
By far the most likely fault with the feeder units is that the rollers wear out. Trays are often used on machines that are heavily used, the extra trays just supply more A4 paper when one runs out. Replacement rollers for units 3, 4 and 5 are the same kit used for the main cassette (2) CB506-67904
If a feeder unit seems to be malfunctioning despite a new set of rollers:
- Verify that the tray does work with ordinary office-grade A4 80gsm paper. If that does work:
- Check the specification of paper that does not work. One common cause of misfeeds is that people use paper lighter or heavier than HP specify for the tray and get away with it with one batch of paper - but then not with another. Small variations in texture and humidity change the stickiness and curl qualities of paper. (More here.
Another possibility is to separate the components off and test them one at a time. Does the printer ever misfeed from tray 1 or 2 with ordinary office paper. Try each tray from a malfunctioning printer in turn. Testing can use rather a lot of paper; testing a printer is often an opportunity to get a printed copy of it's own service manual.
Some feeder units can be operated away from the printer but that isn't easy to do with these as they require both mechanical power from the drive cog and electrical signals from the printer.
Warranty: According to HP sources this part is supplied with a one year return to base warranty.
We aren't entirely clear how warranty would be determined if a tray that is under warranty malfunctions under a printer that is not. Engineers say-so?
HP Information
A wildcard query to HP Partsurfer gets the following:
CB518-67901 Optional 500-sheet feeder - Optional tray to increase paper capacity - Holds Letter, A4, Legal, A5, B5 (JIS), Executive, and 8.5 x 13 inch paper sizes
CB518A HP LaserJet Input Tray
CB518AR LaserJet 500-sheet Feeder/Tray
HWP-CB518-67901 SHEETFEEDER HP P4015 500SHT
HWP-CB518A LaserJet Input Tray
HWP-RK-CB518A TRAY HP FOR LJET 4015 500 VEL
HP Partsurfer says about CB518-67901
:
Optional 500-sheet feeder - Optional tray to increase paper capacity - Holds Letter, A4, Legal, A5, B5 (JIS), Executive, and 8.5 x 13 inch paper sizes. Part CB518-67901 is no longer supplied. Please order the replacement, CE998-67901
A wildcard query on new product CE998 gives:
Product Numbers
CE998A
Part Numbers
CE998-67901 1x500-sheet feeder assembly
CE998A HP LaserJet 500-Sheet Input Tray/ Feeder Assembly
And a specific query on CE998-67901 gives:
CE998-67901 1x500-sheet feeder assembly
... and lists the LaserJet Enterprise M601N M601DN, M602N, M602X, M603N, M603DN, M603XH - (it also mysteriously lists the LaserJet 4 and 4200 which is wrong).
Icecat shows 70 public views for this part and says this sheet feeder has both a short public code CB518-67901 and one GTIN (EAN/UPC)5704327555384
The CB518A / CE998A part is sometimes known as RL1-1669 and R73-6009. This is particularly true of eBay and Amazon auctions as these numbers are on the device.
Web Research
A google Query on CB518A
(in quotes") in August 2013 gave about 21,600 results (0.26 seconds)
with the first in organic search being as follows:
hp.com $372.99, amazon.com (AccutekImaging) $215.80, .cdw.com $309.99, ebay.com list (usaprinterguy) $329.00, printware.co.uk £221.50, officespecialties.com $263.48, provantage.com irrelevant page, misco.co.uk product not available, .impactcomputers.com refurb $299.95, fastprinters.com $343.65, pcworldbusiness.co.uk not available, precisionroller.com $369.95, amazon.co.uk £272.32, tigerdirect.com possibly refurb $285.07, ebay.co.uk list ppsl-bb1 £90 +£8, .ebay.co.uk (highgateprinters) £89.00, pricegrabber.com As low as $159.49, yahoo.com $169.99 - $330.89, printerworks.com new $315.00 open box $185 refurb $179.00, alfatec.co.uk £177.00, princetechnology.net $275.00, shopbot.ca (hookbag) $318.27, wordpress.com blogs, theprinterpros.com $129.00, partshere.com $356.25, hexparts.com$224.99, amstonersdirect.com $289.00, 888laser88.com no stock $150.00,
Prices noted are for a new item, one off, 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. Some prices seemed to be so low they must be refurb - but did not say so.
Non of the websites seen gave any further information on the product - but perhaps that is obvious in this case. Site wordpress.com blogs looked as though it might have further content. All the rest were merely vendors giving no more information than found in the HP brochure.
Supply Situation
Add on trays are a popular accessory, usually bought to handle letterhead, sometimes to produce coloured copies (stores and accounts) or simply to keep the printer going when tray-2 runs out. The big CB523A feeder is ideal for that - but expensive.Of course the feeder units cost more than a small printer - in fact a pair of them new cost nearly as much as a big printer. The peculiar economics of printers are to blame; manufacturers keep the price of printers right down to get cartridge sales. they keep the price of little printers really low because those cartridges cost proportionately three times as much. is probably better to call them "accessory feeders" because
The 500 sheet feeder-tray was listed by at least six UK distributors all holding stock in August 2013 - mostly as CE998A. By 2015 that had changed an CB518A was only available as a "refurb" but five distributors listed CE998A. We would expect that supplies of new units will diminish as the M601 series printer it was intended for move to obsolescence.
Demand for these accessories is quite high, once people realise that a printer can be an important piece of production equipment they see the merits of extra trays despite the price.
The best way to get accessory trays is usually as part of a bundle when the printer is bought. Manufacturers tend to charge a bit of a premium when accessories are bought as separate items. P4014 series owners are too late for that but the M602X is still available in June 2015.
We can provide the CB518A / 500 sheet feeder trays when required. Our price for a new CE998A was £166 in 2013, research at the time suggested the price was very competitive. There are also refurbished CB518A available from a distributor. The CE998A is still available new for a slightly lower price of £149.06 in June 2015.
These are guidelines, our prices change with distribution lists - see the catalog. Stock numbers indicate some remaining supply of both CE998A it is intended for M601 series printers but will work with the P4014 series.
Copyright G & J Huskinson & MindMachine Associates Ltd 2013, 2015. Some pictures derived from HP User and Service guides. These technical pages do not constitute an offer for sale; just our knowledge at the time of writing. See the catalogue. Sales pages on this Web site use cookies to store user information. We also use Google Analytics to track site usage patterns.