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HP RC2-5771 Torque Limiter for Laserprinter Separation Rollers.

The RC2-5771 is a torque limiter used to drive the retard roller in HP laser printers. The torque limiter is a bearing that is not entirely free to rotate, or perhaps a clutch designed to slip. The effect is that power applied on one side is communicated to the other, but not beyond a certain point. Torque limiters are often used where a small shaft that might jam or halt is driven from a larger one, so they find several uses in devices like printers.

The RC2-5262 was used on the LaserJet P4014 for both 500 sheet and 1500 sheet trays. It has been replaced by the RC2-5771 used in the M601 series but backwards compatible with the older printers. It is probably compatible with any printer that uses the RM1-0037 feed and separation roller pair as they all work the same way.

RC2-5262

The item looks like a little roller sitting on the paper cassette drive shaft just beside the separation roller. It is something like an elongated black metal bearing. One side which is the bearing innard has a slot cut in it and that engages with a split pin pushed through the drive shaft. The other side has two lugs sticking out and they engage with the roller to be driven. There are few identifying marks; a grey plastic collar on the drive side says "MTN". The side with the lugs has an arrow clockwise and the word "free" and it does indeed turn that way a bit reluctantly and not at all the other.

The torque limiter is an essential part of a three roller single sheet paper feed mechanism. The first roller sits above the paper stack and it just rotates a bit pushing one or perhaps more sheets off the top of the stack. The feed and separation rollers sit at the edge of the stack waiting for sheets to arrive. The feed roller is on top and rotates so as to push sheets into the machine. The separation roller is underneath and its drive shaft rotates in the same direction which would push paper back to the stack. The torque limiter and this separation roller both mount on this retart-drive shaft and both are a little slack. The torque roller is pushed up against a split-pin through the shaft so its inner core rotates with it. The roller is mounted on the lugs of the torque limiter. When the cassette is pushed into the printer the feed roller in the printer body engages with the separation roller in the tray. If only one sheet arrives the separation roller power is reduced by the torque limiter; the feed roller wins and both rollers turn so the sheet moves through. If two or more sheets arrive at the same time then the paper on top moves with the feed roller whilst that underneath is gripped by the separation or "retard" roller and pushed back towards the stack. The torque limiter is critical in weakening the separation roller just sufficiently that it will reliably drive paper back but not create excessive wear by allowing the rollers to rotate against one another damaging their texture.

top-right-photo

If the torque limiter isn't right then we might expect misfeeds with new rollers or excessive wear. However experience suggests this problem hardly ever happens, or perhaps it is hardly ever diagnosed.

The torque limiter just slides onto its shaft before the RM1-0037 roller it is paired with. Normally they are just replaced. In the distant past a torque limiter used on one of the LaserJets was a source of trouble and people used to just open it up and clean it a bit. That doesn't look possible with this one.

It may be possible to assess a torque limiter as good just by feel, it turns clockwise in the fingers with a bit of drag, it won't turn the other way. With a known good torque limiter from another printer it might be possible to assess things accurately. Torque testers are available but not part of most computer field service toolkits.

Most problems in paper feed are going to come from the RM1-0037 roller pair in kit CB506-67904. Look for wear and replace the rollers. If that isn't the case other parts of the paper feed mechanism might be suspected first. If feed from tray 1 works well that would suggest the main motor RL1-1657 is OK. Most of the paper pickup drive RM1-4532 must be working as well. Solenoid RK2-0270 might be suspect. The retard drive shaft RL1-1658 is another possibility.

HP Partsurfer says for the RC2-5262 -

HWP-RC2-5262-000CN Limiter cassette torque
RC2-5262-000CN 500-sheet cassette torque limiter

and for RC2-5771

RC2-5771-000CN Torque limiter - For tray 2

and lists the LaserJet Ent 600 M601 etc as products it fits

RC2-5262

HP Partsurfer entries for RC2-5262-000CN and RC2-5771-000CN didn't list any functional equivalents in July 2013 (although we suspect there are some).

The torque limiter fits the P4014 and M601 series and seems to be the same for 500 sheet cassettes and 1500 sheet trays. We think the 4200 torque limiter is the same but haven't experimentally verified it.

Web Research

A Google query for RC2-5771 without quotes suggested About 805,000 results, whilst a query for RC2-5771 in quotes said About 1,160 results.

printerworks.com $5.11,laserpros.com login required, tonercare.co.uk £9.50, partshere.com $7.04, amazon.com (DECTrader) $26.00, amazon.com (QuickShip) $12.89, Amazon daft picture, quikshiptoner.com $12.89, ebay (mfg-outlet)£27.84, printersupplies.com $12.00, morecomputers.com £23.20, newfuser.com $7.26, emprgroup.com.au $9.88 AUS, emprgroup.com.au again, tsaworld.com login required, everprint.com ¥1815.29 CNY, ballicom.co.uk £5.97, lambda-tek.com 8.39€, dectrader.com $26.00,mival.ro 47.29 RON,hpq-parts.com $16.45, monstermarketplace.com (imaging products) $7.84, sell.com (says its a magenta cartridge), emprgroup.co.nz $13.02 NZ, codemicro.com poa, zipzip.ru incomprehensible, depotintl.com poa, telcotraders.com error-page,lbrty.com parts-number list.

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.

Tradebin suggested four vendors all selling refurbs from the Netherlands.

Non of the sites visited gave any further information or discussion going beyond the part number with some also mentioning RC2-5262. The compatability lists varied from a straight scrape of partsurfer to some mentioning the P4014 relationship. Incidentally non of the sites made clear whether this was a refurb.

Non of the sites seen gave any fitting instructions but then the part is fairly simple and if someone has succeeded in identifying that they need a torque-limiter they certainly don't need further instructions.

Supply Situation

This kind of device may be made specifically for HP but we doubt it - it would have a CB, CC or Q or RU number if that was so. We think the part might be an industry standard torque limiter supplied to Canon then HP. We don't currently know its specification but it wouldn't be terribly difficult to test one and find out.

In July 2013 these parts are available new and refurbished.

The part is listed by a couple of distributors but neither held any immediate stock when we checked. We think demand for the part is low and that it will be readily available .

We can provide these parts when required. The price is about £5. We think that in principle the price could be lower but the research effort of finding equivalents would exceed that of just buying the HP/Canon part.

Price and avilability given here are guidelines. Actual price and availability change with distribution lists - see the catalog . Stock numbers at distributors indicate there is not much call for the part.

UK distributors show no stock of RC2-5262 although "pulls" from surplus machines are likely to be available.

We expect to be able to get these parts new within 7 days if there is no current stock.