Maintenance Kit

Fuser Unit

Lexmark Optra 1200

The Lexmark Optra 1200 is an old printer launched in 1998 and revised in 2001. It is fast enough and has sufficient resolution to remain in service.

Paper size is up to 11.7x17 inches - sufficient for A3. Speed is 12 pages per minute in black and colour and the engine has 600x600 dpi resolution and sufficient grey-scale for Lexmark to claim "1200 image quality".

Its not actually a laser-printer but an LED printer. LED printers have some cost advantage over Laser-printers and should have a reliability advantage - there is no need for a motor rotating a mirror. Unfortunately the rows of several thousand LEDs needed for a printer haven't always proved reliable. OKI is the main maker of LED printheads.

The Optra Color 1200 was intended as a color printer for larger workgroups but it is old for that role now. However its a useful printer so it has often been kept for less demanding tasks or supplemented with a much cheaper printer for A4 tasks.

These printers started life with a price over $3,000 US. A4 Printers giving this speed and resolution rapidly fell in price to a couple of hundred dollars. A3 printers aren't mass production items so if the A3 capacity is important these printers remain in use.

Potential replacements like the HP CP6015 are much faster but expensive - sufficiently so that buyers might opt for the still more expensive CM6040 which doubles as a digital copier and document management station.

On paper the relatively low speed of the Color 1200 means its performance might be matched by things like the Business Inkjet 2600, 2800 or Designjet 100 - but remember that inkjet speeds can vary greatly with the type of document.

Engine type 5050. Base Model Number 5050-001 Part Number 11F0000

Control:

Lexmark's old-style LCD control panel.

Duty Cycle:

Maximum or 20,000 pages per month. Maintenance interval is 100,000 pages.

12 pages per minute in both black and colour.

First page out in 22 seconds.

The printer can significantly exceed its speed rating when printing straight black text from built in fonts. It may work more slowly with memory-intensive colour pages.

Engine resolution is 600x600dpi.

Paper Handling:

250 sheet "drawer" and 100 sheet Multipurpose Tray

Tray 1:100 sheet multipurpose tray.

Tray 2:250 sheet drawer

Tray 3 and 4:Two 250 sheet trays can be added under the paper - part 11F0138

Face Down:

Output 350 sheets.

Processor:

64 bit 200MHz RISC Processor with Level 2 Cache

Memory:

32 MB or 64MB RAM depending on model (Expandable to 128 MB).

Memory expansion needs parts designed for the Optra 1200 and takes pairs of 16MB SIMMs - part 11G0953.

There is also an option for a 2GB disk - part 11G0963.

With it's base memory the printer can take a long time to print photographs.

Interface:

Parallel Bi-directional.

Options for Infrared (Part 44H0009) and RS-232C, RS-422 serial or Apple LocalTalk in an internal slot.

Network:

Generally came with Ethernet and Apple LocalTalk network options installed.

Optional:

44D0000, Internal Ethernet 10/100BaseTX using 44D0000

44D0050, Internal Ethernet 10BaseT/2 44D0050

44D0050, Internal Ethernet 10BaseT/2 44D0050

44D0020, Internal Token-Ring 44D0020

46D0020, External Ethernet 10/100BaseTx 46D0020

46D0060, External Ethernet 10BaseT/2 46D0060

46D0000, External Token-Ring 46D0000

Coax/Twinax Adapter for SCS 11K4120

Network Protocols:

TCP and LPD

PCL 5c Emulation, PCL 6 Emulation, PostScript Level 2 Emulation

Power:

3 models for UK and European mains, US and Japan.

Power Consumption:

Energy Star Compliant. Has a Power Saver mode

Dimensions:

11.93" X 21.85" X 26.38"

Weight:

112 lb - the elephant in the room!

Acoustic Noise:

Idle: 35 dBA

Operating: 50 dBA

Consumables:

As usual with colour laser printers the machine uses four colours in a CMYK process, the colours being Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and black.

Lexmark use separate toner and photoconductor cartridges. This gives potentially lower print costs than the single-piece cartridges favoured by HP and Canon. It does make things more complicated for maintainers and users. The Optra 1200 is made so that the photoconductor life is twice that of the toner.

As usual with colour the printer uses four colour cartridges

12A1454, Black Toner, yields 6,500 pages at 5% cover - 12A1454

12A1452, Cyan Toner, yields 6,500 pages at 5% cover - 12A1452

12A1451, Magenta Toner, yields 6,500 pages at 5% cover - 12A1451

12A1453, Yellow Toner, yield 6,500 pages at 5% cover - 12A1453

Photoconductor:

12A1450, Photoconductor unit, black, yield 13,000 pages at 5% cover - 12A1450

12A1455, Photoconductor kit, colour, yield 13,000 pages at 5% cover - 12A1455

Photoconductors usually come with a replacement fuser coating roller.

Transfer Belt:

Transfer belts are moving belts usually with a surface area equalling the page area as in this case. A sequence of voltages on the belt transfers the various colour toners.

11G0202, Transfer Belt Unit - 11G0202

Fuser:

The fuser makes toner powder adhere to the page. In this case a standard method is used - there is one heated roller which softens the toner and another pressure roller which presses the thin layer of toner into the page. Fusers typically run at around 150 centigrade and the heater to raise the roller to this temperature swiftly is quite powerful. As frequently happens with fusers there is a UK / European 220 / 240 Volt type and a US 110 /120 Volt type. Unusually there is also a model for Japan where the voltage can be lower.

Unusually in laser printers (but commonly for copiers) the Optra Color 1200 has a fuser coating roller. This helps ensure documents separate from the fuser rollers.

11G0542, Fuser Assembly 220V - 0011G0542

11G0549 614 Heater (230 Volt)

11G0365 Heat Roller

11G0375, Fuser Assembly 115v - 0011G0375

11G0722, Fuser (100 Volt) - Japan - 0011G0722

11G0603, Fuser Oil Coating Roller - 0011G0603

There is mention in one source of these parts but not sign in the manual.

Fuser Cleaning Roller 15W0905 (?)

15W0906, Fuser oil bottle 0015W0906 (?)

Maintenance Kit:

11G0602, Maintenance Kit High Voltage (c220v) - 11G0602

11G0601, Maintenance Kit Low Voltage (c115v) - 11G0601

11G0727 Maintenance Kit Japan

Maintenance Kit 220V - 0011G0542

Spares:

11G0271 Pickup Rollers ( bag of 2 ) 11G0271

11G0282 Multipurpose Tray Pickup Roller 11G0282

11G0377 Entire Cassette Tray Assembly (according to LSSG)

11G0151 Redrive Assembly or paper exit unit 11G0151 /11G0135

11G0145 Paper Exit Belt

11G0324 Control Board 11G0324

11G0604 Rip Board

11G0256 DC Motor Drive 1

11G0159 LED Head Asm, LED Head EEPROM

11G0719 LED Head Asm, LED Head EEPROM Level 2

12G0169 Service Manual

11G0543 Subframe Assembly, Magenta is mentioned by one source - it does exist but it isn't clear why it would need replacing.

Warranty:

1 year on-site warranty

Service:

We are researching maintenance contracts and repair for these machines at present.

Options:

Options for this printer aren't likely to be available any more - but for information they were:

Optional Feeder 11G0426

11G0733 Hard Disk

11G0608 16MB SIMM EDO, 50ns

11G0609 32MB SIMM EDO, 50ns

99A0422 Ethernet 10BaseT and 10Base2

99A0421 Ethernet 10/100BaseT

99A0420 Token-Ring, (Connects via DB9 or RJ45)

99A0560 Tri-port Adapter

99A0467 Parallel Port Adapter

99A0424 Infrared Adapter

99A0545 Serial Interface Adapter

Copyright G & J Huskinson & MindMachine Associates Ltd 2013, 2015, 2016. Some pictures derived from Lexmark User and Service guides. These technical pages do not constitute an offer for sale; just our knowledge at the time of writing. See the catalog. Sales pages on this Web site use cookies to store user information. We also use Google Analytics to track site usage patterns.