Samsung Toner Cartridge

Fuser Unit

Spares

Samsung CLP-320 series

The Samsung CLP-320 is one of a family of small colour laser printers offering homes and offices colour A4 print without the fuss of dealing with an inkjet. The printer doesn't take much desk-space considering it is a colour machine. The real clincher for most buyers was the low price - as little as £100 for a colour laser printer!   Packing a colour laser printer into such a small space and budget demands some compromises. These printers use very small cartridges - 1,500 page black and just 1,000 page colour.

The CLP-320 was on the market for a couple of years from 2010.   Designs in the low-end printer market change quickly. The successor product was the CLP-350. It has a similar mechanism, but the thin blade-like cartridges are replaced by higher capacity bottles that feed into blade-like developers in an imaging unit. That in turn has been replaced by the CLP-360 which is pitched at the same market in 2014. Street price for the CLP-360 is about £100 and a set of new Samsung-brand toners £120 .The CLX-3185 multifunction printer was somewhat more expensive with its scanner and software, but uses the same inner "engine" and cartridges.

The next sections look at "repair or replace" issues which are a real question with this kind of machine. To skip to the section on controls and error messages click here.For the section on consumables and replaceable units here.

Replace or Repair

These printers aren't on the market now. Chances are you have an issue with a CLP-320 or similar machine if you are reading this page.   If it's a red-light problem see the Control Panel section first .

These printers are surprisingly repairable. Laser printer faults usually stem from a consumable and often originate with simple things like dust and toner contamination on internal contacts. Toner cartridges are always the first suspect: manufacturers originals are usually good but refurbished cartridges have uneven quality. The OPC drum, Intermediate Transfer Belt, and Fuser are other potential sources of trouble. Frequent paper feed problems are likely to be a worn pickup roller and pad. Paper jams that won't clear are likely to be a displaced paper-sensor. All standard stuff, more below.

Printers that cost in the region of £100 might be considered disposable; some engineer call-outs cost that. It may not be quite that simple.

A likely problem when something goes wrong is that you have a spare set of consumables, but perhaps not the right one. Replacing the printer is not cheap, wasting a set of cartridges is galling. New printers come with a cut-down starter set of cartridges. Cartridges for a CLP-320 are no use in the CLP-360, that is one of the points where new machines differ.

Environmental issues are always at the back of our minds with printing; paper consumes precious resources but is an excellent way to communicate and think about things. Throwing out something as complicated as a printer for a minor fault is clearly an ecological disaster.

Even if replacement printers are cheap, it may be better to repair an existing machine. The computers are set up, people are used to it, change always carries a cost. Another point to consider is the ready availability of remanufactured cartridges. The CLP-320 family proved very popular, so new and refurb cartridges are readily available. New machines often tie the user to manufacturer originals because it takes the remanufacturers a while to gear up.

On the downside, once something goes wrong other things may follow. Fuser, drum, transfer roller and pickup roller all have similar lives of around 50,000 pages.

On the bright side, if your printer has gone wrong it is probably a consumable - even if it's a less obvious one like the transfer belt or fuser. They are not to hard to change and Samsung's prices aren't outrageous. If you have a problem this page aims to help.

The print process is based on a photoconductive drum, shown as a green wheel in the middle of the diagram.

1. The precharge roller (at 7pm) puts an electrical charge on the drum surface.
2. The drum rotates over the laser scanner, the beam discharges some areas, others stay charged.
3. The drum next passes over the toner/developers, one of which will be active. The developer surface presents an even coat of charged toner to the drum. Where drum and toner are equally charged toner repels, where the charge differs, toner attracts. The image is now visible, but made of lose toner on the drum.
4. The T1 roller has an opposite charge, and opposite charges attract. T1 pulls the image off the drum and onto the belt.
5. The drum continues past the cleaning station and any residual toner is scraped off ready for the next turn.
6. Paper has been pushed off the stack by the pickup roller and is held at the registration station, ready to advance.
7. If the image is black-only then it is carried down the belt to T2, where another voltage is placed on the back of the paper as it passes. This strips the image off the belt and onto the page.
8. If the page is colour the drum turns several times and a different toner / developer is active each time. Page-impressions build up on the belt in succession. When all the colour layers are complete the transfer to the paper begins.
9. Paper travels through the fuser where a combination of heat and pressure stick the toner to the page. The page comes out (rather hot) onto the tray at the top of the printer.

Repairability

The CLP-320 series were not designed with repairability top of the agenda. Red lights do little more than say "fault". To get more information you need the smart panel application which runs with Windows, MacOS and there is a Linux version . The design-life of the machine is quoted as 100,000 pages or five years, whichever comes first.   Nevertheless there are spare parts, and there is a service manual - if you want to search for it the title is Color Laser Printer CLP-320/325 Series CLP-320/325/326/320N/321N325W/ and the code is CODE : 0325-00000E. By service manual standards Samsung are concise at just 120 pages.

Repair also needs parts at reasonable prices. At the time of writing (March 2014) Samsung original parts are available in the UK and for sale on our site here.

Repairing a printer needs some insight into how it works.

To keep costs down all these printers use four developers arranged around a single drum. The drum builds a page-impression in each colour which it then transfers to a belt for storage. The belt then transfers the image to the page. For a mono (black only) page the drum and belt do just one action so printing is at 16 pages per minute. Colour pages use the drum four times, so print speeds fall to four pages per minute. The idea works sufficiently well that although HP had phased this kind of machine out they reintroduced it; using a carousel mechanism in the Color MFP M175. Sharing the photoconductive drum makes for a cost effective design.

The remainder of this page looks at why you might want to repair the printer, how to diagnose faults and how difficult the tasks are.

Other Samsung printers that are similar in price are the

• SL-C410W - around £170.
• CLP-415NW

Inkjet v Laser

People often buy small colour laser printers after owning several inkjet printers. Laser printers tend to be more reliable.

A battle has developed in the low-cost laser printers market. This is the market that HP is pitching its Officejet Pro 8600 and similar inkjet machines against - claiming the new models can halve the price of print compared with the running cost of this sort of laser printer.

Inkjet printers almost certainly cost less to make. Most of the complexity is in:

• the printhead, which is made by techniques similar to those used in a semiconductor fabrication plant. The cost of making printheads can do go down whilst complexity goes up over time. Inkjets get their potential advantage here.
• and in the service station - if the designer chooses to include much of a service station.

The problem with inkjets is that the printheads are expensive and prone to clogging. The inkjet principle looks elegant, but attempting to eject ink that will dry quickly through hair-thin nozzles that will clog easily has proved problematic. That is why inkjets need a complicated service station - and why cheap printers suffer from printheads drying out all the time.

Colour laser printers are inherently a bit more complicated to make than inkjets. The laser printer is based on carefully spaced rollers moving toner using high voltages. In a colour printer there are a lot of rollers, but the circuitry is well established and the principle works well.

In the CLP-320 Samsung has used a single drum, aiming at simplicity and low cost. the printer slows down a lot for colour print and the arrangement of cartridges means they cannot have a large capacity. The Total Cost of Ownership or TCO to use the industry phrase is quite high, although only a few inkjet printers do any better.

Cost of ownership is mainly the price of cartridges, but also things like probability of a problem, how easy it is to diagnose a fault, spares availability and how easy the average fault is to fix.

The CLP-320 and 325 wouldn't win prizes for ease of repair, the flashing-light control panel is obscure and the printer needs part dismantling to change some essential parts. They are priced so low it is almost impossible to criticise them on value for money. Brother make some spares available for inkjets but several manufacturers including industry powerhouse HP don't. Samsung are behaving responsibly making spares available for low cost equipment.

Specification

CLP-320 series, Colour printer using a CMYK process with four toner developer units, a single OPC drum and an Intermediate Transfer Belt.

Control:

Other than showing toner low, the control panel is not much help. If the printer status light is red you need to look at the computer Smart Panel.

7 single LED indicators, four showing toner status, one for error and one showing paper jam. One dual LED. 3 Keys

Jam Light Orange, all others off : Paper Jam. If you cannot find a paper jam search for a paper fragment blocking a sensor, or a sensor dislodged from position by over-enthusiastic removal of a paper jam. If paper jams happen frequently change the pickup roller.

Many printers have a set of secondary error codes. If the CLP-320 does, the service manual does not mention it.

Smart Panel

Samsung ship the "Smart Panel" program with the drivers. There is a version for Windows, another for the Apple Mac and a downloadable version for Linux. This should give more information than the lights.

No Power

A common problem in IT support is people phoning to say their machine has no power. Note that there is a switch on the rear as well as a button on the control panel. Very often the problem is that the cable isn't pushed into the IEC C14 socket on the back of the machine properly. The plugs are made of flexible polymer so they don't crack, but the result is that they often don't slide home very positively and will sort-of work when half in. Push them fully home. If there seems to be a problem change the plug, you can buy one here .

Another problem is plugging the printer into a UPS (a laser printer draws far too much current unless you buy an enormous UPS).

In the UK the BS1363 wall-plug contains a fuse and that may have blown. Many cables are fused at 5 amps although the fuser in laser printers can momentarily draw substantially more. There is an internal fuse in the printer power supply board. It is a wired in type, If you know you had a power surge or lighting strike its an obvious thing to check. Samsung don't actually state the value in the documentation and it may depend on region. Internal fuses do blow, but not very often.

The LVPSU board in these printers is rather unimpressive, but then it only has to make 5 Volts at 2 amps and 24 Volts at 2.5 amps. There are three types of board, AC 110V~127V, AC 220V~240V and AC 120V/AC 220V(EXP version).

Engine Diagnostic Control

Samsung have software called Engine Diagnostic Control or EDC mode. This is Windows software using a proprietary communication protocol. It is intended to allow an engineer to check the print engine, including motors, sensors, solenoids and clutches, fuser and LSU and to measure the High Voltage from the HVPS. The EDC.exe allows individual control over parts of the printer.

EDC software seems to be reserved for those who have taken part in Samsung courses and (as at March 2014 ) is not made available on their website. Searching for it is difficult because the phrase "EDC" also applies to Samsung Easy Document Creator - an "added value" freeware program shipped with Samsung printers. There are sites claiming to have the Engine Diagnostic Control, but not sources we trust. Beware, free downloads often have malicious payloads.

The EDC software is probably a diversion for this printer anyway. If things have gone so badly wrong that you need to test individual sensors or motors the printer is beyond economic repair. Find the fault the old-fashioned way by examining the symptoms and doing a "stop test" if need be. But we do wish manufacturers would be a bit more generous; if users want to diagnose their own faults let them.

Power Switch

The front-panel switch puts the printer in a low power state. In sleep mode the basic printer consumes less than 5 Watts and the wireless version 8 Watts (Not a lot, but more than ideal). There is a proper power switch at the rear, just above the power Inlet.

Security Features:

There are no security features. The print stream cannot be encrypted and there is no provision for job release using a PIN. On the other hand that is rarely and issue with low cost printers intended for individuals and small workgroups.

Duty Cycle:

The CLP-320 series should be viewed as built to a price. Samsung themselves suggest the printer has a life of 100,000 pages or five years. If you use a ream of paper a month this kind of printer will suit. If you use a box of paper per month this printer may just last a couple of years. However if you are using a box of paper every month the real problem is the price of toner - you will be using a set of cartridges every couple of weeks and should think seriously about buying a printer that takes much bigger cartridges. It will be more expensive to buy; but less expensive to run.

Samsung say in the service manual SET Life Cycle 100,000image or 5 years whichever comes first. Since there is no real-time clock in the printer Samsung won't be able to shut the printer down after 5 years - although they could shut down the drivers. It is reported that some printer models shut down permanently after reaching a predetermined page-count.

Print Speed:

Pages Per Minute:

Up to 4 ppm in A4 (4 ppm in Letter)

Up to 16 ppm in A4 (17 ppm in Letter)

As explained previously a single OPC drum is shared by four toner - developer units when the printer is used in colour mode, so four actions of the drum creates one colour page.

First Print Out Time (Mono):Less than 14 seconds (From Ready Mode)

First Print Out Time (Color):Less than 26 seconds (From Ready Mode)

Print Resolution:

Up to 2400 x 600dpi effective output

Default 1200x600 dpi

Engine resolution (optical resolution) is 600x600dpi

Paper Handling:

There is a single 130 sheet lightly built cassette- style feed tray. (There is no MP tray and there are no paper handling optional inputs or outputs - an extra tray was later provided on the CLP-350).

Input Capacity and Types: 130-sheet Cassette. Very small by comparison with "office quality" laser printers which generally have a 500 sheet tray capable of taking a ream of paper. Average in comparison with most inkjets.

Output Capacity and Type: 80-sheet Face Down

Media Size: 76 x 152.4mm (3" x 6") ~ 216 x 355.6mm (8.5" x 14")

Media Type: A4, A5, A6, Letter, Legal, Executive, Folio, ISO B5, JIS B5, Transparency (Mono Print Only), Glossy Photo220 g/m2, Envelope, Labels, Cardstock, Recycled

Side Margin: 4.23±2mm

Top Margin: 4.23±3mm

One of the most common laser printer faults is that paper jams too frequently. Very commonly, this turns out to be bad paper - stored in an open packet in a rather humid space for instance. Try turning paper round, over and try a new pack of standard 80gsm office copy paper. If the paper curls very noticeably in the output tray then it is too damp. (Excessive curl is called "smiling" )

Another common fault is paper guides set too:

• wide, allowing the paper to skew
• tight, preventing the paper moving
• the wrong length, allowing paper to fall short of the roller and separation pad nip-point

The pickup mechanism used in the CLP-320 is a roller to push paper out of the rear of the tray and into the registration station just above it.

The pickup roller pulls the top sheet of paper over the separation pad. The roller pushes on the whole paper stack so two or more sheets may move. The separation pad rubber prevents more than one sheet moving. Friction with the rubber of the pad will allow a single sheet to move in direct contact with the feed roller but a second sheet will be held back. The registration station straightens the page and applies firm traction to it.

If ordinary office paper won't move reliably into the registration station wear to the roller or pad are likely to be to blame.

Duplex:

Manual Duplex only

Although the general layout of the printer would allow a duplex design that isn't provided at this price-point.

Processor:

Jupiter5 360MHz,CLP-320/325/320N/325W

Samsung name some of their processors after astronomic objects. The "Jupiter" is a Samsung proprietary System on a Chip (Soc) based on ARM architecture.

Two different kinds of circuit board are used:

• The CLP-320 and CLP-325 have a PCB with no network position dominated by the Jupiter chip with a single 32MB DDR2 RAM and a physically small 2MB serial FLASH alongside. There is a position for a larger flash RAM not filled. The remainder of the board contains a great many small ICs and discrete components communicating with the rest of the printer through 23 sockets. There is no position for a network port or extra RAM.
• The CLP-320 and CLP-325W PCB is the same shape but quite different in implementation. There are a pair of DDR2 RAMs, a substantial flash RAM and for the Wireless version another complex chip which the manual says is a USB controller.

There have been some QC issues with the manual's production process, because Chip E looks like flash, an unlabelled chip by the network socket is the Ethernet PHY and the manual goes on to claim that the board is run by a CHORUS chip (used in the CLP-310/315). Service manuals sometimes need revising but to be honest, other than out of interest, there isn't much point knowing exactly what is happening on a printer control board - the programs aren't accessible.

Either the system boards, or perhaps the whole printer, seem to have the Samsung internal name "Tissot Series".

Memory:

Samsung sometimes give hardware figures in engineer-appealing detail - as here

Printer memory is not expandable; there are no slots on the controllers.

Printers all use memory compression techniques.

Interface:

Hi-Speed USB 2.0 on all models supplemented by Ethernet 10 / 100 Base-TX on N and W models

Print Languages:

SPL-C is Samsung Printer Language for Colour printers. This is the default driver.

System Compatibility:

Windows 2000 / XP / 2003 / Vista / 2008, Windows 7 / 2008 R2, Mac OS X 10.3 - 10.6, Various Linux OS

Network Behaviour (P13 of service manual)

Smart Panel : USB 320N : USB/Network 325W :USB/Network/Wireless

Network Management : IP.SWAS &SWS (Linux, Mac not support, SWAS&SWS need I explorer 5.0 or Higher)

Smart Thru 4 on CLP-320N / CLP-325W

Acoustic Noise:

Operating Noise levels:

• Less than 48dBA (Colour Printing)
• Less than 46dBA (Mono Printing)

Comments on forums suggest a lot of people find the CLP-320 rather noisy. This wouldn't be a complete surprise, since it takes four actions to produce a page rather than the single action of inline priners like the more expensive HP CLJ-2605.

Power:

Input Voltage

• AC 110V~127V,
• AC 220V~240V
• AC 120V/AC 220V(EXP version)

Power Consumption:

Dimensions:

388 x 313 x 243mm (except paper tray)

Weight:

11kg (24.3lbs)

Consumables:

The printer has four combined toner/ developer cartridges working to a single image unit / OPC drum. In colour mode, as each colour impression is produced the image is moved to and held on the Intermediate Transfer Belt (ITB). When the complete image is assembled it is moved to the printed page by the secondary transfer roller. The page now passes through the fuser which fixes the toner onto the page using a combination of heat and pressure.

The main consumable items will be toner

CLT-K4072S Black Toner/Developer, Average Continuous Yield : 1500 pages.

CLT-C4072S Cyan Toner/Developer, Average Continuous Yield : 1000 pages.

CLT-M4072S Magenta Toner/Developer, Average Continuous Yield : 1000 pages.

CLT-Y4072S Yellow Toner/Developer, Average Continuous Yield : 1000 pages.

If it seems you are continually buying toner, the CLP-320 is probably too small for your needs. Something like the Samsung CLP-600 with 4,000 page cartridges or the CLP-770ND with its 7,000 page cartridges would have been more appropriate. It is always tempting to buy the cheapest printer - but the cartridges work out more expensive.

Waste Toner

The drum and ITB need to calibrate from time to time, and the transfer process is not one hundred percent efficient so some waste toner is made during the print process. This is moved to a waste bottle alongside the cartridges. The waste toner bottle is just a receptacle and whilst Samsung certainly don't recommend it, it is possible to empty it into an envelope - however that COULD make a dreadful mess. Buy a waste toner bottle when you buy a set of toners - they are cheap so the cost of delivery tends to be an irritation.

CLT-W409 Waste Toner Approx. 10,000 images CLT-W409

Imaging Unit

The heart of these printers (and most laser printers) is an organic photoconductor drum or OPC. The drum is light-sensitive, non conductive in the dark, conductive in the light. It is electrically charged by a pre-charge roller running lengthways, then discharged by laser light leaving areas that will repel or attract the toner colours. Over time the micron-thick active layer within the plastic coat ages and its effectiveness falls. The drum is also under some pressure from the waste scraper blade, however that also helps keep the upper surface fresh. In these printers the life of the drum is about 24,000 images.

CLT-R407 Imaging unit Approximately 24,000 images CLT-R407

Samsung actually call it an "imagine unit" which sounds romantic but is clearly a translation error. OPC drums deal with high voltages but have no creative potential.

Field Replaceable Units

The following parts are marked in the manual as "Field Replaceable Units" in other words a service engineer should be able to identify them as faulty and replace them. Samsung say the Mean Time To Repair for these printers (MTTR) is half an hour, so they generally will be fixed within the industry-standard one hour call-out or workshop charge.

Users frequently tackle these jobs themselves and there is plenty of material on YouTube etc. We prefer web-pages; trying to wield a screwdriver and watch a video is annoying. Be aware that Samsung will not give technical support for end user repair using these parts (we will, but within limits) and that if you damage a part by mis-fitting it that will not be covered by warranty.

The FRU life claimed for the CLP-320 is half that claimed for the CLP-310; perhaps Samsung revised the figures for the Field Replaceable Units in the light of experience?

Covers Off

Changing the Field Replaceable Units needs the covers removing.

Be aware that potentially fatal electrical contacts are exposed with the covers off. Remove the Power Cord and keep it disconnected whilst working on the innards.

The printer is vulnerable too. Protect it from static discharge by wearing a grounded anti-static strap.

Take out the paper cassette and open the front cover. Depending on what you intend to do it may be advisable to remove the cartridges and waste bottle, put them in a clean place and don't touch the developer rollers at the front.

Remove the two screws just at the top of the front cover recess.

Lift the top cover up and away.

Remove a screw from the rear, just above the inlet power switch,

The side and rear panels have hooks protruding into the chassis moulding, exposed with the top removed. Push the hooks down to release them.

Intermediate Transfer Belt

The Intermediate transfer belt acts as a temporary store for colour layers produced by the OPC drum. In colour print mode it picks the image up using a high charge on the primary transfer roller built in, and when all four layers are complete it carries the image round to the secondary transfer roller where it moves to the page. In mono print mode it just carries the image from the OPC drum to the secondary transfer roller. Belts are generally limited to a given number of "impressions" so the life is 50,000 pages if it is only used for mono (black and white) print but a quarter that if it is used for colour. Transfer belt life is also determined by usage pattern - long runs of pages tend to impose less wear than single occasional pages.

ITB Approx. 50,000 pages(B&W) 12,000 pages colour. JC96-05874A

Secondary Transfer Roller

The "T2" or secondary transfer roller takes the image from the belt and attracts it to the paper by putting a strong charge on the rear surface. Its life is probably more limited by erosion from page edges and buildup of dust than anything else. However Samsung say its life is 50,000 pages(B&W) 12,500 pages color and we can't argue with that.

T2 Roller, life approximately 50,000 pages(B&W) 12,500 pages colour. JC95-01197A

Pickup Roller

The pickup roller has a soft rubber textured surface that engages with the flock of the paper to push sheets into the printer. Pickup roller life is limited because the rubber wears away and loses volatile softeners over time. When the roller has aged it starts to misfeed and will then grind into the separation pad, making a groaning noise. This is a bad sign as the roller will wear savagely every time it misfeeds so that the problem rapidly progresses.

Pick-up roller Approx. 50,000 pages JC97-03028A

The separation pad will wear as well, but Samsung don't list it as a required spare.

Fuser

Laser printer fusers are a pair of rollers in a plastic and metal enclosure. One roller is heated to just below the melting point of the toner, and the combination of the heat with the pressure of the nip-point between the rollers makes the toner adhere firmly to the page. Fusers are another part where colour print shortens the component life, in this case by making more demands on the non-stick coating.

Samsung say the fuser life is 50,000 pages of mono print and 12,500 of colour print. The fuser life given in the CLP-320/325 manual is half that given in the CLP-310/315 manual, which is curious because the fusers aren't very different.

Fusers fail in two main ways:

• The non-stick coat on the hot roller becomes less effective and eventually peels away from the aluminium roller. Normally these rollers are dull grey (other colours are possible) and the part with the coating missing becomes black where toner is now sticking. There will be about three irregular splodges down the page; or a dirty scuff down one or both edges. In bad cases parts of the page that aren't properly adhered will brush away with a finger. Visual inspection is the best way to diagnose this kind of fault
• The heater fails. If the fuser heater fails the printer should sense this and stop, giving an error message - however all the printer will show are red lights, see the Smart Panel on whichever computer is trying to send a print job for more information. We aren't entirely clear that the CLP-320 can actually sense heater failure because it has a very simple power supply board. It may just fail to see the fuser heat up on startup and then go to error.

There is a third roller in this fuser which Samsung refer to as a Post Pressure Roll - and they don't show it on all diagrams or explain what it is for. It may be just a feed roller, it may also help clean the fuser rollers.

A third way fusers sometimes fail is loosing gear teeth. The fuser has a considerable mechanical load to turn the rollers against the pressure of the nip-point. The drive cog is innevitably hot. If a fuser is incorrectly installed or overloaded (by pulling a misfeed out violently) it can damage the teeth.

Fuser unit Approx. 50,000 pages(B&W) 12,500 pages (Colour) JC91-00978A (220V)

Fuser unit 110V for US, Canada, Mexico and Japan JC91-00977A (110V)

Page counts are all for A4-/letter-sized pages and the count is based on Std. ISO 19798. Usage conditions and print patterns may cause results to vary.

Copyright G & J Huskinson & MindMachine Associates Ltd 2013, 2015. Some pictures derived from Samsumg 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.