A system for increasing the life of flexible photoreceptor belt in a
copier/printer includes tensioning and de-tensioning the photoreceptor
belt. The photoreceptor belt is de-tensioned at the end of daily use, on
weekends, and on non working days in order to reduce belt dimensional
elongation due to creep which thereby suppresses the development of charge
transport layer cracking in the photoreceptor belt and increases belt
service life of the photoreceptor by a factor of about 2.times..