It can happen on any ordinary day. On a slow morning shift in late December or on the first day of the fiscal quarter, your prints become smeared, fading as your printer falls ill. Unlike human employees who may still power through a cold to efficiently contribute to operations, a malfunctioning sick printer is never harmless to your efficient supply chain as it will most likely stop working, affecting productivity while ushering in expensive downtime.

Servicing countless labeling systems for over twenty years, Avalon Integration is ready to share tips and hints to treat your sick printer with tested strategies while also exploring some common cleaning suggestions that -like expired medicine- should never be used.

Get the Right Prescription for Your Printer

Cleaning the Zebra ZT230 Printer

Much like real illnesses, a printing issue can be contagious, infecting your operations with bottlenecks, inefficient practices, and employee strain. Fortunately, most issues may be resolved by a simple cleaning. While most industrial printers can be quite durable, even the best printers may crumble if the wrong cleaning technique is used, which is why we are highlighting a few common misconceptions surrounding printhead maintenance.

• Put Down the Dry Towel: Although some leftover printing debris may be easily wiped away, a lightly damp towel should be used instead of a dry one. Removing printheads with a dry towel can scratch and damage your printer indefinitely.  
• Avoid Ammonia/Glass Cleaners: Ammonia-based cleaners may leave a behind harmful residue that skews prints, ultimately adding to debris pile up over time.
• Be Careful with Rubbing Alcohol: While rubbing alcohol may successfully pick up debris and the old adhesive stuck on your printhead, alcohol is also quite corrosive and may damage the printer’s inner mechanisms if splattered or used excessively. 
• Beat the Clock: Even though cleaning a printer requires extreme care, leaving a printer open for extended periods of time can allow dust and other harmful outside debris to fall right back into your printer.

Minimizing all the risks mentioned above, Zebra’s Cleaning Cards serve as the best solution for a dirty printer. Non-invasive and cost-effective, Cleaning Card’s tackle printing debris quickly and efficiently, preventing future malfunctions and jams. Simply follow the instructions in the video to maximize your printer’s lifespan.

Further, elevate your investment by signing up for Zebra’s Printhead Protection Program and get free printhead replacements along with quality printing supplies when you make Zebra your exclusive consumables supplier.  

Or See the Doctor

Raymond Scipioni Cleaning a Printhead

As a Zebra Premier Solution Partner, Avalon Integration develops multiple in-depth solutions and strategies to optimize printing performance with the best tools available. Explore a new road to printing health when you contact us for a free demonstration of Cleaning Cards and other printer maintenance technology. Looking for reliable customer service, checkout Avalons technical support blog post by clicking here.