Cleaning & Maintaining Your Zebra ZD421 Printers
Result of A Dirty Printhead
Why Cleaning Your Zebra Printhead Matters
A dirty printhead results in poor heat transfer, that creates poorly printed images and barcodes. Inconsistent print quality, such as voids in the graphics or barcodes may indicate a dirty printhead. Which may result in barcodes that will not scan or scan incorrectly.
Best Practices
For optimum performance, the printhead should be cleaned regularly. A Bar Code Business, Inc. recommends performing the cleaning procedure when installing a new rolls of ribbon, or after 3 rolls of label stock.
Items You Will Need:
- Canned Air (Compressed Air)
- Rubbing Alcohol (90%)
- Q-Tips (Johnson & Johnson)
- Cleaning Pen/Cleaning Cards (Optional)
Before You Start Cleaning Your Printhead...
Allow the printhead to cool for at least 1 minute.๏ปฟ
*Note: You are not required to turn off the printers power to perform this procedure.
If you turn off the power, you will lose all temporary settings, such as label formats, unprinted labels and you must reload them before you resume printing.
Another Important Cleaning Point...
Now is a good time to clean another critical part of the printer, the printer sensors. Remove labels & ribbon. Blow out the sensors with canned air.
Recommended: After every 3 rolls of labels, inspect the media compartment for paper dust, lint or other foreign particles. Using a soft bristled brush or vacuum, clean the media compartment. Using a can of "compressed air" blow out any paper dust or particles out of the media sensors and away from the printer.
Precautionary:
- Remove all rings, watches, hanging necklaces, identification badges or other jewelry that could touch the printhead or get caught in the printer.
- Use NO stronger than 90% isopropyl alcohol on a cotton swab to clean the printhead elements from end to end (the print elements are located in the dark line on the printhead).
- Clean the window of the movable sensor by gently brushing away dust or using a can of compressed air. If necessary, use a dry swab to brush away dust.
- If adhesives or other contaminants remain, use a swab moistened with 99.7% pure isopropyl alcohol to break them up. Discard the used swab(s).
- Use a dry swab to remove any residue that may be left from the first cleaning.
- Repeat the preceding steps as required until all residue and streaks are removed from the sensor.๏ปฟ
- If ribbon is installed, remove it before proceeding.
- Rub the cotton swap (with alcohol) or cleaning pen across the dark area of the printhead. Clean from the middle to the outside, to move adhesive transferred from the edges of media to the outside of media path.
- Wait one minute before closing the printer or loading ribbon to allow all components to dry.
Bonus Tip : Don't Forget The Platen Roller
While you're inside the printer, take an extra 30 seconds to wipe down the Zebra platen roller (the rubber roller beneath the labels). Keeping the platen clean helps prevent label slippage, misfeeds, and blank label printing—all common issues in Zebra printer support calls.
- The platen can be cleaned with a fiber and lint free swab (such as a Texpad swab) or a lint-free, clean, damp cloth very lightly moistened with 99.7% pure. medical-grade isopropyl alcohol.
- Clean from the center out. Discard the used swab or cloth.
- Repeat this process until all of the roller surface has been cleaned.
- If there has been heavy adhesive build-up or label jam, repeat with a new swab to remove residual contaminants. (Adhesives and oils, for example, may be thinned by the initial cleaning but not completely removed.)๏ปฟ
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