Zebra Printer Maintenance Tips
By Timmy Thermal
I’m Timmy Thermal, and today I’m talking about some basic Zebra printer maintenance during ribbon change to increase the quality of print and life for your thermal transfer printer. Here are the things you’ll need. A new ribbon, a printhead cleaning pad/film, an alcohol based cleansing wipe, and my personal favorite, a can of pressurized air. Do you keep canned air on you along with the rest of your other office supplies? It’s not expensive, and it can really help in tons of situations!
Alright, now that we’ve gathered our materials, let’s get down to thermal cleaning business.
- Rub a clean swab back and forth across the printhead.
- The next part is about the thing that presses against with the printhead, which is the drive roller. To clean it, use the alcohol cleansing wipe to clean the drive roller, rotate it, and you’re just going to rotate the roller until it’s completely clean and free of any globs or markings.
- take your cleaning film and place it in the print head, instructions facing up. close the print head, slowly pull the film through the print head.
- Last thing is pressurized air. Blow that baby around the sensor to get rid of any dusty debris.
If you still need help, we have a video demonstration on youtube, so you can follow along visually. Follow these steps at least every other time when you clean your ribbon. If you live in a dusty area, it’s advised that you clean it every time you change the ribbon. If you successfully clean your printhead often, it will increase print quality, printhead life, and lots of problems with the printer may be avoided.
This method of cleaning works on basically any thermal transfer printer. This includes the following types of Zebra Brand Printers: Zebra 220Xi4, Zebra 170Xi4, Zebra 140Xi4, Zebra 105SL Plus, Zebra 105SL, Zebra ZM600, Zebra ZM400, Zebra ZT230, Zebra ZT220, Zebra S4M, Zebra R110Xi4, Zebra ZT410, Zebra ZT420, and more!
If you want more info about your thermal printer, we have a free Ebook that can help you get started, check it out: 10_Rules_You_Should_Know_To_Keep_Your_Thermal_Printer_Operational. With any more questions call MIDCOM at (800) 643-2664 or chat us up on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn!