How to Clean A Sticky Printer
Improve the performance of your sticky printers. Lets start by taking a look at some sticky receipts. Sticky receipts should look like this. The text is dark and crisp and we can read each letter and number.
Here is a receipt where the letters are starting to fade and characters are missing. When this happens, you should clean the printer using a cleaning card. This can be done once a month to prevent buildup and can be scheduled into a monthly routine.
Turn the printer off and unplug the power cable. Remove any paper from the printer and ensure nothing is in the printer path. We’re cleaning the thermal printing head. It’s the shiny black bar inside the printer. When printing, it heats and causes the paper to make black letters. Open the cleaning card foil by tearing along one edge and remove the card from the pouch. The card will feel damp, it's saturated with an isopropyl alcohol cleaning solution.
You may wonder why you can't just use isopropyl alcohol and a cotton ball or cue tip. These applications could leave contaminants in the printer. The cleaning card provides a lint free surface.
Insert the cleaning card into the paper path leaving approximately one-third of the card sticking out of the front of the printer. Close the printer cover. Now, with one hand, hold the printer securely. Using the other hand pull the cleaning card until the entire card has been pulled free. While the card is still damp turn the card over and pull it through the printer again.
Look at the print head closely. If needed you can rub the card back and forth against the print head until the print head looks clean. The cleaning card will most likely have black smudges on it now. Repeat the process of placing it in the printer and pulling it through. Even if the cleaning card does not look dirty it is working; and dirt, dust, paper flash and ash are being removed.
Printing should now be clear with no missing characters. If you do not clean often, you may need to do a deep clean. You can repeat the procedure with a second cleaning card or use a cleaning pen. The cleaning pen is a nice option because you can target dirty areas. The pen is like a magic marker that contains the same isopropyl alcohol cleaning solution as the cleaning cards. The pen tip gets into the tight corners of the printer. Replace the cap to keep the tip from drying out, allowing you to reuse the pen.
Wipe the tip of the pen across the entire thermal head. You can target certain areas over and over. Many have great success using a clean card first followed by the cleaning pen.
If you have finished cleaning and still don't have good quality, then there's probably something wrong with your printer. You may need to contact your equipment vendor for further discussions.
I've really enjoyed talking to you today about sticky receipt printer cleaning. I hope you see improvements with your system.
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