Give your Zebra printer the attention it really needs to fulfil a long lifecycle, by adhering to our top tips.

At Labelman Ltd we know that even the most reliable printers need maintenance, and that print quality problems can be costly, especially if your printer produces labels that are not fit for compliance.

With our Zebra printer knowledge and technical expertise, we can offer you free advice to prevent your printer from breaking down and ensure your printing equipment has quality assurance.

Monitoring and maintaining your printer, cleaning it regularly, and replacing parts as necessary is the best way to ensure print quality and a consistent performance.

Read on to discover Labelman Ltd’s 5 top tips on how you can do this properly, and ensure your printer is consistently working to the highest standard.

Cleaning

Regular printhead cleaning protects against sudden failures and printer breakdown overtime. When dirt, dust and other contaminants accumulate on the printhead they can block heat transfer, which can cause other printhead elements to overheat and burn out, requiring replacement of the printhead.

This can be prevented through regular cleaning, with specific cleaning products including pens, swabs and cards. These formulated products lift dirt and grease from the printhead and quickly evaporate, leaving no build up, and the applicator materials are also designed to not stick to the printhead and leave any debris.

Label printer users should make printhead cleaning mandatory to their operational routine. Cleaning the printhead each time the ribbon is replaced in thermal-transfer printing, or at every media change for direct thermal.

Printhead cleaning can be done quickly and conveniently with inexpensive materials. The investment in time and materials is repaid many times over because of the costly printhead failure problems it prevents.

Media Management

Media selection and handling, are also variables that effect quality, but are also highly manageable.

Ensuring label material and ribbons are loaded correctly every time through operator training will prevent wrinkling and uneven printing problems. Label and ribbon combinations must be matched to each other and to the usage conditions to ensure proper imaging performance.

Testing

Another way to ensure printer quality, is printer testing. Some printers offer test routines via a software to measure printhead performance. These tests are set to run after every 100 labels, but you are able to choose your own specific setting to test as often as you like. These tests detect burned-out elements, and other printing problems, and if unsafe to use, the printer will block all printing activity until the problem is resolved. Testing prevents bad labeling quality, and insufficient labels entering the supply chain.

Sampling

Sampling is another method to monitor and test print quality. Printer operators should be trained and perform visual label inspections daily to spot uneven images, voids, light printing or other signs of printing quality deficiency. Users should always have their labels tested and re-certified after any changes are made to the printing process, including the introduction of new label printers, media, software or printing locations.

Replacement

With every printer purchase, you should be planning a replacement of the printhead, your printhead is the most critical component to maintain and replace. Printheads are replaceable parts and does not necessarily mean the entire printer needs to be replaced at the end of printhead lifecycles.

For more information on Printer Maintenance, feel free to contact our technical team here.

You can find all our cleaning accessories here.

Labelman Ltd are Zebra Technologies premier supplier of Printers, Scanners, Handheld devices, Barcode labels, Ribbons and Support Services.