There are many times that a copier or printer repair technician is called out to an office for something that could have easily been fixed by the user of the machine. If the office has a maintenance contract of some sort, this may not cost anything, but it still affects the up-time of the machine. Here are a few copier service tips that the repair guys usually try first. Give them a shot, improve your bottom line, and save the copier company some gas, improving their sustainability. Fixing Lines on Copies Lines on copies from photocopiers almost always come from dirty glass. Even if you are using a form feeder, the machine is passing the original by glass at some point, and reading a speck of dust along with the correct image. Use cleaner that is designed for photocopiers if you have some, but don’t use Windex or any other commercial cleaner that is not specifically made for copiers; you might damage the glass or a sensor. Instead, just mildly dampen a paper towel or cloth with some water and go over the glass a few times, applying a bit of pressure to anything that does not readily come off. Obviously, do not put your full weight on the glass, but a bit of pressure from your wrist is generally fine. Fixing Jamming Issues Having a consistent jam? Jams can waste tons of paper and ink, seriously affecting the sustainability of the machine. Besides fanning and re-seating the paper, the first, easiest thing to try, is resetting the machine, and this goes for printers and copiers. Both machines make heavy use of timing so, if the timing is even a nanosecond off, it can cause a jam. Turn the machine off, unplug it, give it about five minutes, then crank it up and see if the problem is fixed. Also, if you notice that the machine generally jams only in certain climate-related conditions, such as when it’s hotter in that room, you may be using inferior paper. Cheap paper seems like a great idea until it starts to affect the sustainability of your printing and copying. It is generally best to use recommended paper, especially if you have a maintenance contract, since using non-recommended paper could result in having your contract canceled if problems occur.
