Cleaning Schedule and Procedures

Created by JR Formenti, Modified on Tue, 29 Apr at 9:35 AM by JR Formenti

For a visual walkthrough of Manual Calibration, see

Cleaning Proced

Routine preventive maintenance is a crucial part of normal printer operation. By taking good care of your printer, you can minimize the potential problems that you might have with it and help to achieve and to maintain your standards for print quality.

Over time, the movement of media or ribbon across the printhead wears through the protective ceramic coating, exposing and eventually damaging the print elements (dots). To avoid abrasion:

Clean the printhead frequently.
Minimize printhead pressure and burn temperature (darkness) settings by optimizing the balance between the two.
When using Thermal Transfer mode, ensure that the ribbon is as wide or wider than the media to prevent exposing the printhead elements to the more abrasive label material.
Zebra is not responsible for damage caused by the use of cleaning fluids on this printer.

Specific cleaning procedures are provided on the following pages. This table shows the recommended cleaning schedule. These intervals are intended as guidelines only. You may have to clean more often, depending upon your application and media.

Recommended Cleaning Schedule
Area		Method	Interval
Printhead		Solvent*	Direct Thermal Mode: After every roll of media (or 500 feet of fanfold media). Thermal Transfer Mode: After every roll of ribbon.
Platen roller		Solvent*
Media sensors		Air blow
Ribbon sensor		Air blow
Media path		Solvent*
Ribbon path		Solvent*
Pinch roller (part of Peel-Off option)		Solvent*
Cutter module	If cutting continuous, pressure-sensitive media	Solvent*	After every roll of media (or more often, depending upon your application and media).
Cutter module	If cutting tag stock or label liner material	Solvent* and air blow	After every two or three rolls of media.
Tear-off/peel-off bar		Solvent*	Once a month.
Take-label sensor		Air blow	Once every six months.

* Zebra recommends using Preventive Maintenance Kit (part number 47362). In place of the Preventive Maintenance Kit, you may use a lint-free cloth dipped in 99.7% isopropyl alcohol.

Removing Used Ribbon

Remove used ribbon from the ribbon take-up spindle each time you change the roll of ribbon.

- Has the ribbon run out?
  If...
  Then...
  Ran out
  Continue with the next step.
  Did not run out
  Cut or break the ribbon before the ribbon take-up spindle.
  Continue with the next step.
- Slide the core with the used ribbon off of the ribbon take-up spindle.
- Discard the used ribbon. You may reuse the empty core from the ribbon supply spindle by moving it to the ribbon take-up spindle.
- Reload the ribbon following the instructions in Loading the Ribbon.

If...	Then...
Ran out	Continue with the next step.
Did not run out	Cut or break the ribbon before the ribbon take-up spindle. Continue with the next step.