Paper Jams — How to Avoid a Costly Service Call

Do you have a copie that has been jamming more lately?  If you do, you know how frustrating paper jams are.  Paper jams are one of the most common reasons people will even go out and buy a new copier.  Before you spend $10k on a new copier, maybe we can help with the paper issues that’s giving you this desire!

Here are a few things to check if you get a lot of paper jams.

1) What paper do you use?  If you are using the cheapest copy paper, try a brand name paper which may cost $5 to $10 more a case and see if the problem goes away.  If it does, the paper was the issue.  Cheap paper feels slick and thin.  There’s no real texture to the page and because of this, the rollers have trouble gripping the page and this is the source for probably 50% of paper jam issues.

2) How long has the paper been in the machine?  Even if you buy the better paper, if it has been in the machine for weeks or months, it can still collect a lot of humidity.  When you open a ream, you should try and keep the rest of the ream that is unused in a ziplock bag.  Only load paper for the maximum of 1 week.

3) Did you set the paper sizes and weights correctly in the driver?  If you tell the copier a page is 11″ and it’s actually 14″ it will jam because it will have paper covering the sensors after the 11″ that it expects.   If you have copy paper selected, but you are putting in 60lb cardstock, the fuser grabs too tight and a jam is pretty much a guarantee.

If you have checked out these 3 items and you’re still getting jams, it’s probably time to take a look at the machine itself.  You will want to have the pick up rollers looked at to make sure they still have some “tread” left.  You could also have other issues like the mylar strip being seperated or the fuser rollers being worn.  You could also have sensor issues creating a “false paper jam.”  Service techs trained on your machine are best at determining what specific issue you are facing with your copier.