Platen Cleaning and Replacement

The standard platen (drive roller) normally does not require cleaning. Paper and liner dust can accumulate without affecting print operations. Contaminates on the platen roller can damage the printhead or cause the media to slip or stick when printing. Adhesive, dirt, general dust, oils, and other contaminants should be cleaned immediately off the platen.

Clean the platen (and media path) whenever the printer has significantly poorer performance, print quality, or media handling. The platen is the print surface and drive roller for your media. If sticking or jamming continues even after cleaning, you must replace the platen.

The platen can be cleaned with a fiber-free swab (such as a Texpad swab) or a lint-free, clean, damp cloth very lightly moistened with medical-grade alcohol (99% pure medical grade).

Open the cover (and dispenser door). Remove media from the platen area.

Press the platen-release tabs on the right and left sides out, then rotate them up.

1	Platen bearings

Lift the platen out of the printer’s bottom frame.

Clean the platen with a clean swab moistened with 99% pure medical-grade alcohol. Clean from the center out. Repeat this process until all of the roller surfaces have been cleaned. If there has been heavy adhesive build-up or a label jam, repeat with a new, similarly-moistened swab to remove residual contaminants. Adhesives and oils, for example, could be thinned by the initial cleaning but not completely removed.

Install the platen in the printer. Discard the cleaning swabs after use. Reusing them tends to contaminate previously-cleaned surfaces.

Make sure the bearings and drive gear are on the platen shaft.

Align the platen with the gear to the left and lower it into the printer’s bottom frame.

Rotate the tabs back and snap them in place.

Allow the printer to dry for one minute before closing the dispenser door and the media cover and before loading labels.