Posted on 03/12/2018 6:30:27 AM PDT by dennisw
The New Yorker Mag is banned but here is a fascinating article on printer paper jams. I hope Jim Robinson indulges me.
LINK ONLY https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/12/why-paper-jams-persist
# What is the number one thing that get smashed by baseball bats in company rage rooms?
# What printing pioneer got killed by his printer 150 years ago?
# How logjams when moving logs down river are related to printer paper jams.
mine has never jammed.
Didn’t read the article, but years of IT experience has shown me that the main issues with printer jams are keeping the printer clean, and the mechanical internals of the printer (which means that copiers are part of the same issue). If printer/copier internals, especially the various drive-gear trains, were made of higher-precision materials like steel, they’d jam less. Timing issues would be greatly minimized and wear would essentially cease to be an issue.
This is why a newspaper press lasts far longer than the average office printer even though the press has a far higher duty cycle and runs much faster. The limiting issue is cost. Metal gears currently have to be machined, which is more expensive than molding gears out of vinyl or other plastic. 3-D printing may help with this.
It’s how the paper “rolls” coming out of the package. And I’m talking about 8.5x11. Our document dude says you have to load the paper the correct way or it will not feed. He removes it from the paper packaging and fans it one direction, then flips it over and fans it again. See he says, it has to go this way. I see no difference.
We had one that jammed so often we named it Bob Marley.
No rage room necessary. Just smash it in the great outdoors where you can also pull an Elvis and shoot it to bits. Where an alleged, so called assault weapon comes in useful!
Instead it now fails to feed the paper because the rollers have become covered in paper lint. I just need to clean that off and it will be good to go again.
Mine likes making paper accordions. I put those - where else? A flexible accordion folder!
The front panel of my printer has a swatch of duct tape on which a cryptic message is printed with an “arrow” showing “up” side for paper. Looks ugly but it helps keep the dim-lites on notice.
A similar message is scrawled on the inside of the empty paper tray. I call it acceptable office graffiti.
In the mid 1990s - For the Chicago Court system Xerox had a zealous salesman who sold them mucho 400 series printers. They were jamming so often that 2 out of 3 defendants were going free. Due to the prosecutors not being able to hand over documents to the defense on time. This was primarily in the Chicago Children’s Courts. So child abusers and molesters were skating due to paper jams. This is in the New Yorker article.
I have owned these three simple B&W laser printers. Samsung, HP, Brother. Brother is the best. The Samsung and HP are gone.
Look edge on to the stack of paper. If there’s slight curl, it’ll jam. Try flipping it over with the curl facing down.
Interesting, thanks for posting.
Powdered metal gears are garden variety common.
Curl side down. It does matter.
so what makes the lines down the pages of copied papers on the feeder but not if copied from the glass.... sooooo frustrating!!
Paper jams went up by about 1/3 when wewent to recycled paper.
Every time paper is recycled, the fibers become shorter and that creates more dust that gets on the rollers. Dust on the roller is like lubricant and it won’t pick up the paper.
Mine’s an HP, and yes I have heard from others that Brothers is best.
Even powdered-metal gears have to be machined before they can be put into service.
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