Paper jams happen. That’s a fact of office life!
Here are 10 tips to help reduce HOW OFTEN they happen.
1. Use older paper first. If it sits around, it may take on moisture, dry out too much, or get bumped causing curved corners.
2. Don’t open a ream of paper unless you’re going to use it.
While your copier might hold 2,000 sheets, unless you’re doing a 2,000 page print run, don’t keep your drawers filled. Paper absorbs moisture from the air. Moisture expands paper and makes jams more likely. Open paper and use immediately. Store your paper in a cool, dry place.
3. Be careful.
Creases, wrinkles, or tears aren’t going to go smoothly through the paper path in your copier or printer. If paper is curled, don’t use it.
4. Fan paper before loading into the paper tray.
Fanning the paper ensures the the edges aren’t stuck together and adds some air between sheets (which can help to prevent a double feed).
5. Stack paper.
If you take paper out of the box to stack onto a shelf, stack the older paper on top of the new paper and align the reams on top of each other.
6. Place the paper right side up.
A ream of paper will have an arrow – that’s the right direction, place it in the copier or printer accordingly.
7. Use good quality paper.
Lower quality paper is . . . lower quality. The potential for jamming is higher with cheaper paper.
8. Use the guidelines in the paper tray.
Keep the sheets aligned and don’t overfill – the “fill line” is there for a reason.
9. Weight matters.
Don’t mix different paperweights in the paper trays. Review your user manual to be sure that your settings are correct. Don’t use paper heavier than your machine can handle – it will get stuck.
10. Don’t open the paper tray while printing is in progress.
Really?! Who does this? Please be patient with your printer and remember the first toner-based copiers took nearly 3 min to produce a single copy!
If you’re scanning multiple documents, here are a few paper-handling tips:
– Remove paper clips and staples
– Remove any Post-It notes
– Tape torn edges
An amazing article about Paper Jams and why they happen (more than you ever wanted to know):
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/12/why-paper-jams-persist