Extra feed Printer feeds a blank label after print is done. This does not happen every time and the label is still in line for the next job.Any ideas.

Anonymous Mar 19, 2014

Feeds a blank label after a good one. Feeds a blank label after a good one.

1 Answer

Anonymous

Contributor 45 Answers
Posted on Sep 18, 2008

Anonymous

Contributor

Joined: Sep 16, 2008

Answers

Questions

Helped

35503

Points

The label sensors might not be getting a strong signal as the labels pass between them.
Make sure the labels are loaded all the way to the left (as viewed fron the front) and make sure the label guide (near the back of the printer) is set to keep the labels from wandering away from the sensor.

There is a pair of infrared emiter and detector located above and below the label path. As label pass between, these measure the leading and trailing edges of each label.

If you haven't already done so, calibrate the printer, by using the "Online", "Calibrate", "Online" buttons. Hit the "Feed" button a few times to see if the labels feed consistantly. It might take to "Feeds" to get each out, if they stop at both the start of the printhead and again at the tear bar. Adjusting the labels and calibrating fixes most problems. If the "Feed" button still doesn't feed just one label and the printer still skips labels, you'll need to adjust the label gap sensors. This can be a bit tricky if your labels are very narrow.

There should be a small pcb on a shaft under the label path. Note its current location, then slide it left or right to get a better signal, and try the feed button again. On my Zebras, the sensor is not in the middle of the PCB. Look for a small metal "can" on the PCB and center that.

The upper sensor is more difficult to adjust, but if you manage to spot a very small PCB above the labels, it will be easier to line these up.

Anonymous Sep 30, 2008

There's another possibility I hadn't mentioned, since you said the printer doesn't skip every time.

If you're printing different types of labels, some label formats might be be OK while the logical height of others is set higher than the physical height of the label.

For example, if you have 1" labels loaded in the printer, but try to print some with sofware set for labels 1.3" high, the label would have been feed past the printhead and the next label would have been started. The next print advances to the start of the next label before printing.

Depending on your software, the page setup could be in different places and may be a combination of settings. I would check for label height, top and bottom margins and label gap.

Good luck,

Label_Guy