Chapter 4: Routine Maintenance 47

Manual Cleaning Procedure

To maintain optimal print quality, manually clean cartridges after they sit idle for longer than two days—or are placed in storage. Wiping the print head will clean out the nozzles and firing chambers.

A Cloth Should Be:

nSoft, fiberless, and moistened with deionized water.

Should NOT Be:

nAbrasive, made of small fibers, dry nor contain chemical additives.

1.Press the Start/Stop key.

2.Using the Left Arrow key, reposition the carriage over the platen.

3.Open the latch for the first cartridge and remove it.

4.Inspect the ink level indicator on the cartridge to verify the cartridge is not empty.

5.Dampen the cloth with de-ionized water.

6.Drag the surface of the cartridge print head over the surface of the cloth. Wipe slowly across the long-axis with the print car- tridge facing down. Do not apply excessive force, as this could scratch the nozzle area.

7.Repeat until the print head leaves an evenly dark line of ink on the cloth.

8.When the cleaning process finishes, test the print quality again in Best Mode (activated with the Quality key.) Press the Start/ Stop key. The OK light will turn green. If the printer was active when you initiated Step 1, it will resume printing. If it was idle, send another marker to the print queue.