Ongoing Scanner Care

Once you have purchased your scanner, you now need to keep it operational with routine maintenance. A good option for critical installations is a spare scanner or one that can be moved from a less critical application in emergencies. If no support contracts have been taken out, be prepared to pause scanning whilst having the faulty machine fixed: this can take a few days.

Scanners by their very nature of handling dusty and abrasive paper, as well as the odd forgotten paper clip and staple, require regular cleaning and even the replacement of parts.

When you purchase a scanner it is advisable to also buy a good supply of consumable items to have in stock for when you need them. These items should include cleaning products for the glass, document feeder and the feeder rollers. It may be worth scheduling a regular cleaning job, especially for heavily used scanners. All too often, the operators do not report deterioration in the image quality until it becomes almost unreadable.

A suitable maintenance contract is an important issue: there are several levels of cover available, and you should consider how vital a particular scanner is to the operation of the business, and whether there is another scanner available as cover before choosing which if any to go for. As you would expect, a rapid response contract is considerably more expensive but may be essential.