Jammed documents are the number one maintenance issue for any machine that moves paper, whether it is an office copier, your home printer, or a check scanner. And believe it or not, they even happen to the CheXpress CX30, even though you might not expect them, since it moves checks along a very simple path – straight in and straight back out.
But when a document is torn, dog-eared, or otherwise damaged, that can cause the rollers to lose their grip and the item to jam. Most paper jams in the CX30 occur due to one of these reasons. Then the next question becomes: How do you remove it?
Since the CX30’s track sits very deep within the device, it has two access panels for that purpose. The first step is to remove the entire outer cover, which can be done by pulling the tabs on the bottom right and left of the scanner, and pulling up the cover at the same time.
Once the cover is off, the best place to start is the rear access door. This gives you the highest possibility of removing the stuck item with the least invasive process.
Begin by opening the gray track extension (1) about halfway. This part is ordinarily used if you want checks to feed through the scanner and straight out the back, however, in this case, we are only opening it enough to get it out of the way of the access panel. Opening it all the way could actually tear the check and make it harder to remove.
After the extension is out of the way, you can pop open the rear access door (2) and gently pull the check straight out the back.
You’ll notice that the check path actually curves around the back of the device, even though the CX30 is a single-feed scanner. This is so that the part of the check that has already been scanned has a place to go while the trailing edge moves past the image sensor. This rear area is a common place for checks to become stuck when there is damage to the trailing edge.
The other method of clearing paper jams is to open the image sensor door on the side, which gives access to documents stuck earlier in the track. Any checks that jam in this area will be held flat against the sensor, so use a thin, flat object to pull the paper out a few millimeters until you can grab it with your fingers.
It is very important to be careful not to scratch the image sensor glass behind the check while you are prying it out. For this reason, non-abrasive, wooden or plastic objects are best. (We recommend using a popsicle stick, but if none is available, things like paper clips, nail files or tweezers will do.) Try to position the pry tool as close to the front of the scanner as possible.
Using one of these two methods, you should be able to clear virtually all paper jams in the CheXpress CX30.
Since the feed path of the CX30 is very simple, jams should not be a regular occurrence, and should only be happening with torn or damaged documents. If you are experiencing frequent paper jams with items that otherwise appear normal, we recommend contacting the our support desk at once.
