Why does a photocopier or printer take in several pieces of paper at once?

Answer 1

There could be a number of reasons.

The roller tension is not correct. In most of today's small inexpensive printers there is not a lot that can be done about this.

The rollers may be worn and not getting a good grip, increasing the tension on the paper and forcing several out at once.

The paper may not be 'good.' You can help this by fanning the paper before loading it. The humidity can also play a part in working properly.

Answer 2

I agree with Mark Swarthout that there could be a number of reasons.

First, as he suggested, the problem could be related to the rollers. Rather than being worn out, though, they are probably encountering too much paper because the paper tray is overfilled. (Worn rollers tend to cause the paper not to be picked up rather than too many pages being picked up.) If you look at the paper tray, there will be a mark that indicates the level to which paper can be filled. Above that point, you will experience paper jams because it is putting too much pressure on the paper when the input roller tries to grab a page.

Second, humidity can be an issue as he mentioned. If the ambient environment has a reading of 75% relative humidity or higher, chances are that the paper will feel wet and will stick together, causing paper input problems. A way to resolve this is to fan the paper just prior to printing and to fill the paper tray only about half to two-thirds full until such time that the relative humidity level drops.

Third, if you have just taken the paper out of the ream, make sure to fan it both in the short and long dimensions. This loosens the pieces of paper from each other. When they are stuffed into their paper sleeves for packaging as reams, they are kept under pressure and much of that pressure is maintained by the 500 pages even after they are sealed in their wrapper. Add to this the fact that as they are shipped and moved about from the factory to the final destination of lying in wait for use in the printer, they are rubbing together, generating attractive static charges between themselves and you can understand why they might stick together until you come along to help separate them. Further, fanning the pages while loosening the packing pressure and negating the static charges also puts a little "pillow" of air between the pages so as to keep them more loose and ready for use.

Fourth, make sure that the paper is of the right type. Specifically, make sure that it is a bond that the printer is designed to use. Most printers can use between 19 and 24 pound bond without any problems but beyond that can be hit and miss unless you tell the printer to expect something different. This is usually done through the Print... dialog box. If you are printing postcards, for example, you will want to tell the printer that the paper type is cardstock. If the printer is expecting normal paper and you are feeding something different, then the printer can jam due to the expectation of different media. Additionally, if the paper is too thin, such as using vellum or notebook paper rather than standard multipurpose paper, the printer could jam as it is not designed to use such thin material. You can review the specifications section of your printer manual to see what types of paper it can use.

These are the most common problems. If you have checked all this and you are still having issues, feel free to drop me a line and I will see what I can do to help you troubleshoot.