Printer Faults - Curled Pages

Excessive curl on printing is usually a symptom of damp paper. One side of the fuser is hotter than the other and this drives water vapour out of the paper which shrinks and creates an inward curl on that side.

Paper often has some curl to it when it appears in the ouput tray and this gives some indication of paper quality. If the paper is so curled you need to hold it open to read it then the printer will be more prone to paper jams.

If the paper is used for duplex printing it won't feed correctly.

The direction in which curl occurs depends on the direction of the long grain in the paper - the direction of the curl is usually long-ways with copier paper, that is the page tends to roll up in a long cylinder.

If the curl is top to bottom of the page (so a short cylinder) then the paper isn't intended as copier paper at all. Paper that tends to curve this way is highly likely to cause problems including wrapping round the drum or the fuser rollers - a fault that is difficult and ecpensive to fix.

Try different paper or paper from a different ream. Paper should be on shelves or pallets off the floor in a dry environment. However do not store paper too near a heater or radiator as this may make it too dry.

Printing large solid areas will also tend to cause curl because of the differences in tension between the side covered in a thin plastic coat and the other. Laser printers are not really designed to print large solid areas. It is worth noting that printing a page white on black (by printing 95% black) is extremely expensive because it uses so much toner. Try using a cross-hatch pattern for block fills - its cheaper and less likely to cause problems. Fuser jams are also rather likely with large coloured areas.