Printers as Shop Floor equipment
Printers as Shop Floor equipment
Track a label printer as equipment so that a printer that cannot print opens an incident, its readings can drive your own alarms, and its maintenance is planned every so many labels.
A Zebra printer can be linked to a piece of Shop Floor equipment. Once it is, Asset Health treats it like any other machine: it has a health status, its faults and due maintenance open incidents, and its readings appear on the asset. You do not have to trend anything. DataMagik uses the printer's latest report.
Permissions: linking a printer to equipment and setting a printer PM need DataMagik - Shop Floor Admin. Marking a printer PM done and acting on suggested work requests need DataMagik - Maintenance. The Asset Health screens need the Asset Health license. See Asset Health.
Tracking a printer as equipment
- In Printer Management, open the printer and its Health tab.
- Under Asset Health, open Choose equipment… and pick either New equipment at the printer's site, or an existing piece of equipment.
- Select Track.
The tab then says which equipment the printer is tracked as. Stop tracking unlinks it. A printer can be tracked as one piece of equipment, and a piece of equipment can have one printer.
Built-in alarms
The first time a printer is tracked at a site, two conditions are added for that site. You can adjust or switch them off like any other condition (see Conditions, incidents and escalation).
| Condition | Severity | Opens when |
|---|---|---|
| Printer cannot print | Warning | The printer reports a fault that stops it printing, such as paper out, ribbon out, head open or paused. It closes on its own once the printer is ready. |
| Printer maintenance due | Info | The printer reports maintenance due: clean the printhead, a printhead at 90% of its rated life or worn out, or media calibration. |
Each comes with possible causes and recommended checks, such as "Load labels or ribbon and close the printhead" or "Clean the printhead with an alcohol pen or swab".
Printer readings on the asset
The asset's Sensors table in Asset Health shows the printer's latest readings:
| Reading | Signal |
|---|---|
| Labels printed | printer_labels_printed |
| Printhead wear (%) | printer_head_worn_pct |
| Printhead distance (km) | printer_head_km |
| Printed since the head was cleaned (m) | printer_since_clean_m |
| Toward the head cleaning interval (%) | printer_clean_interval_pct |
| Times the head was opened | printer_head_opens |
Your own alarms on printer readings
You can write a condition on any of these readings, for example "printhead wear at or above 80%" or "printed 500 m since the head was cleaned". When you add a tag rule on the Escalation page, the readings are listed under Label printers (equipment rules only). Scope the rule to equipment: a printer's reading belongs to the printer's equipment, so a rule on a machine is refused.
If a printer stops reporting for more than 3 hours, for example because it is switched off overnight, its readings count as unknown. Rules that read them are skipped, and their open incidents stay open rather than closing because DataMagik lost sight of the printer.
Printer maintenance every so many labels
A printer's maintenance usually depends on how much it prints, not on how long it runs. On a printer's equipment, the PM section in Asset Health is called Printer maintenance and counts from the printer's own counters.
Setting the PM
- In Asset Health, open the printer's equipment.
- Under Printer maintenance, enter a number for PM every and choose labels or km of printhead. For example, every 50,000 labels.
- Select Save interval. The count starts from the printer's reading at that moment.
Clear the number to remove the PM. Setting the same interval again keeps the count; changing it starts a new count.
The section then shows the interval, where the count started and how much is left, for example "every 50,000 labels, counted from 99,660 labels" and "50,000 labels left". When the count passes the interval it shows how far over it is, for example "9,660 labels over", and the PM appears in Upcoming PM with the run-hour PMs.
Marking it done
A user with Maintenance selects Mark PM done. The count starts again from the printer's label count, or printhead distance, at that moment.
Setting the PM and marking it done both need a report from the printer within the last 3 hours, so the count starts from a true figure. If the printer has not reported recently, open it in Printer Management and select Read now on its Health tab, then try again.
When the count changes underneath it
- A new printhead resets the printer's printhead distance. DataMagik sees the count go backwards and counts from zero from then on.
- A different printer linked to the equipment: the count restarts from the new printer's reading, keeping the same interval.
- No printer linked any more: the PM is kept but not counted, and the section says so. Link a printer again from its Health tab, or select Remove printer PM.
Suggested work requests
Printers join Asset Health's Suggested work requests:
- PM due, when a printer PM is overdue.
- Printer maintenance due, when the printer itself reports maintenance due. "Labels nearly out" does not raise one.
A suggestion is held back while the equipment already has an open work request. Nothing is sent to Plex until someone confirms it, as with every suggested work request. See Asset Health.