Maintain Your Scanner

You should clean your scanner regularly to ensure its proper operation. We recommend that you clean your scanner according to the following schedule:

  • Before and immediately after each claim:
    • Clean the pick roller.
    • Clean the inside track rollers.
    • Clean the optical mark read head.
  • At the start of each scanning day or major scanning batch:
    • Clean the optical mark read head.
    • Clean the pick roller.

When cleaning the rollers, we recommend you use cotton swabs and a small amount of water. Alcohol can erode the rollers. When cleaning the optical mark reader, use cotton swabs and a small amount of alcohol.

Calibrating Your Scanner

If you notice that the scanner seems to be picking up many erased bubbles or is skipping many legitimate bubbles, you may need to re-calibrate your scanner. We recommend re-calibrate your scanner once every six months. It is also a good idea to calibrate a newly purchased scanner so you know it scans properly from the outset. 

Calibrating a scanner can have a dramatic impact on its performance in terms of what it does and does not read. Follow the instructions in your scanner manual to perform a calibration, as this process varies between scanners.

Note: We recommend that you only calibrate Scantron scanners if you notice a problem (the scanner is missing marked bubbles or picking up eraser marks). Cleaning the inside of the read head can have a dramatic impact on scanner performance. Each time you do this, re-calibrate the scanner.