How To Care For A Printhead And Platen Roller
Wondering how to care for a printhead and platen roller on thermal label printer? Follow these easy instructions.
by Timmy Thermal
Printhead and platens are your two most common components in your thermal label printer that need maintenance and service. Proper care of these components are also going to help reduce the overall cost of the operation of your thermal label printer.
Watch easy instruction video.
The top two printheads have little white marks on them. These are called label edgewear. This can be prevented and significantly reduced by using a ribbon that is wider than your media in the thermal label printer. The ribbon actually acts as a lubricant to prevent the media wearing directly against your printhead.
On the printhead you will also notice there is a lot of dirt and debris that is collected on the printhead and that dirt and debris could have been prevented simply by regular cleaning per the OEM specifications. They recommend that you clean the printhead every time you change the ribbon.
The bottom printhead is a printhead that has been properly cared for. Notice there are no edgewear marks and the printhead is nice and clean. That is how your printhead should look and it will also extend the life of your printhead.
The next component is the platen roller. These two platen rollers have not been properly cared for. As I roll it over, you will be able to see the slices in it where a user had a label that got wrapped around the roller and rather than properly back it out, they took a knife and cut it off. That is very bad practice and will also reduce the life of your printhead plus create voids in the print on your label.
The platen roller you see below is a good quality roller. This is what your roller should look like. You will notice that it is clean. It doesn’t have any marks on it because it has been well cleaned and there are no cuts on it where a user has taken a knife to cut label off it.
In order to maintain high quality printing and to extend the life of your thermal label printer, it’s important to follow OEM recommendations. Proper preventative maintenance will help you extend the life of all your components and reduce the cost of all your maintenance.
For more information on thermal label printer maintenance and to learn more about your options for all your printer, labeling and barcode scanning needs, call us as (800) 643-2664 and immediately talk to one of our friendly representatives; or chat us up on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn!
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