Thermal Printer Ribbon Wrinkle

Ink is scratching off the label as it is fed through the printer.

Thermal printer ribbon wrinkle.

We receive and see posts about zebra printer ribbon wrinkling on zebra z 170xi series and z 220xi series printers. This effect commonly known as ribbon wrinkle results in streaks or voids on the printed image. One common misconception about the thermal printers is that the ribbon take up spindle is what pulls the ribbon through the printer but that is not what happens. Due to the very thin substrate ribbons are vulnerable to puckering and folding.

While this problem is common on all thermal transfer printers it is most prevalent on the wider web printers since there is more surface area of ribbon moving across the printhead. If barcodes are printing the wrinkle in the thermal transfer ribbon can cause the barcode to be unreadable. Itw thermal films presents tips on preventing ribbon wrinkle in your thermal transfer ribbon printer. The ultimate solution to avoiding ribbon wrinkles duration.

What happens is every time you use the ribbon it is melting ink and transferring it to the label. This can be a serious issue for applications that use bar codes. Making that adjustment will even out the pressure all the way across the printhead and hopefully prevent ribbon wrinkle. One of the challenges for thermal printer designers is managing the ribbon within the print system.

Another item you can check is the spindle tension. Below are the most common causes of ribbon wrinkle on any thermal printer by wrinkle it is meant as voids appearing on the printed label.