Regular Maintenance
Regular maintenance is essential to the life of your printer and to maintain the quality of your printing. It is best to clean your printhead with every new ribbon to stop build-up from occurring. Most OEMs recommend using Isopropyl alcohol and TLW offers several cleaning products to help with your printhead maintenance (Isopropyl wipes, pens and cleaning cards). Simply wipe the card, pen or wipe across the printhead to remove resins and dissolve build-up. That's it - just a few seconds during ribbon changes is all it takes.
We also offer Clean Start® thermal transfer ribbons which have a cleaning card built into the leader of each ribbon. Visit Iimak's manufacturer page to learn more about Clean Start®.
Printheads & Parts
There will come a time when your thermal printer needs a new printhead, or roller, or belt, or power supply, etc. As durable and advanced as thermal printers are, they still require replacement parts from time to time. Even the most prestigious cars require new parts every now and then!
Regular OEM recommended maintenance does prolong the life of your printhead (and maintains optimal print quality), but printheads are designed to be replaced as needed. It's usually easy to tell when your printhead is due for a change because there will be lines or gaps in your printing from where the individual sensor has burned out and simply cleaning the printhead won't fix the problem. This could be every year or every month depending on your printing volume.
TLW offers replacement printheads and parts for most of today's thermal printers. Replacing a printhead is a simple task that most of us can do, but what about the not so simple repairs? Our certified service technicians can service your printer on-site or you can ship the printer to our service center. Work with your Account Manager to see which method is best for you.
Peace of Mind
Why wait until your thermal printer has issues to have it serviced? TLW offers annual service and maintenance plans for most of today's thermal printers. Our technicians will perform regular maintenance on-site and address any issues before they become a problem. Call your account manager today to see what else a service plan could do for you.
