Our
in-house Technical Support team frequently gets calls from customers who are having trouble with their card printer ribbons breaking.
The good news is that fixing a broken printer ribbon is easy! In most cases, all you need to do is tape the ribbon back together, advance the ribbon forward, and resume your card printing.
If you find that your printer ribbons are breaking persistently, you'll probably need to make some adjustments to your ID card printer. We recommend that you start with the following:
- Restore driver settings to the default settings. Some printer driver settings can cause the ribbons to get too hot which can cause them to break.
- Check for debris on blank cards. If you pre-punch your cards with a slot punch before printing, imperfections (also called "burrs") can tear your ribbon. It's always best to print your cards first and then use your slot punch.
- Avoid printing too close to the edge of the card with a direct-to-card (dye sublimation) printer. This will cause the ribbon to snap (only retransfer printers are designed to print over the edge). A good rule of thumb is to modify the design of your card. You can do this with your ID card software by increasing the unprinted border around the edges or reducing the size of your images or font.
- Clean your printer and calibrate the ribbon sensor. You can find a cleaning kit that's designed for your printer make and model on our Card Printer Supplies page. To calibrate the ribbon sensor, remove the ribbon from the printer and follow the instructions found in your printer's user manual.
If you're new to ID card printing, a training session with our highly trained Tech Support team is a great idea. You can customize your training session based on your specific needs. Get details>> 