A slight adjustment to your ribbon path may be all you need to eliminate wrinkles.
The first steps in finding and correcting a ribbon wrinkle problem are to identify if a ribbon wrinkle is the cause of your printing malfunction and, if so, to find where the wrinkle problem is located. Specific symptoms you can look for include:
Random, irregular voids in the print
Diagonal lines or creases in the print
Once the ribbon wrinkle problem has been identified, follow the steps below to correct the problem.
Load a 4" label or a 6" label, depending on the print head width, and use a ribbon that is slightly wider than the label.
Once loaded, turn the printer on and press the feed button to advance a blank label while looking at the ribbon supply spindle movement to see if the ribbon is flowing smoothly without rippling or bagging of the ribbon. If not, follow step 3. If the ribbon path is OK, follow step 4.
Break the ribbon from the rewind spindle and print test labels allowing the ribbon and label to feed out of the print head together. Stop print and peel back the ribbon to look at the print. If there are wrinkles, you need to adjust the supply spindle roller cam or tension of the ribbon. Reference the manual provided with the printer.
Load the ribbon onto the rewind spindle and feed several labels out so that the flow of the ribbon is smooth. Next, print ribbon test labels while observing the ribbon flow as well as the print. If there are wrinkles or voids then you will need to adjust the ribbon shield plate to correct the problem.
Note: Make sure the head leveling adjustment is at the minimum setting. Reference your printer manual for the location of the mechanical adjustments.
Save 10% on FOX IV Service
FOX IV's modular design, service and training has kept many of our machines in the field for more than a decade.
FOX IV equipment is built to perform 24/7 in harsh manufacturing environments. The modular design of our machines enables most of our customers to service their own equipment. Occasionally, however, a service issue comes up that requires the touch of a PMMI-certified technician.
If you find yourself in such a predicament, use offer code SUMMER-09 to save 10% off the price of a service call* provided by FOX IV Technologies, Inc.
If you are planning the purchase of new FOX IV equipment, please call
1-877-436-2434 to inquire about our service plans.
If your equipment requires on-site repair by a
FOX IV technician, please ship equipment to:
FOX IV Technologies, Inc. 6011 Enterprise Drive
Export, PA 15632
You should obtain an RA number prior to returning equipment for repair by calling 1-888-709-0374.
* - Discount offer does not apply to travel charges.
2010 Print & Apply Features Flexible M-Class Printer
The 2010 Mini provides a small footprint and a small pricetag while the 2010 Standard features a full 16" OD label roll.
Just in time for your belt tightening in the shipping department, the new FOX IV 2010 Standard and 2010 Mini label printer applicators offer the latest in Datamax print technology at a price that will compete with every other barcode and label application on the board. The full-sized 2010 Standard is an industrial workhorse complete with FOX IV's standard 16-inch OD label roll - almost twice as much media capacity as a 12-inch label roll.
The 2010 Standard features precise Uniwall design, silk-screened media paths, a rotatable user interface, swing-away cylinder assembly, dynamic tension control and a positive-pressure cabinet.
Rugged yet compact, the 2010 Mini features a smaller footprint and a smaller price tag. The Print & Apply system maintains most of the features of the full-sized unit while providing a more cost-effective solution for businesses with lower throughput.
The Datamax M-Class printer is available in direct-thermal and thermal-transfer and features a 4.25" print width at 203 dpi. It includes a USB port, Flash Memory slot and Windows driver and offers plentiful options such as wired or wireless Ethernet connectivity, expanded Flash Memory and UHF/HF RFID.
As part of FOX IV's "Intelligence Built-In" line of Smart Machines, the 2010 systems support a wide variety of barcode formats, fonts and graphic formats. They arrive loaded with 10 alphanumeric fonts with the option to download many more. All fonts are expandable vertically and horizontally up to 24x.
Datamax users considering an upgrade to an automated application, the 2010 will save you time and money in the changeover process.
All FOX IV printer applicators are designed to operate 24/7 in the most rugged industrial environments.
New TwinPrint System Automates Packing Slip
Process While Reducing Waste
TwinPrint - Packing Slip and Shipping Label in One
FOX IV Technologies, Inc. introduces the TwinPrint label printer applicator to help companies with their sustainable vision by reducing label waste material by as much as 35%.
The TwinPrint label printer applicator can print on both sides of the pressure sensitive label construction – the top label surface and the label liner. By selectively die cutting the label construction, a portion of the liner remains with the label. A 4” X 4” TwinPrint label construction can contain as much information as a standard 4” X 6” pressure sensitive label – a 30% reduction in label material.
The FOX IV TwinPrint label printer applicator is available using direct thermal over direct thermal printing or as a direct thermal over thermal transfer printing. In the case of direct thermal over direct thermal printing, the TwinPrint label printer applicator can use NCR’s patented 2ST™ direct thermal paper – a thermally sensitive face stock with a thermally sensitive coated liner.
By selectively die cutting the label and the liner, an adhesive border is created that completely surrounds the printed liner. This label design lends itself to dual-purpose labels for applications such as combining shipping labels and packing slips, shipping labels with lot traceability information or covert brand protection identifiers and product identification labels with return forms or special offers. The information on the printed liner remains confidential and provides tamper-evident protection.
Companies currently applying two labels to a carton can experience a much larger savings and reduction in label waste for our nation’s landfills. For example, a company applying two labels to a carton (one 4” X 6” shipping label and one 3” X 5” product description label) at 20 labels per minute and operating one shift for five days a week will generate more than 23,000 pounds of landfill per year. This waste includes the label stock, the label matrix produced during die cutting and the liner. By combining the labels and printing the product description on a 3” X 5” section on the back of the 4” X 6” label liner, the company eliminates the entire 3” X 5” label construction. This would decrease the company’s landfill generation by at least 35% or 9,000 pounds per year.
