Images on the printout are really faint. Is there a ribbon that can be replace or is it a thermal printer

Print is very faint on thermal paper Seiko System Stop Watch S149

Thermal printers don't use ribbons or ink. They transfer images/text with heat on to special thermal paper.

It depends on the amount of labels and the media used. The more it is used the quicker the printheads need replaced. In an industrial environment 6 months is not uncommon. You need to try and keep the printhead temperature as low as possible and the labels should be free from dirt etc to avoid wear on the head. If this printer has a ribbon option try that as it often works out cheaper.

If this is the thermal head model, you will need to have the print head replaced. These were also sold under the Dell label, so finding a used replacement printer may be more economical. If it takes ribbons, you will need:

Ribbons

This printer needs a ribbon cassette to print receipts.

? ? ?

EPSON ribbon cassette, ERC-38 (B) (Life: 3,000,000 characters / Color: Black) EPSON ribbon cassette, ERC-38 (P) (Life: 4,000,000 characters / Color: Purple) EPSON ribbon cassette, ERC-38 (B/R) (Life: 1,500,000 characters / Color: Black)
(Life: 750,000 characters / Color: Red)
You can order replacement parts here: http://www.umd.com.au/itd/products/spareparts_epson.html
Thanks

possible the ribbon is not the best in related to that especific labels, change ribbon.

Hi,

You need to check whether is ther any printer ribbon for this device, If any try replacing it and then it will print better.

Regards
Rudra.

It sounds like you should recalibrate the printer, to do this press and hold the button and turn the printer on. When the light flashes Red let go and the printer will calibrate and do a printout at the end

The zebra ribbon has ink on one side and the other side has a backcoating which protects the printhead. simple way to check is to peel off a label and momentarily stick to ribbon and remove. This will show you which side is inked.

If ribbon is installed correctly then reset the printer and re-calibrate it. 1. install labels and ribbon 2. power on printer. If you have a solid green light on then 3 turn printer off. 4 hold down feed key 5 power printer on and after 2 seconds release feed key. printer will perform a calibration routine and eventually print out status page. IMPORTANT 6 Hit Feed Key once more. Printer will display Out Of Dump message. Your printer has now been sucessfully calibrated.

Had the same problem with a ZM400. As stated in the User manual (can be downloaded http://www.zebra.com/id/zebra/na/en/index/resource_library/manuals.results.html?FRRBarcodePrinters=6882), warning "Ribbon in" is usually caused by the wrong printing method (thermal direct instead of thermal transfer [which should be selected for ribbbons]). My error disappeared after choosing "thermal transfer" directly on the printer. For network printers this needs to be set by an admin in the network settings for the the printer to solve the problem permanently.

http://h20181.www2.hp.com/plmcontent/NACSC/SML/results.htm?SID=446153&MEID=B67763C2-AD42-45FD-B0E6-7D5998FCE86D