RE: Thermal receipt printers

["William Gray" <wgray at greenwichlibrary dot org>]

Here are a few things that might help you:

1. Are the printers regularly cleaned? We have Star Micronics TSP242
thermal receipt printers, and the manual recommends regular cleaning
with alcohol and a soft cloth for the thermal element (and platten).
This may make the difference if the printers haven't been cleaned in a
while. They do build up a fair amount of debris, some of which is from
the chemicals used in the thermal paper.

2. How is your receipt paper being stored? Since it is sensitive to
heat, maybe your storage conditions are having an effect on the paper.
Granted, I haven't seen this happen with ours, but it's a possibility.
It may be worth trying a brand new roll of paper from a newly-ordered,
unopened box, even if just to rule this possibility out.

3. The printing (heating element) might be failing. Is the print quality
the same across all your printers, or is there substantial variation? It
seems unlikely that they would all fail at once, unless it happens to be
a substandard part with a  short lifespan (in which case, your warranty
really ought to cover this--you may want to contact your service rep if
the above sugegstions don't pan out).

I don't mean to sound smug in saying this, but our printers haven't
failed yet, and they see a lot of use. I mention this because my gut
instinct is not that your printers are actually failing, but that it is
likely one of the first two issues mentioned above (and most likely the
first). There isn't a lot that can go wrong in a receipt printer,
compared to, say, an impact printer or a laser printer. I'd be curious
to hear what the final determination is on this.

Sincerely,

--Will Gray
Greenwich Library

-----Original Message-----
From: innopac-bounces at innopacusers dot org
[mailto:innopac-bounces at innopacusers dot org] On Behalf Of Mary Cresson
Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2005 10:30 AM
To: innopac at innopacusers dot org
Subject: Thermal receipt printers

We have been using Seiko thermal receipt printers since we switched to
III in 2003.  We now are finding that even when we alter the print
settings to the darkest possible, our receipts are becoming lighter and
lighter.  We have an address to send the printers to see if they need
service, but would like to know if anyone else has had this problem, and
is it a matter of having the printers serviced, or do we need to
purchase other printers?
 
Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.
 
Thanks.
 
 
 
Mary Adele Cresson
System Administrator
Denton Public Library System
3020 North Locust Street
Denton TX 76209
940-349-8753
FAX 940-349-8788


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