Ateilla Professional Id Card Mak
Harriet Wehrenberg
Even the most basic printers contain dozens of moving parts, all of which need to perform perfectly in order for the end result to be a nice, professional student ID card, employee badge or other credential.
Troubleshooting issues is a fact of life with any kind of machine, whether it's a printer, a blender or a $100,000 sports car. And while we all do the best we can to keep our machines running like new, even well-maintained machines are going to run into trouble at some point.
In early May, we published a post on how schools should prepare for next year's student ID badging job, but one of the tips in that post can be applied to any big badging operation: test your ID card printer frequently.
When you test your ID card printer, the ideal result is that you don't encounter anything out of the ordinary: you design a test card, send it to the printer and it comes out great. Perfect! Time for lunch.
If you encounter any of the issues described in this post and aren't comfortable tackling them on your own, give our customer service team a call at 800.233.0298 and they'll help you get set up with the perfect printer service plan.
Please note that printheads are model specific and are rarely a "one size fits most" solution. It's best to check with your manufacturer to see what kind of printhead you need and to then order it from your preferred vendor.
As the image to the right illustrates, these issues are often extremely small, but are still quite noticeable. These imperfections are caused by having dust, lint, dirt or other debris on the surface of your card when it goes through the printhead.
Basically, this debris gets in the way of the printed imagery being applied to your ID card's surface. Think of the dust as being like a tiny umbrella, keeping anything above from coming into contact with anything below. The printer tries to apply the imagery as normal, but the dust gets in the way.
Whether you're using a laser printer to print your senior thesis or a photo printer to bring those vacation pictures to life, print materials are going to get stuck from time to time. It happens, and ID card printers are no exception.
If you're using your ID card printer and find that you are getting card jams right near the input hopper or very early in the print job, you'll probably be surprised to learn that your problem is caused by a part of your printer working too well.
However, the rollers being too sticky is what leads to many card jams. The rollers are so sticky that they're unable to pass the card on through the rest of the process. Instead, the card gets stuck to the rollers, causing a jam.
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