Ribbons

 RIBBONS

Carbon ribbons are on rolls and are fitted onto a spindle or reel holder within the printer. The used ribbon is rewound by a take-up spindle forming a roll of ‘used’ ribbon. It is termed a ‘one-trip’ ribbon because once it has been rewound the used roll is discarded and replaced with a new one. If one were to hold a strip of used carbon ribbon up to the light one would see an exact negative of the images that have been printed. The main benefit of using a one-trip thermal transfer ribbon is that providing the correct settings are applied prior to printing, an 100% density of printed image is guaranteed; compare this with a pre-inked ribbon on a dot matrix impact printer ribbon which gradually fades with usage.