If you’ve ever printed cards with your ID card printer, you need to clean it – regularly cleaning the printer can help keep your print quality up and prevent damage to your printer. Cleaning takes only a few minutes with a cleaning kit, and should be done each time you replace the printer ribbon.

Why Does Cleaning Matter?

Dust, debris, hair, oils and dirt from your hands – there are many things that can get into your card printer and cause damage. How does this happen?

  • Dust, dirt, and other debris can build up and block sensors that track your card’s movement through the printer, causing card jams and errors
  • Dust, dirt, and other debris can also damage the printhead resulting in bad print quality
  • Oils from fingerprints on cards can also cause damage and can result in smudges and visible fingerprints on the printed cards

If your printer needs the printhead repaired or replaced, rollers replaced, sensors replaced, or other repairs due to not being cleaned, it may cost you hundreds of dollars and take several weeks – which you can avoid by cleaning the printer with the manufacturer-recommended cleaning kit.

In addition to cleaning your printer, there are several things you can to protect your ID card printer:

  • Keep it in a cool, dry location
  • Use a dust cover to prevent dust, hair, debris, and spills from getting into the printer
  • Only touch your cards by the edges

What’s In a Cleaning Kit?

While the specific items in a cleaning kit will vary by manufacture and printer model, card printer cleaning kits will contain some of the following items:

  • Extra long cleaning cards
  • Printhead cleaning pen
  • Swabs
  • Sticky cleaning rollers
  • Cleaning cloths or wipes

In addition to these items, our techs may ask you to use a can of compressed air to help remove dust and debris from the printer.

Cleaning your printer is a simple process that should only take a few minutes. You can find videos with instructions on cleaning a wide range of printer models on our ID Card Group YouTube page, or find articles online from our tech support experts.

Shop All Cleaning Kits on ID Card Group

We carry printer cleaning kits from all the leading ID card printer manufactures:

Questions?

If you need help choosing the best ID card printer cleaning kit for your organization’s needs, call our ID experts at 877-868-0012 or email [email protected]. We’ll make it easy for you!

ID Card Group offers a price match guarantee, provides free shipping on orders over $100, and accepts purchase orders.