Card Printer Troubleshooting Guide

Resolving a Card Jam

A card jam can be caused by a number of reasons, the most common is that 2 cards are “stuck” together and the printer has fed 2 cards instead of 1.

1. Restart the printer. Unplug the power cord, wait 5 seconds and reconnect it. The printer will eject the cards. Note: If restarting the printer did not eject the jammed card/s:
2. Open the printer's front cover.
3. Remove the ribbon and film cartridges.

Important: When the HDP5000 front cover is open, the 2 buttons become “Forward” and “Back” buttons. These are used to make all of the printer card path rollers turn either Forward or Backwards.

4. Lean the printer back and inspect the area above where the ribbon and film are normally loaded.
5. If you can see a jammed card, press and hold the “Forward” button and gently try to guide the card out with a thumb or finger towards the exit side of the printer (left).

6. Once the cards are removed from the printer, reinstall the ribbon and film cartridges and restart the printer.

If you are unable to eject the jammed card/s from the printer, contact Damstra support. Email [e-mail] to create a ticket in the Damstra support ticket system.

Prevent cards from getting stuck together

Before loading cards, ensure the cards are properly separated.

Warning: Never touch the printing face surfaces of the cards.
To avoid contamination, use a cotton glove to handle cards at all times.

To separate or fan the card, hold the cards to be loaded by the sides.
Hold the cards vertically against a flat, clean surface such as a desktop.
If the deck is too thick for your hand to hold comfortably, use about half a deck at a time.

Push the stack back and forth to an angle of about 45 from vertical, so as to separate all of the cards.

Note: Static charges and edge burrs from the die-cutting process can render individual cards stuck together with significant adhesion force. These cards MUST BE physically separated from each other before inserting into the feeder; if not separated, feeding or printer jams may occur.

Replacing the HDP5000 card printer transfer film

Replace the Film when the card printer displays “Film Out” on the LCD screen.

The Film is the left-hand cartridge. The Film spools are GREEN and YELLOW for easy identification and installation.

Replacing the HDP5000 colour ribbon

Replace the colour ribbon when the card printer displays “Ribbon Out” on the LCD screen.

Ribbon is the right-hand cartridge. The ribbon spools are BLUE and ORANGE for easy identification and installation.

 

Cleaning the Card Printer

Preparing the printer for Cleaning

Remove the film and ribbon cartridges and any card stock from the input hoppers.
(Be sure to put the cards in a clean place to prevent dust from getting into the card stock)

Remove the adhesive cleaning roller

IMPORTANT: You MUST remove the adhesive cleaning roller before you begin to clean the printer. Remove the card input hopper and remove the adhesive cleaning roller located underneath the hopper

Using the Adhesive cleaning card

1. Take the adhesive cleaning card and peel off the protective layers front and back to expose the adhesive surface.

2. Press the ‘Windows’ key to open the start menu
3. Type in ‘Control panel’ to the search and select ‘Control Panel’

4. Select ‘Devices and Printers‘
   
5. Right Click on your HDP5000/HDP5600 icon and navigate to “Printing Preferences”
   
   
6. Click the “Toolbox” button and go to the “Clean Printer” tab.
7. Click the “Clean” button

The adhesive cleaning card will now feed into the printer and move back and forth several times passing over the printer rollers in the card path to remove dust and dirt. Once completed, please reinstall the ribbon, film and cards.

Resolving incomplete or patchy image transfer

When the thermal transfer roller temperature is not hot enough, not all of the image is transferred from the transfer film onto the card. Some card stock is easier/harder to transfer the image onto than others so from time to time this setting may need to be adjusted to suit the card stock.

 

To resolve the issue where the entire image is not transferred to the card.

1. Press the Windows icon to open the start menu

2. Navigate to “Devices and Printers”

3. Right click on “HDP5000 Card Printer” - select “Printing Preferences”
   
   
   

4. Click the “Toolbox” button and go to the “Advanced Settings” tab in the toolbox

5. Find the setting in the list; “Transfer Temp Offset” and decrease this setting by 3.

   E.g. If it is currently 0, decrease it to -3 (Minus 3). If it is -3, decrease to -6. Note: The range for this setting is -20 to 20.

Note: By increasing the temperature the card stock can become malleable due to the increased heat absorbed during the printing process, increasing temperature causes additional risk of card jams, If card stock is noticeably malleable, reverse the above process to reduce temperature..

IMPORTANT: Heat tolerance of card stock can vary per batch it is important to monitor over time and adjust appropriately