Operator Menu ⇒ Forms
If the Ribbon Monitor Fault occurs, and is cleared without the ribbon life threshold being increased or the ribbon count reset to zero, the “Replace Ribbon” message will reappear approximately every one million characters until one of these operations is performed. This message will also appear upon powerup if the ribbon count is above the threshold at that time.
RibnMon Thresh
This parameter sets the ribbon life threshold of the Ribbon Monitor feature. The default option is 40, assuming that a 40 million character ribbon is being used. This option should be changed to 60 or 250 if a 60 million or 250 million character ribbon is used. The setting can be further refined based on the application being printed.
Ribbon Monitor Operation
When the number of characters printed reaches the ribbon life threshold, the current print job will stop, the Fault indicator will light, and the Replace Rib- bon message will appear. When this situation occurs:
•Clear the fault with the Clear key. The fault indicator should turn off and the Replace Ribbon message should disappear. (As explained under RibbonMonitor, see above, the fault message may recur.)
•Look at the recently printed output of the printer to determine if the ribbon is exhausted. If the quality of the output is still acceptable, you can increase the ribbon life threshold through the RibnMon Thresh option. The printer can then be placed back online and printing will resume.
•If the printed output is too light, then the ribbon is exhausted. Replace the ribbon with a new one, and reset the ribbon count with Clear Menu Ribbon Count. The printer can then be placed back online and print- ing will resume.
If the printing application is particularly heavy, it may be necessary to decrease the threshold.
The current Ribbon Monitor status can be obtained by printing a Calibrations Report (Menu => Configuration Menu => Printer => Report). This report will indicate whether Ribbon Monitor is enabled, the estimated number of charac- ters printed since Ribbon Monitor was last reset, and the selected threshold.
If the LAN interface is installed, the Ribbon Monitor status can be viewed graphically in WebPanel in which the size of the gas gauge bar decreases as a percentage of remaining expected ribbon life. The color of the bar is green when expected remaining ribbon life is between 51% and 100%, yellow when between 26% and 50%, and red when 25% or less. WebPanel can also be configured to send an Email Notification when the expected remaining ribbon life falls to 25%.