ITW resin ribbon 300M

Resin ribbon is the grade most resistant to chemicals and abrasion among the three grades of thermal transfer ribbon, a 300M ribbon whose product name lists silver matte, PET and clear labels. Widths come in 8 sizes from 40mm to 110mm in 10mm steps, and the manufacturer is listed as ITW.

The three ribbon grades and the target media in product names

Among the 300M products, all three grades have the same variants, 8 widths from 40 to 110mm. Moving up a grade does not change how you choose the roll length and width, so decide the grade based only on the label material and the environment where it will be applied.

Labels that need resin

In Zebra's certified ribbon classification, the uses listed for the standard resin product (6200) are labels exposed to water, steam, and alkaline and acidic solutions, labels read repeatedly by rubbing with a scanner wand, and labels subject to frequent abrasion. Resin 6200 is described as delivering high print quality even with dense barcodes and high-resolution graphics.

Zebra's classification places synthetic materials in general, such as silver matte, PET and clear film, under resin (6200, etc.), and lists only matte synthetics as also printable with wax/resin (6100, etc.). The three materials in this product name, silver matte, PET and clear labels, match that classification.

Roll end markings and width variants

The label on the roll end is printed with the width-length and ink side, such as REGIN(100-300), W-324, OUTSIDE. The first number in the parentheses is the width (mm) and the second is the length (M), and OUTSIDE means the ink side is wound on the outside.

For width, choose the closest variant that is wider than the label roll width including the liner. The core and outer diameter requirements for loading 300M ribbon on the Zebra ZD421T and TSC TE210 are the same regardless of grade, so refer to the loading requirements table on the wax ribbon page.

Setting density in GoodLabel Designer

• Even after switching to resin, the Print method field stays at Thermal transfer; ZPL gets ^MTT, TSPL SET RIBBON ON and EZPL ^AT, the same commands as with a wax ribbon.
• Resin is a grade that needs more heat than wax and wax/resin. If text is faint or barcode bars break up on the ZD421T or TE210 at the density used with wax ribbon, raise Density in the Print window.
• Raise it one step at a time and print 1 label each time: for ZPL from 21 within 0–30, for TSPL from 11 within 0–15.
• If it is still faint after raising density, lower the speed below the default of 3.

The location of the Density and Speed fields in the Print window is shown with screenshots in the guide's Printing chapter.