Mindware sells other people’s printers. The ribbons are ours. Mynds is our own thermal transfer ribbon brand, converted at our New Delhi plant, and it is the reason a customer who buys one printer from us stays a customer for the next ten years — because the consumable arrives on time, in the right size, at the same quality every month.

Buying a ribbon is not like buying a printer. A printer is chosen once; a ribbon is chosen every time stock runs low, and the wrong choice shows up as smudged barcodes, a scanner that will not read at the warehouse door, or a printhead worn out in half the time it should have lasted. This page is written to make that choice quickly.

Mynds thermal transfer ribbons — made by us, in New Delhi

Mynds is our own ribbon brand, coated and converted at our New Delhi plant. Because we cut the rolls ourselves, we hold roughly 150 variants across the four grades — every common width and length, both core sizes, and both wind directions — so the size your printer takes is a stock item rather than a six-week import.

Wax

Mynds 20 Wax

The everyday ribbon. High-sensitivity wax that prints clean, dense barcodes at speed and at low darkness settings, which is easier on the printhead and cheaper per label than pushing a harder ribbon.

Prints on: Uncoated and matt-coated paper labels.

Used for: Carton and shipping labels, warehouse and inventory labels, retail price and MRP labels, courier and e-commerce manifests, general despatch.

Resin

Mynds 30 Resin

A step up in durability where a wax print would smudge. Holds its edge under handling, moisture and light abrasion, and prints sharp enough for small text and dense 2D codes.

Prints on: Gloss-coated paper and entry-level synthetic labels.

Used for: Cold-chain and frozen goods, logistics labels handled repeatedly, chemical and lubricant packaging, labels that live outdoors for weeks rather than hours.

Premium resin

Mynds 40 Premium Resin

Full resin for labels that have to survive the product they are stuck to. Resists solvents, oils, heat and sustained abrasion, and stays scannable after the kind of treatment that destroys a wax print in minutes.

Prints on: Polyester, polypropylene, polyimide, vinyl and other synthetic label stock.

Used for: Asset and equipment tags, electronics and PCB labels, automotive components, pharmaceutical and laboratory labelling, drum and chemical containers, outdoor and rating plates.

Washcare / textile

Mynds 50 Washcare

Built for garment care labels and nothing else. Bonds to woven textile tape and survives industrial laundering, repeated domestic wash cycles, dry cleaning solvent and pressing — which is the whole test a care label has to pass.

Prints on: Satin, taffeta, nylon and polyester woven tapes.

Used for: Care and content labels, size and brand labels, wash instruction labels, laundry and hospitality tagging, garment export documentation labels.

Converted for flat-head and near-edge printers

Flat-head printers

Desktop and industrial thermal transfer label printers, where the printhead sits flat against the platen. Standard label printing across warehousing, retail and manufacturing.

• TSC
• TSC Printronix
• Zebra
• Godex
• Citizen
• Sato
• Honeywell
• Intermec
• Toshiba TEC
• Datamax-O'Neil
• Argox
• Dcode
• Postek
• Bixolon

Near-edge TTO printers

Thermal transfer overprinters mounted on packaging and filling lines, printing directly onto film and laminate at line speed. Near-edge machines need a different ribbon construction from flat-head printers — ordering flat-head ribbon for a TTO coder is the most common consumables mistake we see.

• Videojet
• Markem-Imaje
• Domino
• Linx
• Allen Coding
• Open Date
• Zanasi
• Easyprint
• Matthews

Tell us the make, model and the ribbon size currently fitted, and we will match it. If your machine is not on this list it almost certainly still takes a ribbon we cut.

Not sure which grade you need? Send us the label material and what the label has to survive — heat, solvent, freezing, laundering — and we will send a sample roll to test on your own printer before you commit to a quantity.

Choosing between the four grades

The question is never “which ribbon is best”. It is “what is the label made of, and what does it have to survive”. Answer those two and the grade picks itself.

Mynds 20 Wax — the everyday ribbon

If your labels are paper and they are read indoors within a few weeks, this is the ribbon, and anything harder is money spent for no benefit. Wax is the most sensitive of the four grades, which means it transfers cleanly at lower head temperature and higher speed. Lower head temperature matters more than most buyers realise: it is the single biggest factor in how long a printhead lasts, and printheads are the expensive part.

Mynds 20 is used across carton and shipping labels, warehouse racking and bin labels, retail price and MRP labels, courier and e-commerce manifests, and general despatch. Dense, black, scannable barcodes on uncoated and matt-coated paper, at production speed.

Mynds 30 Resin — where wax starts to smudge

The moment a label is handled repeatedly, gets damp, or goes into a chilled or frozen environment, wax begins to let go. Mynds 30 holds its edge through handling, moisture and light abrasion, and prints sharply enough for small text and dense 2D codes where a softer ribbon would fill in.

It suits cold-chain and frozen goods, logistics labels that pass through many hands, chemical and lubricant packaging, and anything that lives outdoors for weeks rather than hours. It runs on gloss-coated papers and entry-level synthetics that wax cannot properly bond to.

Mynds 40 Premium Resin — labels that outlive the product

Full resin, for the jobs where the label has to survive whatever the product survives. Mynds 40 resists solvents, oils, heat and sustained abrasion, and stays scannable after treatment that would destroy a wax print in minutes.

This is the grade for asset and equipment tags, electronics and PCB labels, automotive components, pharmaceutical and laboratory labelling, drum and chemical containers, and outdoor rating plates. It is made to run on polyester, polypropylene, polyimide and vinyl label stock. If your label is synthetic and it matters, this is the ribbon.

Mynds 50 Washcare — built for garment care labels

A care label has one test to pass: it has to still be readable after the garment has been washed a hundred times, tumbled, pressed and dry-cleaned. Mynds 50 is formulated for exactly that and for nothing else. It bonds to woven textile tape and survives industrial laundering, repeated domestic wash cycles, dry cleaning solvent and pressing.

It runs on satin, taffeta, nylon and polyester woven tapes, and it is what garment exporters, apparel manufacturers, laundries and hospitality linen services use for care and content labels, size and brand labels, wash instruction labels and export documentation labels. Paired with our own taffeta, the whole label — material and print — comes from one supplier who is accountable for both.

Why roughly 150 variants matters

Ribbon is not one product. Width, length, core size and wind direction multiply into a large matrix, and a customer whose printer takes an unusual size normally waits weeks for it. Because we convert in-house rather than importing finished rolls, we hold around 150 variants across the four grades: every common width, the full range of lengths, both core sizes, and both coated-side-in and coated-side-out winds.

The practical result is boring and valuable — your size is a stock item. Tell us the width, the length and the core, or simply send a photograph of the ribbon currently fitted, and it ships. If you genuinely need a size nobody stocks, we cut it, because the slitting line is ours.

Flat-head and near-edge are not the same ribbon

This is the most common and most expensive consumables mistake we see. A flat-head printer — a desktop or industrial label printer where the head sits flat against the platen — and a near-edge TTO overprinter mounted on a packaging line take physically different ribbon. Core, wind direction and backcoat all differ. Fitting the wrong one gives poor transfer, ribbon wrinkle, wasted product and, often, a damaged head.

We convert for both, and we will tell you which you need if you tell us the machine.

Test before you commit

Nobody should buy a pallet of ribbon on a description. Send us the label material you print on and tell us what the label has to survive — heat, solvent, freezing, laundering, sunlight — and we will send a sample roll to run on your own printer. Judge it on your machine, on your labels, at your speeds. That is the only test that counts.

Ordering

Ribbons are available by the roll, by the box and on scheduled monthly supply. If you run a production line, a standing order sized to your consumption removes the stock-out risk entirely and usually improves the price. Ask us for a consumption review — tell us labels printed per day and we will work out what you should be holding.