Element RW337D Dot Matrix Kitchen Printer - Ethernet/Serial/USB, Black

The Element RW337D is a dot matrix kitchen printer: a 9-pin impact receipt printer built for the one job a thermal printer cannot do. It strikes an inked ERC-38 ribbon onto ordinary plain bond paper instead of using heat, so the docket does not fade, grey off or blacken next to a grill, a fryer or a heat lamp, and it prints 2-ply and 3-ply carbon copies in the same pass.

It carries Ethernet, serial and USB on the one unit, prints at up to 4.7 lines per second in black and red, has a partial and full auto-cutter with automatic error recovery, and drives one or two cash drawers. Unlike the Epson TM-U220 series it competes with, the power supply is built in, so there is no external brick to find room for under the counter.

Where the Element RW337D is used

Anywhere a docket has to survive heat, steam or grease, or where one print needs to produce two copies:

• Restaurant and cafe kitchens, on the pass or at the grill, where thermal dockets are destroyed by heat within minutes.
• Bars and clubs, for drink dockets that stay legible in a wet, warm environment.
• Takeaway and delivery counters, printing an order copy for the kitchen and a copy for the bag.
• Dry cleaners and laundries, for 2-ply customer and garment tickets that sit next to steam presses all day.
• Workshops, warehouses and dispatch, where one copy travels with the goods and one stays on file.
• Any venue replacing an ageing TM-U220, since the ERC-38 ribbon and the bond rolls are unchanged.

2-ply and 3-ply dockets: the reason to buy an impact printer

This is what an impact printer does that a thermal printer physically cannot, so it is worth being clear about it. The RW337D runs standard 2-ply and 3-ply carbonless bond, which means one print produces two or three separate physical dockets in a single pass. The kitchen keeps one, the customer gets one, and with 3-ply a third goes to the bench, the driver or the file. No reprint, no second printer, no chance of the copies not matching.

3-ply support is a genuine point of difference. The Epson TM-U220 series that this printer competes with is rated for one original plus one copy, so if your workflow needs a third copy the RW337D covers it and the Epson does not. That matters for takeaway and delivery (kitchen, bag, driver), for dry cleaning and laundry (customer, garment, file), and for dispatch work where one copy travels with the goods, one is signed and one is kept.

Use plain carbonless multi-ply rolls at 0.05mm to 0.08mm per sheet in any of the four supported widths. Single-ply plain bond is fully supported as well, at 0.06mm to 0.085mm, if you only need the one copy. Whatever the ply, it has to be plain paper: an impact mechanism cannot mark thermal stock.

Impact vs thermal: which should you choose?

Thermal printers heat a chemical coating on the paper. They are quieter, faster and cheaper to run, and for a dry, room-temperature front counter printing short-lived receipts they are the sensible choice. The catch is that whatever heats the paper later also darkens it. Warmth, steam, oil, friction, sunlight and age all degrade a thermal docket, and it can never produce a carbon copy.

An impact printer has no coating to ruin. It hammers an ERC-38 ribbon onto plain bond, so the text is physically inked into the page and survives the environment it is printed into. That is why impact printing remains the default in kitchens, dry cleaners, workshops and dispatch benches, and why the format has outlived several generations of thermal hardware.

Key features of the Element RW337D

• 9-pin serial impact dot matrix mechanism, 80 x 144 dpi
• Ethernet, serial (RS-232) and USB interfaces on the one unit
• Print speed up to 4.7 lines per second
• Two-colour black and red printing with an ERC-38 ribbon
• 1-ply, 2-ply and 3-ply plain carbonless bond paper
• Four paper widths: 80mm, 76mm, 69.5mm and 57.5mm
• Built-in power supply, so no external brick
• Partial and full auto-cutter with automatic cutter-error recovery
• Drop-in paper loading with clamshell covers for fast roll changes
• Anti-jam design and a paper-saving function
• Cash drawer kick-out port, drives 1 or 2 drawers
• 64KB receive buffer and 17 codepages
• Uptime history recording and upload

Specifications

Figures above are taken from Element's RW337D brochure and Receipt Service Manual. Element's own marketing summary quotes higher headline numbers (300 million impacts, 1.5 million cuts, 18 million lines MCBF) than the technical specification table printed in the same brochure. We have published the engineering figures, which the service manual confirms.

How it compares to other impact kitchen printers

All three run the same ERC-38 ribbon and plain bond rolls, so switching between them does not change your consumables. The RW337D is the only one of the three that takes 3-ply, and the only one offering four paper widths: the Epson takes three and the Bixolon is 76.5mm only. The Epson is the faster machine and the hospitality default, the Bixolon is the shallowest on the counter at 239mm deep.

What's in the box

• Element RW337D dot matrix kitchen printer (black)
• Power lead (the power supply is inside the printer)
• User guide and warranty card

The ERC-38 ribbon and paper rolls are ordered separately, so you can match them to the width and ply you actually run.

Paper and ribbons for the RW337D

The RW337D is a plain paper printer. Do not load thermal rolls: an impact mechanism cannot mark them properly and the docket comes out faint and unusable.

• Ribbon: ERC-38 cartridge. Choose black for plain dockets, or black and red to flag urgent items and allergens.
• Single-ply rolls: plain bond in 76mm or 57mm to suit your setup.
• 2-ply rolls: white and yellow bond, for a kitchen copy and a customer or file copy in one print.
• 3-ply rolls: a third copy in the same pass, for the driver, the bench or the file.

Stock up with the ERC30/34/38 black ribbon 6-pack and 76x76 bond rolls for single-ply work. For carbon copies, browse the full range of carbonised paper rolls, or go straight to the two 76mm sizes that suit this printer: 76x76 2-ply and 76x76 3-ply.

Using the RW337D as a kitchen printer

Put it on the Ethernet port and it becomes a network device with its own IP, which is how most modern POS platforms expect to address a kitchen printer. Orders sent from any till, tablet or cloud POS land on the pass, printed on bond that will still be readable at the end of service. Use the red half of a black and red ribbon for allergens and modifiers so they cannot be missed, and run 2-ply or 3-ply if the kitchen keeps a copy while others travel with the order.

It is loud, and that is deliberate. Kitchen staff hear the print over extraction fans and a full section, which is exactly what a silent thermal printer fails to do.

Application use cases

• Kitchen pass and grill station: heat-proof dockets that outlast the service.
• Bar and beverage station: drink dockets in a warm, wet environment.
• Dry cleaner and laundry: 2-ply customer and garment tickets.
• Dispatch and workshop: one copy with the goods, one on file.
• Front counter: a durable plain-paper receipt plus a cash drawer trigger.

Frequently asked questions

The Element RW337D is a tri-interface impact dot matrix kitchen printer for Australian hospitality and retail. It prints black and red on plain bond at up to 4.7 lines per second, takes 1-ply, 2-ply or 3-ply stock, has a built-in power supply and an auto-cutter, and runs the widely available ERC-38 ribbon. Backed by a 12 Months Return to Base warranty and shipped Australia-wide by POS PLAZA. Browse more Kitchen Printers and Impact / Dot Matrix Receipt Printers.