Printhead guard

A plastic card printer, comprising:

• a printer housing that has a panel that is pivotable between a closed position and an open position;
• a card input hopper attached to the printer housing, the card input hopper is configured to hold a plurality of plastic cards to be printed on;
• a print station within the printer housing at which a plastic card fed from the card input hopper is printed on, the print station including a thermal printhead with a dot row, and a removable print ribbon;
• the thermal printhead is fixed to and moveable with the panel for movement between a printing position at which the thermal printhead can print onto the plastic card and a non-printing position at which the thermal printhead cannot print onto the plastic card;
• the thermal printhead is at the printing position when the panel is at the closed position and the thermal printhead is at the non-printing position when the panel is at the open position;
• a printhead guard associated with the thermal printhead, the printhead guard is movable relative to the printhead between a covering position where the printhead guard covers the dot row of the thermal printhead and a non-covering position where the printhead guard does not cover the dot row of the thermal printhead;
• and
• wherein the printhead guard is at the covering position when the thermal printhead is at the non-printing position, and the printhead guard is at the non-covering position when the thermal printhead is at the printing position.