Printing device

A printing device for printing sheet elements (1) that are serially fed to the printing device, which sheet elements comprise a surface material, in particular product labels made of temperature-sensitive paper or paper substitute materials, comprising a feed device for feeding the sheet elements (1) to a print head which acts on the sheet element (1), wherein said print head comprises a thermal slat (3) which is supported flexibly by a carrier device (8) such that between the thermal slat (3) and the sheet element (1) a counterpressure surface is formed at a predefined surface pressure on the sheet element (1) to be printed,

• characterised in that the thermal slat (3) is associated with an adaptor means (7) that is exchangeable together with said thermal slat (3), with which adaptor means (7) the excursion of a resilient holding means (9) for the thermal slat (3) can be adjusted such that the surface pressure is constant irrespective of the width of the thermal slat (3).