What To Know Before Buying A Thermal Printer

There are many printing technologies that can be found in the market today, with each one serving an ideal market niche. What distinguishes a printer that uses thermal technology from other kinds of printers is its ability to use heat to seal the ink onto the paper that it is printing on. Generally this kind of printer is comprised of a printer head, an ink ribbon, a rubber roller and a roll of specialized thermal paper. The printer head heats up the ink ribbon which is treated with a polyester film backing to print the string of requested text onto the paper, similar to a thermal fax machine. The paper is pushed ahead by the rubber roller where the heated ribbon is pressed against it to print the requested character string. What makes a thermal printer work so well is the speed at which all of this is accomplished, printing areas of 6-12 inches per second.

Thermal technology printers use a different kind of ink made of either wax or resin, or a combination of both which is different from a regular ink-jet or laser printer. Make sure to choose the variant that is appropriate for your printing purposes as they each have different have different shelf and print lives. The cheapest variant to purchase are ink ribbons made of wax, but will only last for about two years once they have been printed. Some point of sales terminals use this kind of ink ribbon to cut costs when printing receipts, which should be scanned or copied in case they are important. If you are looking for a much more durable variant of ink ribbon, a combination of wax and resin is best, especially if printed on fine-toothed paper, as well as papers that are coated with a film coat. Still, the printed product should not be exposed to damp environments and strong chemicals. The most durable of all ink ribbon variants are made from resin and are not made for use with conventional point of sale printers and are instead made for use with plastics.

Most printers that utilize thermal technology can be found in point-of-sale terminals and for printing bar codes for inventory tracking purposes. Damp environments and strong chemicals should be avoided when keeping the ink ribbons of a thermal printer in storage. Ink ribbons should also be kept away from heat, light and moisture as they can be sensitive to such environments. While thermal printers make for efficient and cost-effective printing solutions in sales and inventory applications, the print quality falters when compared with ink-jet and laser printers. Colored inks are now available in newer thermal printing technologies in a segment that typically had only black inks, however the inability of these printers to vary dot size or intensify the printed document results in a grainy product and is only recommended for specialty applications that take advantage of their speed.