Label / Thermal Printers

With thermal wax transfer label printers, There are three kinds of such machines.

A. Direct thermal printers burn dots onto coated paper as it passes over a heated printhead, and do not use ribbons. They are therefore the cheapest to operate. They print only in black, need specially coated paper, and the images tend to fade fairly quickly – as we all know from examining our collected receipts whose information has wholly vanished by tax reporting time. Specially coated, they can last up to two years, but that’s an additional expense.

B. Thermal wax transfer machines use a transfer ribbon that contains a wax-based ink, which may be black or another color, and make permanent impressions by using heat to melt wax-based ink onto a surface. One can print either on paper or on a synthetic material. People often use them to make bar codes, labels, price tags, and to do other specialty print jobs. The ink becomes sandwiched between a base material and a coating. Film bases such as acrylic and polyester can produce durable images with strong resistance to chemicals or abrasive environments. Inexpensive paper labels are fine for shipping and receiving labels, and for high initial tack and adhesion labels on corrugated materials. The more durable synthetic labels resist abrasion, moisture, heat, tearing and chemicals. Acrylic and polyester labels can be used outdoors, and can be coated to last for a decade, even under water. A note on maintenance: one should remember to clean the printhead before each ribbon change with isopropyl alcohol applied with a cotton swab.

C. Dual method machines can use either thermal transfer form. This third kind of printer is a sort of multifunction machine. While certainly the most versatile, they also tend to be expensive. Don’t buy more versatility than you actually expect to need.

What kind of printer do you actually need? Ask yourself five questions:

1. Do you ever need to print in color?

2. Will what you print be scanned or have a shelf-life of more than a

year?

3. Will you be printing high density bar codes?

4. Will your print jobs be subjected to heat or sunlight, or both?

5. Do you need to print to various substances (e.g., paper, film, foil?)

If the answer is yes to any of these, consider going with the thermal transfer rather than direct thermal technology.

The next question concerns how much printing you intend to do. If you expect to be making only a couple of hundred items a day, go with a light-duty tabletop model. If you are going to be printing 500 labels, etc., per day, go with an industrial strength machine. In either case, expect a high degree of reliability, durability and trouble-free operation. These machines are tough.

Other considerations:

1. What are your maximum and minimum width and length requirements?

Again, don’t buy more capability than you expect ever to need.

2. Extra long labels, etc.; such lengths may require upgrading the printer’s

memory.

3. Do you need to print graphics or high density bar-codes? Then resolution

becomes an issue.

4. How about the printer’s connectivity? Is USB, parallel, serial, wireless, or

Ethernet the best fit, or do you require a standalone machine that requires no

computer connection at all?

In contrast with many other electronics/computer areas, there is scarcely any B.S. or hype surrounding the machine offerings here. Buying is a very straightforward proposition, but you still need to ask the right questions to be sure you are getting specifically just exactly what you need for the job(s) at hand and those you expect to be doing in the future.