Thermal paper printers are of two kinds, one is the direct printer. This is the type where the energy is transferred to a dot like matrix, which gets heated on electrical conductivity and produces an image. These printers are those which are often found in the ATM’s, retail stores, ticketing, information kiosks and the like where the print is on thick paper. The other type of printer is the thermal transfer printer, which works on the mechanism of melting of the wax on the paper and produces long lasting effects of the print. These are more widely used for their efficiency and durability. These are more often used for those tough prints like that on labels, bar codes, clothes like t-shirt prints and on plastic containers for product details.
Commercially these printers are a “hit.” They are found in all ATM centres for receipt printing, tags, fax rolls, retail shops, air ticket bookings, dispatch labels, bar code labels, hospitals, on plastic containers and almost in all areas where printing is a necessity. The reason for such wide utilisation is the premium quality printing offered by them. They knock down those age old ink printers which created hazards of ink marks besides their target images, and needed a continuous changeover of the paper. The printers create exclusive images which are durable, clear, not evaded by certain factors like UV rays, oil tans and so on. The image provided is dot clear which makes them very popular among hospitals for generating reports like the scan and ECG.
The printing capacity of these printers is so fast that that the pixels move at the range of 6 to 12 inches per second. As the label and the ribbon roll, the print heads create thermal images which take milliseconds to get impinged and dry at much faster rate. The dots on the heads often vary from 203 to 600 dots per inch.
Thermal printers are available for all purposes. The market has put forth varied sizes of these printers, from counter top models to high end large models. Brands offer printers of different sizes and different advancement in technologies depending on the place of use like thick label printing, retail receipts, plastic printing and so on. Customer portability is another matter for classification. They have evolved from simple handy instruments to large bulks which makes them even more varied in utilisation. A few are easy to lift and transfer and a few are bulky models.
Increasing the complexity of these printers is an association with enhancement of features. Some of the latest models come with colour features apart from the traditional black, blue and red, where the heads are provided with three or four coloured panels.
Hundreds of brands with varying costs from less than $100 to as high of $2700, with invariable technologies to be selected, these thermal printers are a perfect blend of ease and efficiency in performance. Though they are sensitive to wear and tear a little caution and care makes the day as they are worth all the cost as they make work easier, durable, and reliable.
