Thermal Printers

Types of Thermal Printers

Portable

A device which is worn or carried by an individual user. Weight, frequency of supply change and battery charge/life are very important. Also, portable devices normally, but not always, need a hand-held terminal or computer to drive them.

Advantages Mobility – goes where the operator does      Disadvantages Small supply roll, slow, second device is normally needed Limited battery charge/life

Desktop/Stationery

A device that is normally used in a fixed location — centralized marking. Unlike a portable printer where you take the printer to the work, with desktop, you take the work to the printer.

Advantages Fast, large supply roll (less frequent changing)      Disadvantages Fixed-location use Must have communication interface and power at location

Print & Apply

A label applicator is a device that prints a label and applies it to an item automatically, without human intervention.

Advantages Unattended operation, continuous operation without downtime      Disadvantages More expensive than traditional thermal printer

Things to consider when selecting a Thermal Printer

Processing Speed (Processor) vs. Inches Per Second (ips)

Processing speed (8 bit, 16 bit, 32 bit or dual 32s) is the rate in which the printer can convert or image the data. The larger the number, the faster it can image. The printer cannot give you a label until it's imaged! Inches per Second is how fast the printer can deliver the finished product after it has been imaged. Look at your printer as if it's a home computer — the faster the processor, the faster you complete the task.

Memory (MB)

Is more memory good? That depends on what you want to do and what the capabilities of the printer are.

• What length label do you want to print
  Base model printers may not have enough memory to print the size label you need, unless you add more memory.
• Graphics
  This "hogs" the memory. Usually it's recommended to add additional memory if you expect to do graphics. Additional memory can always be added at a later time.

Supply Roll Size (Diameter)

The larger the supply roll the more benefits you achieve.

• The larger the roll the less often you need to change it
  more labels per roll.
• $$$ savings
  The smaller the roll the more it costs to manufacture, the more often you need to change it, there-fore, the more you pay and the cost of ownership is higher!

Dots Per Inch (dpi)

Is more always better? Dots per inch is basically just that, how many heating elements are within an inch of space. The most common size is 203, but the range goes from 152-400. Generally speaking, increasing the number of Dots Per Inch will increase print quality, but if you're only producing labels for shipping such as Compliance Labels, 203 will be sufficient. What happens when you increase the number of dots:

• As the number of dots increase, so does the cost
• Print speed is normally reduced
• Memory requirements are normally increased
  if you need more MB, it will cost more

On-Demand vs. Continuous Printing

• On-Demand
  The printer prints one label — removes the backing paper from the label and presents it to the operator so it can be used immediately with no effort. When the first label is removed, subsequent labels (if more are in the printer) will be presented in the same fashion — one by one.
• Continuous
  If you send a command to the printer to print 10 labels, it will print all 10 without removing the backing paper — great for taking a batch of labels to the work.

Printers also vary by such factors as output speed, resolution, label size capacity and printing area capacity. As noted in the printer descriptions, specific printers are excellent solutions for meeting labeling compliance requirements for industry or government/military standards.

Other Printer Options:

• Label handling modes:
  cutter, rewind, peel off, tear off
• Label media format:
  rolled, fanfold
• Memory expansion:
  for extensive graphics or printing longer length labels

If you have bar code labeling compliance requirements you must meet, on-demand label printing applications, or need labels that must endure harsh environments, call us for help in selecting the correct printer and media combination to ensure your success.

Serial vs. Parallel

Serial (RS232)	Parallel (Centronics)

Why use a Thermal Printer for Bar Code Labels

Print Quality: Print densities up to 400 DPI rival print quality of many laser printers. Ideal for company logos or production graphics.

Bar Code Print Quality: Since the printing elements (dots) on a thermal transfer printer are square or rectangle, when they are stacked to form bars they have a better edge definition than printers with round dots, such as impact and laser printers. Also single pass ribbon is used so the last label prints as good as the first label. In-line verifiers are available to ensure bar code print quality.

Reliability: Thermal transfer or direct thermal printing is inherently more reliable due to small amounts of mechanical moving parts. (No impact). Not effected by harsh environments found in many manufacturing plants. These printers were designed for label printing, so there are no problems with adhesives, etc. that might occur in other printer technologies.

On-Demand Label Printing: When a label is printed, it is dispensed and available to the operator immediately, even if you only want one label. This is not always true in other printers such as laser where labels are multiple to a page — where you have to wait for a whole page or waste the remaining labels on the sheet.

Print Speed: A thermal transfer printer that prints at 10 IPS*, compares to a 3600 LPM* impact printer or a 50 PPM* laser printer.

	IPS - Inches per second
	LPM - Lines per minute
	PPM - Pages Per Minute

If you have a line or laser printer, compare for yourself: X = Print Speed 80 or 132 (columns on your line printer)

• CPS (Characters per second) ÷ X =LPS (Lines per second)
• LPS (Lines per second) x 60 =LPM (Lines per minute)
• LPM (Lines per minute) ÷ 6** =IPM (Inches per minute) ÷ 60 =IPS (Inches per second)
  **Normal lines per inch on an impact printer
• PPM (Pages per minute) x 8.5" or 11" (Page size - select one) = IPM (Inches per minute)
• IPM ÷ 60 = IPS