Thermal Printers: Exactly What You Must Learn About Them

By Author: Benita Bolland
Total Articles: 13
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If you are a career man or woman or a simple metropolitan dweller, probably you do not know that you are consistently dealing with thermal printers. When you shop for groceries or withdraw money from an ATM, the tool made use of to print out the receipts for these financial transactions makes use of thermal printers. Thermal printers are also made use of to print images from ultrasound scans and for more outdated types of facsimiles.

There are two major types of thermal printers: direct thermal and thermal transfer. Direct thermal printers utilize heat instead of ink or toners. Heat is put on heat-sensitive paper by employing a print head consisting of countless pins. These pins are heated in a design that either stimulates heat-sensitive chemicals in the paper or smolders the paper to print the image or text.

Likewise, thermal transfer printers utilize a waxed ribbon put between the print head and the smudge-free printing product. As with direct thermal printers, heat is applied, however this time its function is to melt the wax and move it onto the paper, generating the essential text or image. This sort of printer ...
... is generally used for printing bar codes and labels.

Both kinds of printers offer the advantage of low-maintenance and cost-efficient printing; even though you might need to periodically change the waxed ribbon or printing head specifically after extended use. Maybe one of the most used printers is the receipt printer for point of sale or POS transactions. The Epson Receipt Printer is particularly created for busy retail outlets like variety stores and superstores.

The Zebra Thermal Printer, alternatively, is an industry pioneer when it concerns bar code printing applications. Zebra Technologies also supplies a line of mobile thermal printers including wireless connectivity that can print bar codes as had to track inventories in shipping, delivery, and other applications. These printers are light and portable and are generally just four inches wide.

The Zebra Thermal Printer is also leading the pack when it concerns printing RFIDs or radio frequency identification tags. Some grocery chains use RFID technology; shoppers no longer need to wait and check into their purchases, as RFID enables the tracking of all the items put in the cart; the overall bill will be subtracted from a savings account or credit card. For more information, go to wisegeek.com/what-is-a-thermal-printer.htm.