With its convenience, thermal printing is widely available in homes and offices. It enables you to print receipts, invoices, etc., and other information from any application that uses printable text files, thus making them ideal for thermal shipping label print. All you need to do is connect the printer to your computer or laptop via a USB port. The thermal printer prints on paper with an ink ribbon heated up by using a built-in heating element. This process causes chemical changes at the surface of the paper, so it turns black when finished. Thermal label printers are commonly found attached to cash registers, where they serve their purpose in providing receipts and inventory control labels. They have become increasingly popular due to their low cost and easy installation. So what is a thermal printer, and how does a thermal printer work?
What is a Thermal Printer?
Generally, a thermal printer is a device that works by transferring energy into heat through one side of a piece of paper while keeping the opposite side cool. Thus it’s referred to as a thermal transfer printer. The only difference between this type of printer and regular inkjet printers is that thermal printers use a resistive heater wire embedded within the ribbon in place of nozzles.
When current flows across the heater wire, it heats up until it reaches the temperature required to cause melting/migration of color dyes onto the receiving sheet. Different colors require different temperatures, but the most common thermal printers will reach about 240°F. At these high temperatures, the pigment melts and transfers to the page below.
Thermal Printer Types
There are two main types of thermal printers available today, direct-line thermal printers and impact dot matrix printers. Both produce very similar results but differ slightly in how they operate.
Line thermal printers were first introduced in 1987 and are still being manufactured today. Their popularity stems from the fact that they offer excellent quality output at relatively low prices. These printers do not rely upon moving parts like conventional typewriters and allow you to place them anywhere around the house without fear of damaging floor coverings.
Impact dot matrix printers are more expensive than line thermal printers because they utilize mechanical mechanisms to eject individual dots of colored ink onto the thermal printer paper.
While both technologies provide good performance, there are some key differences between the two types of thermal printers.
- Regarding speed, line thermal printers typically run much faster than dot-matrix thermal printers, producing approximately 100 pages per minute compared to 5 – 10 pages per minute.
- A typical thermal printer runs off either AA batteries or AC power. You’ll need a special adapter if you want to use rechargeable cells. For optimal operation, try to keep the temperature of the room under 65 degrees Fahrenheit. How do these types of printers work?
How Does a Thermal Printer Work?
If you plan to use a thermal printer, it’s essential to learn how they actually operate. Without getting too technical, let me explain it step by step;
A thermal printing system consists of four major components; the print head, the platen, the media tray, and the computer interface. Let’s take each part individually.
Print Head
The print head is probably the part that makes your eyes roll back in your head. As tiny as it is, the print head is responsible for generating the image you see before you.
To understand how this little gadget produces such amazing images, let’s start with the simplest possible example. Imagine I am going to draw a circle on your whiteboard. To accomplish this task, I would need to point my finger towards the center of the board and then move it outward in concentric circles.
Well, what if I wanted to make sure that every time I moved my hand away from the center of the board, I was drawing an increasingly larger circle. Or even better yet, what if I wanted those circles to be filled with solid black? This can easily be accomplished using a laser beam since the light intensity increases as distance decreases.
However, lasers aren’t practical for everyday applications, so we must resort to something else. If you put a metal object near a magnet, you’ll notice that it leaves behind a magnetic field pattern when you lift the metal object. That’s basically what a color thermal printer uses.
Instead of focusing on a laser beam, the print head focuses on heating small areas of a thin metallic film. When heated to their respective threshold temperatures, the heat-sensitive materials melt and transfer to the receiving layer. As long as the exact spot remains hot enough, additional layers can continue to build up on top of it.
Platen
So far, you may have noticed that I haven’t mentioned anything about the actual physical structure of the print head. Indeed, the print head doesn’t come into contact with any physical support hardware. Instead, the entire mechanism rests atop a glass plate. On the other end of the table sits another identical glass plate which contacts a rubber roller called the platen. The word “platen” means simply flat surface. Since the glass plates form the base platform for the print head mechanism, they also serve as the primary medium upon which ink will flow during printing operations.
The platen itself isn’t particularly exciting, but it plays a crucial role nonetheless. The primary function of the platen is to act as a reservoir where paper sheets can be loaded and unloaded. In addition, it provides space for the various mechanical parts of the machine to rest while idle. By providing adequate clearance around them, these elements help prevent damage caused by friction against one another.
Media Tray
Unlike most office equipment, thermal printers don’t require specifically sized paper cartridges. They’re able to handle virtually any size sheet because they contain no moving parts whatsoever. What’s more, you won’t find any preprinted labels inside the device.
Thermal ribbons come prepackaged directly onto the ribbon spool located at the rear of the unit. Unlike conventional label makers, thermal printers only require a single tape for multiple prints since they produce permanent markings rather than temporary ones. Typically, users load a full supply of ribbons into the cartridge before beginning a new job.
Once finished, they remove the completed piece, toss them outside, and replace the empty cartridge. No mess here.
Computer Interface
Now that we’ve covered the basic concepts of thermal printing technology, let’s talk about the software side of things. There are two types of operating systems available: Windows or Mac OS X. Both provide similar features, although some functions operate slightly differently.
One thing both platforms share in common, however, is the use of proprietary file formats. These files include text documents created in Microsoft Word, Adobe Photoshop, Corel Draw, etc., and graphics produced via programs like Corel PhotoPaint or Paint Shop Pro.
Another popular format used in conjunction with printers is JDF. It allows individual pictures to be saved without having to convert them first. It’s just a fancy ZIP archive containing JPEG image data along with metadata information describing each picture’s location within the archive. While not required, Apple has included native support for these formats built right into iPhoto, iTunes, and Aperture. You should probably install whichever program you prefer, though.
Generally, the basic concept behind a thermal printer is simple; heat causes the ink to move from one location to another. Ink is placed on a special coating over a transparent base called a donor sheet. A small amount of heat then melts this ink, causing it to flow through tiny holes near each hair’s ends on a heating element known as a thermal printhead. Once melted, the liquid flows out of the hole and forms a dot on the receiving medium.
A typical thermal printer uses two components: the print engine and the platen roller. The printhead moves across the media when activated while the platen roller rolls underneath, pulling the media forward. As the printheads pass under the platen roller, the heat from the print heads transfers ink from the donor sheets to the media passing between the rollers.
Conclusion
If you’re considering purchasing a thermal printer or using it for the first time, our guide should make it easy for you. Regardless of the intended purpose, these devices aren’t challenging to operate. With a broad knowledge of how they work, you shouldn’t experience any problems finding what you’re looking for.
In fact, most of them require very little maintenance aside from occasional cleaning. And even after several years of continuous operation, you’ll still likely find them performing better than expected. Simply remember to keep everything clean and well-oiled whenever possible. We hope this article helps.