Sunday, January 6, 2019

Useful Information Regarding Thermal Transfer Ribbon

By Rebecca Cooper


Various criteria can be used to categorize printers. Under one criterion, printers are classified as impact or non-impact. Thermal transfer printers fall under non-impact printers since they create images by using heat rather than impact. The printing is done on special papers known as thermal transfer ribbons. The ribbons are usually manufactured from resin-based wax or inks. This is what Thermal Transfer Ribbon are all about.

The header of the printer is made using resistive heating pins. One print-head has several pins that serve the function of printing. Melting occurs on the resin or wax due to the heating when there is contact between the pins and the paper. This melting is what causes the image that becomes visible eventually to form.

The heating of the pins is controlled by a microprocessor. Different images are produced depending on the pin that is heated. The print-head is usually wide enough to cover the entire medium or paper that needs to be printed. These printers are popular used in the printing of various products, including piece tags, labels, and bar codes. The printers can be classified into two major types, that is, direct thermal and thermal wax transfer printers.

Direct thermal printers usually work in a way that they form images by burning dots onto coated paper as the print-head passes over the medium. These kinds of printer cannot be used to print on thermal transfer vinyl because they are not designed to work like that. The earliest forms of fax machines used this technology to print on paper.

Thermal wax transfer printers are made with ribbons in them. The working mechanism of the printer involves starting by heating the ribbon. The ribbon has wax-based ink which forms a coating on it. This ink is melted by the heat that is applied before being transferred onto paper on which printing is done. When the ink cools down, it leaves permanent impressions on the paper. The kind of ink used and the quality of printer determine the permanence of the impressions.

There are three major groups of thermal transfer vinyl. These three ribbon types include the full wax, full resin and wax-resin ribbons. The full wax ribbons normally have a wax-based ink coating. Therefore, a low temperature is needed for melting. Because they are the most easily found ribbons, they are the cheapest to purchase. The images produced on these materials are usually not very durable.

As suggested by the name, wax-resin ribbons are a hybrid of full wax and full resin ribbons. The melting temperature of these ribbons is higher than that of full wax resins. They are ideal for weatherproofing applications. Because of the material they are made from, the image printed on them is usually more durable and can withstand occasional heavy handling.

Pure resin is used to make full resin ribbons which makes them to melt at a very high temperature. When melted, the resin dissolves into the material which they are printed on. This allows very durable images to be formed. In comparison with the other two kinds, these ribbons are more costly.




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