Thermal Transfer Printing For Vibrant Thermal Labels

FAQs

What Is Thermal Printing?

Thermal printing uses a thermal printhead to apply heat to a label material (substrate) which in turn forms an image on that substrate (e.g. paper). The heat comes from a thermal print head – a device with hundreds of ceramic heating elements in a line.

By passing a material under the print head and switching the heaters on and off an image can be formed on the material. The number of ceramic elements in a print head determines its printer resolution. The resolution determines how refined the image being printed can be. Thermal printers come in 3 common resolutions; 200dpi, 300dpi and 600dpi.

Thermal printing is not suitable for printing complex images but is excellent for printing text, characters, simple shapes such as boxes, shipping labels, and barcode labels.

What is Thermal Transfer Printing?

The thermal transfer printing process works in the same way as direct thermal printing except the ink comes from an ‘inking’ ribbon. As the underlying printing technology is the same (apart from the thermal transfer ribbon), most thermal printers can print both direct thermal material and by thermal transfer with ribbons.

To transfer the image in thermal transfer printers, the inking ribbon passes between the print head and the material at the same speed as the material. The material can be any untreated material but the type of ribbon will need to be suitable for the material being used. Ribbons come in three main types; wax, wax/resin mix and resin. Wax is cheaper whereas resin is dearer and gives a higher printing quality.

• Papers can use wax, wax/resin or resin
• Plastics require resin based ink ribbons to work well
• Some plastics will not work with wax or resin

Ribbons are made of a film of heat-resistant plastic with a film coating of wax, wax/resin or resin on one side. Because it is possible to print thermal transfer labels using plastic labels and resin ribbons, this makes the finished labels far more durable in more environments than paper-based materials.

What Can Thermal Transfer Printing Be Used For?

A versatile printing method, thermal transfer printing is fantastic for creating barcode labels, as well as printed labels with text to name just a couple of uses.

What Are the Benefits of the Thermal Transfer Printing Process?

• Cheaper non-specialised materials can be used
• Durable finish – good for many years in good conditions
• Inert finished labels are suitable for chemical labelling or labelling subject to poor environments
• Plastic labels printed with resin are totally waterproof and resistant to many other chemicals, solvents and abrasion

What Are the Drawbacks of Thermal Transfer Printing?

• Additional cost of buying ribbons
• Additional fuss of installing ribbons
• Additional plastic waste created through use of ribbons

Looking for Alternative Thermal Printing Methods?

Check out our direct thermal labels for more high definition text, product labels, and barcode printing.