Monday, January 7, 2019

Here Is Information On Thermal Transfer Ribbon

By Rebecca Cooper


Printers can be classified based on several criteria. In one classification, there are impact and non-impact printers. Thermal transfer printers are classified under non-impact printers because instead of using impact, they use heat to register impressions on paper. The printing is done on special papers referred to as thermal transfer ribbons. These ribbons are made of resin-based inks or wax. Here are facts regarding Thermal Transfer Ribbon.

The print-head of the printer is made of resistive heating pins. A single print-head contains several pins, which are used for printing. When the pins come in contact with the paper, they cause the resin or wax on it to melt because of the heat. The melting is what is responsible for the formation of the image that is seen eventually.

A microprocessor controls the heating of the pins. The images produced differ based on the pins that are heated. There is usually a wide space on the print-head so that it can cover the entire medium on which printing needs to be done. The popularity of these printers is in printing a variety of products like labels, name tags and bar codes. There are two classifications of these printers, which are thermal wax transfer and direct thermal 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.

Full resin ribbons are made of pure resin and that makes them to melt at a much higher temperature. When they are melted, they dissolve into the material they are being printed on. This allows them to form highly durable images. These ribbons are the most expensive compared to the other two types.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment