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Our Australian Sticker Specialist

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What is the Difference Between a Zebra Thermal Transfer Label Printer and Zebra Direct Thermal Label Printer?

Zebra Thermal Transfer Label printer:

  • Uses a ribbon.
  • Can print on a whole range of substrate from paper to plastics.
  • Advantage:  Printer head (which is a consummable) will usually last longer.  (The ribbon acts like a lubricant between the thermal printhead and printed substrate)
  • Labels are not thermal sensitive.  Hence they do not fade or darken with heat or sunlight.
  • Printed labels tend to be more chemical resistant. (NB: Ribbon type still need to be tested)

 

Zebra Direct Thermal Label Printer:

  • Can only use thermal sensitive material.  Thermal sensitive materials are similar to fax paper, which can turn dark when heat is applied.
  • There is only limited amount of material that is thermal sensitive.
  • Advantage:  Without the need of ribbon to print.  However, print head tends to wear quicker.
  • Very popular for courier (address) label applications.
  • Generally lower 'capital outlay' than the Thermal Transfer printers.

 

In general:  Zebra Thermal Transfer Machines can be used for Thermal Transfer or Direct Thermal applications.  But Direct-Thermal-Only-printer cannot use ribbons, and is therefore only limited to thermal sensitive materials.

Direct Thermal Printers (DT only) do not have the extra attachment to hold a ribbon.   Therefore a Direct-Thermal-Printer-Only machine will not be able to do Thermal Transfer applications.

 

Anything unsure?  Please give us a call (Label Image).

Sunday, 07 March 2010 10:06 dennis
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Why Choose a Thermal Transfer Printer Over a Traditional Laser or Inkjet?

Higher maintenance and running cost on a laser or inkjet.

Laser / Inkjet printer are the 'general purpose'  small office printing machine.  Unfortunately, printing sticky labels on these machines can cause small amounts of adhesive to accumulate onto the rubber rollers through time.  When this happens, the glue and adhesives can cause jamming and streaking on your print.  Hence most label sheets are fed manually, rather than automatically through the trays.

Traditional printers have lesser label material (Facestock) to choose from

Most laser and inkjet material will only come in Matt white paper.  Laser material are usually thin in construction, making them look cheap and transparent.  The material has high water absorption over humid and wet environments.  This result in poor presentation and translucent look on the product on condensed environment.

Zebra thermal transfer machine on the other hand, can print on all kinds of facestock such as PP, PVC, Polyester and gloss paper.  The general acceptance of these materials are much better in cool environment.  Material available for Zebra printers would include security void labels, tags, and a wide range of material for cold temperature or hot temperature environment.

Small range of adhesive for Laser or Inkjet labels.

Although Laser labels are common, the adhesive for Laser Labels are for general purpose only.  The adhesive layer is usually thin, and is generally not suitable for recycled cartons, extreme temperature applications or unusual surfaces.

Specialized Barcoding Software for Thermal Transfer Printers.

The Zebra Thermal Transfer Printer always comes with a bar code printing software which can do a whole range of barcode symbologies including ITF anSaved UPC Codes.  This dedicated software has well been proven to be easy to use and it takes a person only a few minutes to come up with a label with barcode suitable for SSCC (Serial Shipping Container Code) as well as a wide range of barcode symbologies for different industries.

Lower wastage for Thermal Transfer Printers.

Imagine that you need only 5 labels in a sheet of 30 labels (A4 Sheet).  We often see people printing 5 labels on a sheet and throwing out the rest in the bin.  That is around 80% wastage. Some might argue that they can run the sheet back into the laser printer.  It is actually highly undesirable to feed a label with missing labels through a laser as the first pass would have made the sheet slightly curled.  Having to run this twice through would cost more adhesive build-up inside the printer.

If you want to see the printer in action, please contact us for a demonstration.

 

Last Updated on Sunday, 07 March 2010 11:15