A Thermal Printer is a non-impact printer that uses heat to register an impression on
paper.
A Thermal Printer has a print head containing many small
resistive heating pins that on contact, depending on the type of thermal
transfer printer, melt wax-based ink onto ordinary paper or burn dots onto
special coated paper.
These printers are popular for printing bar codes, labels, price tags, and other special print jobs.
There are two types of Thermal Printers:
Direct Thermal
The direct thermal printer prints the image by burning dots onto coated paper as it passes over the heated printhead.
Direct thermal printers do not use ribbons. Early fax machines used direct thermal printing.
Thermal Wax Transfer
This type of printer uses a thermal transfer ribbon that contains wax-based ink.
Heat is applied to the ribbon using a thermal printhead that melts the ink transferring it to the paper where it is permanent after it cools.
A typical thermal transfer ribbon consists of three layers:
- The Base Material
- The Heat Melting Ink
- The Coating on the print side of the base material.
