Direct Thermal VS Thermal Transfer Barcode Label Printer
Vivian Zhou
2021-10-22 16:09:31
Direct Thermal VS Thermal Transfer Barcode Label Printer
1. What is Direct Thermal Printing and Thermal Transfer Printing?
Thermal Transfer: Thermal transfer involves the thermal printhead elements (dots) heating the backside of a thermal transfer ribbon to melt and transfer the compounds on the front side of the ribbon to the label material, thus creating the printed image.
Direct Thermal: Direct Thermal printing requires a heat sensitive paper or film material. The thermal printhead elements come in direct contact with the heat sensitive label material, where the heat from the elements cause a color change in the material to create the printed image.
2. Advantage and Disadvantage for these two printing.
| Advantages | Disadvantages | |
| Thermal Transfer | 1. Long life of printed text and
images.
2. Printed text and images do not fade in direct sunlight and are far more heat tolerant. 3. Availability of colored ribbons to choose from. 4. You typically have a longer printhead life. 5. Wide selection of labels material to choose from. 6. You are able to print on Thermal Printable overlams and varnishes. 7. Good chemical resistance with some materials. |
1. Operators must perform ribbon
change-overs.
2. More mechanical parts in a combo printer means potential for more downtime and mechanical failures. 3. Opportunity for print quality problems due to mismatched labels and ribbon. 4. Opportunity for print quality problems due to incorrect ribbon adjustments. |
| Direct Thermal | 1. Simplified operator
intervention; no ribbon to load or ribbon adjustments to make.
2. No potential ribbon wrinkle problems. 3. No mechanical failures associated with ribbon drive mechanisms. (When using a Direct Thermal only printer) 4. Fewer inventory items due to lack of ribbon and fewer spare parts. 5. No ribbon disposal. |
1. Typically, slower print
speeds.
2. Reduced thermal printhead life. 3. Will fade or "yellow" over extended periods of time. 4. Label will darken when exposed to extreme heat and direct sunlight. 5. Specialty material (i.e. direct thermal films) can be costly. 6. Limited selection of label material. 7. Limited chemical resistance. |
3. How to choose?
The main point is the application.
For example, the price tag in supermarket/fruit shops/meat shops and shipment waybill etc. They are thermal labels. The direct thermal barcode label printer is suitable for these applications.
But the wash label on clothes, pvc label, silver label, and the labels which need to be kept for long time, they need ribbon printer (thermal transfer printer), and also need to buy different types of ribbons.
But the wash label on clothes, pvc label, silver label, and the labels which need to be kept for long time, they need ribbon printer (thermal transfer printer), and also need to buy different types of ribbons.
4. OCOM Direct Thermal Barcode Printer and Thermal Transfer Barcode Printer
OCOM Thermal Transfer Barcode Printer supports direct thermal also.
Thermal Transfer: OCBP-004, OCBP-008, OCBP-012
Direct Thermal: The rest models as below.
