Thermal Transfer Printers

ALSO CALLED: Direct Thermal Printers
DEFINITION: A thermal transfer printer is a non-impact printer that uses heat to register an impression on paper. A thermal transfer printer has a printhead 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. A microprocessor determines which individual heating pins are heated  … 
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THERMAL TRANSFER PRINTERS DEFINITION (continued): …  to produce the printed image. The printhead spans the entire width of the paper or medium to be printed on. Thermal transfer printers are popular for printing bar codes, labels, price tags, and other specialty print jobs. There are two types of thermal transfer printers: direct thermal and thermal wax transfer.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 … 
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