THERMAL PRINTING – DEMYSTIFIED

Thermal label printers use Thermal Technology or HEAT to create labels. They are commonly used in businesses and homes for printing shipping labels, barcode labels, inventory labels, shelves labels, and food labels, QR Codes for Payments, etc. Thermal Label Printers are categorized into direct thermal and
thermal transfer printers.

• Direct Thermal Printers: Direct thermal printers use heat-sensitive paper, coated with a thermal coating, which melts when the print head heats up and creates an image on the paper. Since the paper is already coated, there is no need for any ink or cartridge. Hence these printers are a great and economical option for printing labels that need to be printed quickly and easily. However, the images printed this way can fade over time if they are exposed to heat or light. Therefore, Direct thermal printers are ideal for printing E-Commerce or Shipping Labels containing QR Codes and Text, that need to last only till the time the parcel reaches its destination. They can also be used to print token labels or receipts that need not be preserved for a long duration, and are discarded after their single-time use.
• Thermal Transfer Printers: In addition to a spindle containing the label or paper roll, thermal transfer printers contain another spindle around which, a ribbon containing ink is rolled up. The print head heats up and melts the ink on the ribbon. The heat causes the ribbon to change color, creating an image on the label, by transferring the melted ink to the label, This creates a more durable or permanent impression on the label or paper. However, they are also more costly and require more maintenance.
• Anatomy of a Thermal Print Head: Thermal print head is made up of a series of tiny pins that heat up when it is powered on. The amount of heat that each pin produces is controlled by a controller motherboard, which receives the image to be printed from a Label generation software. The pixels of the image of this label can be dark in some places and blank in some places. Accordingly, controller motherboard heats up some of the pins of the thermal head more and some of the pins less to recreate this image. This allows the thermal printer head to create images with varying levels of darkness.

WHO ARE WE ?

BluPrints is India’s fastest-growing Point of Sales Printers company, with in-house R&D, sales, a manufacturing capacity of over a million devices annually, a network of 800 service centers pan India and an existing installed base of a half a million devices. Our in-house design capability enables us to match world-class quality with price competitiveness, and a Return-to-bench ratio of 0.01% in the first 2 years. With OVER 900+ enterprise customers we offer 28 types of CE and BIS certified POS Printers, appliances and accessories that find usage in Fin-tech, Retail-tech, Health-tech, Logistics, Hospitality and Utility Billing.

“For over 7 years, we’ve been developing high technology and “relevant” Point of Sales and Barcode Printers and Systems for companies across FMCG, Retail, F&B, Healthcare, BFSI, ECommerce and Utilities.
Our mission is to provide companies with cutting-edge, rugged and cost effective products that Drive Efficiency and Growth “

Kavita Aggarwal
Founder & CEO, BluPrints