Thermal Printers - Perfect Receipt Printers for Your Business

For simple printing tasks (as in printing receipts), you might want to try using a thermal printer. A thermal printer is economical because it produces image or documents by selectively heating coated thermal paper. Once the thermal paper passes over the thermal print head, it is then impressed onto the paper and produces images or texts.

Most thermal printers are capable of printing colors of both black plus one additional color (often red).

Anatomy of a thermal printer

A thermal printer is usually made up of three parts:

Thermal head — which generates heat and prints onto the paper

Platen — a rubber roller that feeds paper

Spring — the device that applies pressure to the thermal head, causing it to contact the thermo-sensitive paper

Controller boards — for controlling the mechanism

Why use a thermal printer?

Thermal printers are generally faster and quieter than regular dot matrix printers. Since it does not require ink, a thermal printer is also more economical. The only thing you have to spend on is the paper itself. That’s why a thermal printer is perfect for business use.

Which type of thermal printer should I buy?

There are three kinds of thermal printers:

Direct thermal printer – this type of thermal printer creates images by burning dots on coated paper. They are perfect for printing receipts and labels and can print only in monochrome.

Thermal wax transfer printer – the thermal wax transfer printer works by pressing a wax-coated ribbon onto the paper and using heat to transfer the image. The ink becomes permanent as it cools on the paper. This type of thermal printer comes in colored types.

Wireless thermal printer – this is a state-of-the-art printer that uses infrared beams to connect to computers.

How to buy

When looking to buy a thermal printer, look for one that produces high quality pictures through its resolution features. For printing small labels, choose a thermal printer that has 200 dpi resolution and up.

Complete information

A complete Guide to THERMAL PRINTERS is available in Picky Guide, one of the fastest growing online magazines giving free consumer advice and product information.