However, wax-resin compounds and full resins can be used on materials such as polypropylene or polyester in order to increase durability. Printouts from color thermal printers using wax are sensitive to abrasion, as the wax ink can be scraped, rubbed off, or smeared. These printers are considered highly reliable due to their small number of moving parts. Currently, this type of printer is rarely used for full-page printing, but is now employed for industrial label printing due to its waterfastness and speed. Although acceptable in quality, the printouts from these printers cannot compare with modern inkjet printers and color laser printers. Unlike dye-sublimation printers, these printers cannot vary the dot intensity, which means that images must be dithered.
Monochrome printers have a black panel for each page to be printed, while color printers have either three ( CMY) or four ( CMYK) colored panels for each page. This type of thermal printer uses a like-sized panel of ribbon for each page to be printed, regardless of the contents of the page. When cooled, the wax is permanently adhered to the paper. As the paper and ribbon travel in unison beneath the thermal print head, the wax-based ink from the transfer ribbon melts onto the paper. Thermal-printing technology can be used to produce color images by adhering a wax-based ink onto paper. The main benefit of using a one-trip thermal transfer ribbon is that providing the correct settings are applied prior to printing, a 100% density of printed image is guaranteed, in contrast to a pre-inked ribbon on a dot-matrix impact printer ribbon, which gradually fades with usage. If one were to hold a strip of used carbon ribbon up to the light, one would see an exact negative of the images that have been printed. It is termed a "one-trip" ribbon because once it has been rewound, the used roll is discarded and replaced with a new one. The used ribbon is rewound by a take-up spindle, forming a roll of "used" ribbon.
As the substrate comes out of the printer, it is completely dry and can be used immediately.Ĭarbon ribbons are on rolls and are fitted onto a spindle or reel holder within the printer. When a dot "turns off", that element of the print head immediately cools down, and that part of the ribbon thereby stops melting/printing. The heated element immediately melts the wax- or resin-based ink on the side of the ribbon film facing the substrate, and this process, in combination with the constant pressure being applied by the print-head locking mechanism immediately transfers it onto the substrate. Each dot is addressed independently, and when a dot is electronically addressed, it immediately heats up to a pre-set (adjustable) temperature. Print heads are available in 203 dpi, 300 dpi and 600 dpi resolution options.
A thermally compliant print head, in combination with the electrical properties of the ribbon and the correct rheological properties of the ribbon ink are all essential in producing a high-quality printed image. These three components effectively form a sandwich with the ribbon in the middle. The thermal-transfer print process utilises three main components: a non-movable print head, a carbon ribbon (the ink) and a substrate to be printed, which would typically be paper, synthetics, card or textile materials. Thermal-transfer printing is done by melting wax within the print heads of a specialized printer.
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