Printer ribbons are use on two types of printers; the old dot matrix type of printers and the heat transfer type of printers. The dot matrix printers are like the type writers of bygone days where the printer ribbon is soaked with the ink and a hammer like motion prints the letters on to the paper formed from the matrix of tiny dots.
Heat transfer types of printers are however the new age printers and are mostly used for label and card printing. Here the printer ribbon is covered with ink and a coating of wax. The heat melts the wax and the ink is transferred to the paper or plastic sheet and instantly dries so that the printing on the paper does not smudge. These new technology based printers do not have ink cartridges like the inkjet printers but printer ribbonsfor the printing instead.
Printer ribbons used in card or label printers or printing barcode tags are usually soaked with black printing ink but there can be blue or red printing ribbons too.
There are mainly three types of printer ribbons used in thermal transfer printers. Printer ribbons with wax coating along with the printing ink, printer ribbons with a resin and wax combination and the purely resin-coated. These three different types have different uses and are chosen according to the material of the label that is to be printed. If the label has to be hard-wearing then a resin printer ribbon is used and if paper labels have to be printed that will not be subjected to moisture then a wax coated printer ribbon can be used because only water or certain chemicals can distort labels printed with wax coated printer ribbons. A combination of wax and resin coating can give a very fine image on glossy paper.
Although, thermal transfer printing cannot be compared for quality with inkjet or laser printers, they are useful for printing labels and cards. The printer ribbons used in these label printers are usually the size of the label and the image is transferred to the label by the physical transfer of wax from the printer ribbons to the labels. This technology has been developed solely for the purpose of label and card printing where printing quality is determined by the resistance to moisture and the speed of printing matters more than picture quality. Thermal transfer printing using the printer ribbons is industrially used for label printing because the printers require less maintenance as there are very few moving parts in these types of printers.
Still advanced versions of the thermal transfer printers are now available which use printer ribbon cartridges and can print in multi color.
Jonathahan is the owner of Digitalid Company, he writes articles for his own site. For further about plastic cards and id system please visit our website.
