Carbon ribbons are on rolls and are fitted onto a spindle or reel holder within the printer. The used ribbon is rewound by a take-up spindle forming a roll of ‘used’ ribbon. It is termed a ‘one-trip’ ribbon because once it has been rewound the used roll is discarded and replaced with a new one. 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. The main benefit of using a one-trip thermal transfer ribbon is that providing the correct settings are applied prior to printing, an 100% density of printed image is guaranteed; compare this with a pre-inked ribbon on a dot matrix impact printer ribbon.
Thermal label rolls have an even wider market than thermal paper rolls, and we are now moving into the thermal label industry. Thermal label products are widely used in packing, shipping, identification, office, retail, equipment, containers, cartons. almost every industry will use label roll products. The label rolls designed for thermal printers are heat-sensitive; the paper turns black when it is exposed to a thermal printhead. Thermal printers do not use ink, toner, or ribbon and are easy to use and much less expensive to operate than most other printers. The images produced are nice and sharp, with precise edges. We can produce custom printed labels for your business.
Thermal paper is a special fine paper that is coated with a chemical that changes color when exposed to heat. It is used in thermal printers and particularly in inexpensive or lightweight devices such as adding machines, cash registers, and credit card terminals. The surface of the paper is coated with a solid-state mixture of a dye and a suitable matrix; a combination of a fluoran leuco dye as an example. When the matrix is heated above its melting point, the dye reacts with the acid, shifts to its colored form, and the changed form is then conserved in a metastable state when the matrix solidifies back quickly enough. The reactant acid in thermal paper is often bisphenol A (BPA).