What are the Different Types of industrial Barcode Printers?

By | February 17, 2011

Various types of barcodes like Symbol barcode are used in different industries. A barcode system consists of barcode labels, barcode printers, barcode scanners, and database. An efficient barcode system should basically require high quality label.

Different types of barcode printers are available these days. These include dot matrix printers, laser and ink jetprinters, and thermal barcode printers. Dot matrix printers print poor quality barcodes. The size and speed of print is also a limitation for these printers. Barcodes printed by laser and inkjet printers have higher print quality when compared to those of dot matrix printers. High quality text and graphic barcodes can be printed efficiently by thermal printers.

Industrial barcode printers are a type of thermal printers. Large warehouses and manufacturing facilities use these printers. Hundreds and thousands of labels can be created by these printers. They have high durability and reliability. Paper or any synthetic labels can be printed by them continuously in a day. Varied sizes of labels from very small to very large labels can be created by them. Thermal transfer and direct thermal printers are the two types of industrial thermal printers used by various industries.

Direct thermal printers create images directly on treated labels and do not use ink, toner or ribbon. Heat is generated in the printer and the heat-sensitive barcode label gets blackened when passed under the thermal printhead. These are simple and inexpensive than laser, inkjet, and other thermal printers.

Thermal transfer printers use ribbons. Heat from thermal printhead transfers ink from ribbon to the label. High-quality images can be created by them which are also durable for long time. They can print barcodes on varied materials including paper, polyester, and other synthetic materials. Based on the requirements of industries, different types of barcode printers can be used.