Since its inception in the 1940s, thermal transfer printing has been a huge boon for creating product labels. It has also become a better alternative than hot stamp printing, which is still used for certain products today.
While hot stamp printing is known for being better than incumbent machines and quick printing, the cons of the process were what led to a need for a more efficient printing process.
Cumbersome Setup: Hot stamp printing process requires the employee to place engraved steel letters in a certain format to create the necessary name required for the label. This basic work can be quite inconvenient and time consuming.
High Maintenance: For printing product labels, the hot stamp printer would use immense amounts of force and pressure to provide the required output. Metallic, mechanical parts in the printer had to be repaired or changed regularly to maintain production rates. This led to extremely high maintenance costs.
Troublesome Printing Formats: It would be extremely difficult for an employee to set up a simple printing format for label creation. As the hot stamp requires a mirror image of the name or word, if there is any slight misjudgment, the printing output could be upside down or the other way around.
High Costs for Custom Engraving: Custom engraving requires specially made engraving letters, which can be quite expensive to obtain and use. Also, if there is any misjudgment in the letter placement in terms of height or space, the entire process would have to be redone.
In todayâEUR(TM)s age of variable printing, thermal transfer definitely makes a bigger impact than hot stamp printing. Though both processes use heat as the basis for printing, thermal transfer printing is known for its speed, accuracy, and ease of usage.
High Speeds: Be it label, barcode, or clothing tag requirements, thermal transfer printing can produce higher numbers of prints in a shorter span of time.
Perfect for Demanding Applications: Thermal transfer printing allows for high printing loads. It can produce a number of durable product labels that will last in applications like warehousing, logistics, pharmaceuticals, and automotive products, to name a few.
Versatility in Material Printing: A number of different materials can be used to print the label. Label stocks such as matte litho, gold and silver foils, clear polyester, and vinyl provide printing options to the customer and work opportunities for the printer. Options can also be given in terms of adhesives, finishes, colors, etc.
Less Maintenance: Thermal transfer printers do utilize a number of moving parts, which is made less costly in terms of purchase and maintenance. As imaging is used to create the labels, they are reliable and durable, lasting for longer periods of time.It is easy to see why thermal transfer printing has become such a popular method printing product labels, clothing tags, barcodes, and other printed products for major and minor industries.
