The Thermal Paper Guide: What Is It?
Direct thermal printing is a printing technique that’s popular due to its cost-effectiveness and ease of use. With thermal paper in hand, you can print anything from receipts to labels, all without messy ink cartridges or constant toner changes.
So what exactly is thermal paper? And how does it work?
What Is Thermal Paper?
Thermal paper, also called heat sensitive paper, is a special type of paper that’s coated with a heat-sensitive chemical formula. Instead of relying on traditional ink or toner, thermal paper harnesses the power of heat to produce high-quality prints. When in contact with heat, the thermal paper turns black, or sometimes blue or red. The process is quick, clean, and efficient, making it a preferred choice for many businesses.
What Is Thermal Paper Used for?
The uses of thermal paper are many, which is why it’s popular in a variety of industries. Although limited in the number of colors it can produce, direct thermal printing on thermal paper results in crisp lines. Here are a number of thermal paper uses:
- Tickets: Whether it’s for a movie or a concert, most tickets are printed on thermal paper. The process is quick, which is especially beneficial when dealing with long lines in the box office.
- Receipts: Thermal paper is widely used for receipts, including at grocery stores, retail stores, gas stations, and restaurants. The receipts print quickly and are easy to read because of the crisp printing.
- Labels: In logistics and shipping, thermal paper is often used to create shipping labels, barcodes, and product labels.
- Medical imaging: In the healthcare industry, thermal paper is used in certain kinds of medical devices, such as ultrasound machines, ECG machines, and patient monitoring systems to produce instant reports and images.
Advantages of Thermal Paper
Thermal paper is widely used because of its many advantages. Here are some of its advantages:
- Cost-effective: Thermal paper eliminates the need for consumables like ink and toner, making it a cost-effective solution for your business.
- Crisp lines: Direct thermal printing results in high-quality images and text with crisp lines. The printing is durable, ensuring that your tickets, receipts, or labels stay legible over time.
- Fast: When you’ve got a queue halfway down the block, the last thing you want is to wait forever for a ticket or receipt to print. Direct thermal printing happens very quickly, with no worry of smudging ink.
- Versatility: Heat sensitive paper isn’t just for receipts. It can be used in anything from tickets to labels.
How It Works with Labels
Thermal paper works with labels in much the same way as it does with other types of printed goods. The only difference is that you’ll need to use thermal paper with an adhesive on the back.
In order to print thermal labels, you start by loading the paper into the print. The printhead heats the paper, and the heat sensitive chemical responds, leaving whatever text or design you’ve chosen. Because there is no ink, there’s no need to wait for the label to dry before use.
Thermal Paper vs Regular Paper
When it comes to direct thermal printing, not all papers are the same. You need a heat sensitive paper in order to print. Regular paper has one layer: paper. It’s usually made from wood pulp or a combo of wood pulp and other fibers. Regular paper can be used with many types of printers, but it won’t work with a direct thermal printer.
Thermal paper, on the other hand, has a few layers. The first layer is the substrate, which is paper. Next, a base coat is often applied. This helps ensure the text or image prints evenly and can also help it adhere to the paper. Thirdly, a chemical coating is applied. This is what responds to the heat and allows the paper to be printed on. In some cases, a protective coating is placed over the top to protect the receipt, ticket, or label from fading. Another optional feature is a back coating, which prevents the paper from curling up. In the case of thermal labels, an adhesive layer is applied to the back. A liner protects the adhesive until the thermal label is ready to use.
Thermal Paper: for Short Story Vending Machines
In China, a newly short story vending machine is catching people’s eyes in the railway stations. This machine dispenses short stories on receipt paper for free. People can print stories according to the time they got to read. There are 1 minute, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes options on the machine. This is a novel way of reading and it encourages people to read and write. When waiting for the train, people read stories and kill the time. That’s a great idea which was conceived by publishing house Short-Edition.
Let’s come to the paper. Is the paper any different?
When you see it, you may feel the paper is quite similar with supermarket receipt paper. Yes, the paper is called thermal paper.
Benefits of Thermal Paper and Thermal Printer
- No need for ink or cartridge to print/ Easy for maintenance
Thermal Paper has a thermal coating which will turn black when exposed to head. The thermal printer in the vending machine has the print head to bring heat to the paper. So the articles will show up on the paper. Without ink or cartridge, it’s easier for the daily maintenance. Just change the paper when it runs out.
- Quick and Noiseless printing
The thermal printer in the short story vending machine has the benefit of quick procession and it’s almost noiseless.
Thermal Paper Roll for Restaurants and Fast Food Chains
Thermal Paper Rolls are widely used as customer receipts in restaurants and fast food chains. The restaurant chains (like McDonald’s, KFC, Subway, Pizza Hut, Burger King) consume tons of thermal receipts everyday. Why is thermal paper chosen?
The fast food chains are popular for its quick serving speed, unique and coincident taste. It accelerates every process, including checkout speed. Thus, thermal printer and thermal paper are chosen. Thermal Printer with paper has benefit of quick operation, easy usage. The paper changes color when it meets thermal printhead which is hot when the printer turns on. The printer takes action in one second when the cashier clicks the print button. The printer feeds out 2 receipts. One is for customer. The other is quickly delivered to kitchen to prepare the food.
The most popular size for restaurant and fast food chains is 80mm x 80mm thermal paper roll.
China Custom Printed Thermal Receipt Paper
For better branding their products, the restaurants and fast food chains prefer custom printed thermal paper as their receipts. They will ask thermal paper factory to print their logo, slogan, promotion code on the back of paper. The restaurants now prefer to print QR code on receipt paper. When you scan the QR code, it may be a mobile app that customers can download to further communication. They can make a reservation from the fast food chains and restaurants.
Thermal paper roll is also used for retail, transportation & logistics, public sector, hospitality, ticketing.