Overview; Overview Of Thermal Printing Technology - Hengstler XPM 80 Operating Manual

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XPM 80™ Thermal Printer Family

Overview

A brief overview of thermal printer technology might be helpful to understand how the XPM

80™ thermal printer family works. In most direct thermal printers, paper is fed over a soft,

rotating platen and under the thermal printhead. The platen acts as a roller to advance the

paper, and at the same time acts as a surface against which the spring-loaded printhead

presses the paper to insure good thermal conductivity. Circuitry in the printer determines

which heating elements to activate ("fire" or "burn") to form the next row of dots on the paper.

The thermal paper is coated with several compounds.

compounds are white in color and do not react with each other. The heat from the thermal

printhead acts as a catalyst in the areas where the small printhead dots are fired, causing

these compounds to react with each other and form a new compound which is a contrasting

color, usually black. The platen then advances the paper to the position of the next dot row,

and the process is repeated.

You may note immediately several of the advantages of thermal printing. First, since the

printing is done with heat, there is no noise from the printing process itself. Thermal printing

is inherently quiet compared to most other technologies, such as impact dot matrix. Also,

there is only one moving element in the thermal printer: the platen. This provides increased

reliability and life when compared to other technologies. Since the chemistry of the thermal

paper itself is what causes the printing to appear, there is no replenishment of ink ribbon, ink

cartridges or toner.

common printer technologies.

Part No. D 690 019

This makes thermal printing the least maintenance-intensive of all

Mod. No. 4 051015 Eli1

HENGSTLER

At room temperature, these

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