Thermal Printers and Print Mechanisms

Embedded Thermal Printer Mechanisms

Printers mechanism

Thermal Kiosk Printers

Printers Kiosk

Thermal Label Printers

Printers Label

Thermal POS Receipt Printers

Printers Receipt

Thermal Panel Printers

Printers Panel

In-Vehicle Thermal Printers

Printers Vehicle

Portable Thermal Printers

Printers Portable

Thermal Printers and Print Mechanisms

Printed receipts and documents are all around us in our everyday lives. BVM provides all types of thermal printers, including printer mechanisms for use in ticketing and vending machines, lottery terminals and ATMs. Panel Printers and Kiosk Printers to build into your product, Receipt Printers for retail applications, Label Printers, and Battery Powered Portable and Vehicle-powered mobile printers for printing up to A4-width on the move.

Thermal printers have been around us since the 1970s. If you are of a certain age you will remember the printers that came with the ZX Spectrum or Atari home computers or the original office fax machines with that silver roll of paper – they were thermal printers.

Seiko Embedded Thermal Printer

Much has changed since those early days but the basics are still the same… Heat reactive paper still sits between a platen roller and a thermal print head. The thermal head consists of a closely spaced line of resistive elements, or “dots”, that heat up when a voltage is applied. A small electric motor drives a rubber roller to feed the paper through the printer and, by turning each “dot” ON and OFF very quickly, anything can be printed on the paper in a matrix of tiny squares. They are tiny too, usually about 8 dots per millimetre, so logos and graphics can be printed as well as text.

As processing speeds increased and electric motors became more accurate, the paper also developed to keep up. The reaction time of the paper (changing from white to black) increased dramatically. Print speeds are now in the region of 350mm per second, rather than being specified in “pages per minute”.

Thermal printers are extremely reliable because there are very few moving parts and they only have one consumable…. the paper…. there is no ink to replace, no ink cartridges, no toner, no ribbon and each print is the same quality.

What is Thermal Printing?

Thermal printing involves a heat transferred from a thermal print head to a chemically treated thermal paper. As the heating elements form text and graphics, a thermochemical reaction takes place, so the text and graphics can be seen. Because there are only a few moving parts, thermal printers offer years of reliability, minimal maintenance and consistent operation. One of the most distinctive benefits is its inherently quiet operation.

A thermal printer comprises these key components:

  • Thermal Head: the print head generates heat which causes a thermochemical reaction and prints on the paper
  • Platen: the platen is a rubber roller that feeds paper
  • Spring: the spring applies pressure to the thermal head, keeping it in contact with  the thermosensitive paper

How do Thermal Print Mechanisms work?

Chemically treated thermal paper is inserted between the thermal head and the platen. The printer sends an electric current to the heating elements of the thermal head, this generates heat. The heating elements used in thermal printers are usually arranged as a line of small closely spaced dots. The heat activates a thermo-sensitive colouring layer of the thermosensitive paper, which changes colour where heated.

Why Direct Thermal?

Direct thermal printers are widely used in everyday life, including medical devices, self-service technology, point-of-sale, mobile applications, and more.

Direct thermal technology produces an image by applying a heating element to specially treated thermal paper. Unlike other printing formats, it operates with few moving parts and does not consume toner or ribbons. This translates into reliable long-life performance and reduced maintenance costs.

With precision engineering Seiko Instruments continues to build on direct thermal’s advantages. We offer a complete line of reliable high performance printers with flexible, small footprint designs that help streamline the integration process. Rely on dependable Seiko Instruments printers and components to tackle even the toughest thermal printing requirements.

Applications

Thermal printers and thermal print mechanisms are small, light and consume little power, making them ideal for portable and retail applications. Commercial applications of thermal printers include petrol station pump receipts, information kiosks, point-of-sale systems, voucher printers, ticket machines, hospital cardiac monitors and more.

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Thermal Printers


Embedded Thermal Printer Mechanisms

Compact, reliable low voltage thermal printer mechanisms are the answer for portable printing applications, offering low power consumption to enable long battery life. The innovative small footprint designs free up critical design real estate.

New low voltage LTPD and CAPD series thermal printer mechanisms tackle the challenges of designing smaller, faster, more reliable mobile devices. These new mechanisms deliver exceptional value with dramatic advances in design flexibility, reliability and print performance.

CAPM series direct thermal printer mechanisms are ideal for high performance, heavy-duty embedded printing applications. 300 mm/second print speed means exceptional performance, for a better user experience. Service life ratings of up to 200 km printing and 2 million cuts ensure long-life, trouble-free operation. Extended operating temperature range and thick paper support provide additional application options such as outdoor ticket printing. Units are available in both EZ-OP paper operation and auto-loading designs.

Thermal Print mechanisms are small, light and consume little power, making them ideal for portable and retail applications. Commercial applications of thermal printers include petrol station pump receipts, information kiosks, point-of-sale systems, voucher printers, ticket machines, hospital cardiac monitors and more.

Embedded Thermal Printer Mechanisms

Seiko Edito Thermal Kiosk Printer

Thermal Kiosk Printers

The Seiko Thermal Kiosk Printer Series “Edito” are the perfect solution for your individual needs. Fast, reliable and variable: These are the core statements which define these high-quality manufactured Thermal Kiosk Printers. In addition to the base model there is an output control model with a push and pull detection function available. A presenter model including a presenter control module and a presenter/retractor model with internal printing function is completing this advanced printer series.

For easy setup and control of the printer a sophisticated firmware is provided.  Many internal fonts have already been embedded, additional fonts can be downloaded for character sizes from 6×8 to 64×64 dots. The printer can operate with paper widths from 58 mm to 83 mm. An illuminated bezel indicates the availability of a ticket very clearly. All these features provide you a great flexibility for a number of applications.

  • Base Model KSM347: print mechanism, controller, paper holder and flex paper channel
  • Output Control Model KSM347O: base model including output control module with anti jam control and active pull protection
  • Presenter Model KSM347P: base model including presenter control module for save paper handling
  • Retractor Model KSM347R: presenter model including retractor control module for save paper handling and possible paper retraction. Also  internal printing possible (no access from outside)

Thermal Panel Printers

In simple terms, simply cut a hole in the fascia of your product and slide the panel printer in from the front. Secure it from the back with the clamp supplied, then plug-in power and data from a USB or Serial port on your product. Using Seiko’s “Easy Paper Load” system, just drop in the paper roll, close the door and tear-off the loose end against the serrated edge to be ready to print. There is a wide choice of driver software available to suit most applications.

If you make a product that needs to produce a printout,

then integrating a “Panel Printer” could be a quick and easy way to do it

Panel printers are small, easy to mount, highly reliable and they don’t need any ink!

As panel printers are loaded from the front they are particularly well suited to applications where trained staff use a device or instrument. They are regularly used in medical devices, diagnostic equipment, measuring instruments and building control panels. So, whether your business builds portable drug testers or exhaust analysers, if you are looking for an easy way to produce a printout, then a panel printer could be the solution for you. Check out the DPU-D2 and DPU-D3 models from Seiko Instruments and call us at BVM for more information.

Thermal Panel Printer

DP 581 in-vehicle Thermal Printer

In-Vehicle Thermal Printers

These in-vehicle thermal printers are more than just mobile, as they can be permanently mounted and powered by the vehicle battery. Users include the emergency services, utility companies and fleet vehicles. Print widths up to A4 size and communication via USB, Bluetooth or WiFi. BVM’s in-vehicle printer is perfect for printing receipts, invoices, tickets and more on the move.

  • Easy-to-read control interface and simple drop-in paper loading
  • Dual tear bars allow easy tear-offs
  • True WYSIWYG printing with the Windows driver
  • Printer integration is quick and easy with Windows driver or Android and Microsoft SDKs (Apple iOS under preparation)

Thermal Label Printers

The user friendly Smart Thermal Label Printers make it easy to grab text straight from the screen of your PC and create smart professional labels for almost any application. Easily prepare customised formats with your own company logo complete with a post office approved bar code – without the hassle of using standard printers. Mix and match fonts, graphics and bar codes, all on the same label.

  • Intuitive ! Automatically imports address information from various applications.
  • Economical ! No ink, toner or ribbon needed.
  • Modern ! Elegant and compact design
  • Compact ! Small footprint, suitable for any work station
  • Easy ! Uncomplicated change of labels and tags
  • Individual ! Biggest range of labels and tags in the market with over 50 SKUs
Seiko label printer

RP F10 POS Thermal Receipt Printer

Thermal POS Receipt Printers

Seiko RP- series receipt printers raise the bar in POS, delivering an unparalleled synthesis of performance, reliability, flexibility, contemporary aesthetics, and ease of use. And with the availability of the new RP-F Series with optional display or RP-E Series, Seiko thermal receipt printers offer an array of options to help tackle the most daunting technical and business challenges in point-of-sale.

RP-F10/RP-E10 Series

Receipt, slip, ticket and more. RP-F10/RP-E10 series is ideal printer for many applications

  • Seiko RP-F Series, extremely compact thermal printers and come with an optional 4.3 inch color display.
  • Seiko RP-E Series printers generate receipts at 1.15 feet per second (350 mm per second).

Portable Thermal Printers

The range of compact and light weight Seiko portable thermal printers (with Bluetooth options) are ideal for printing anywhere. Applications range from field sales, inspection and measuring services, mobile medical facilities, warehouse inventory and equipment, issuing of tickets to name but a few.

The switch to mobile computing can offer dramatic bottom line results, by making users more efficient, shortening transaction times, expanding revenue opportunities, and more. The transition to mobility can be daunting though. Equipment has to be durable enough to perform consistently in the field. Downtime is not an option. Technology must be intuitive for operators who are not IT professionals. And with constrained budgets, solutions must provide an immediate return on investment.

The demand of Mobile printing is expanding in various applications!

Mobile printing has became a critical tool in industrial, logistics and retail market. With utilizing smartphone or tablet PC, it will be widely expanding its business field moreover.

Seiko Mobile Thermal Printer MP-B30

SII Portable Print Service for Android and iOS

The Print Service recognizes Bluetooth and WLAN coupled Seiko Instruments printers, and allows printing directly from various apps (for example the browser).

The following printers are supported:

  • MP-B20 – 2″ Portable Printer
  • MP-B30 – 3″ Portable Printer
  • MP-B30L – 3″ Portable Printer
  • MP-A40 – 4″ Rugged Portable Printer
  • DPU-S445 – 4″ Portable Printer
  • DPU-S245 – 2″ Portable Printer
  • RP-F10 – POS Receipt Printer
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We like to make life easier ….

Our supporting team have all worked in an embedded environment for a number of years, consequently providing knowledge, experience and good advice around all BVM’s products & services when and where you need it. We don’t profess to know everything you need at the time  – but we’ll always help in the first instance and get back to you when a little more information is required.

You can either call us directly on +(0) 1489 780 144 and talk to one of the team | E-mail us at sales@bvmltd.co.uk | Use the contact form on our website

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When a standard embedded design won’t suffice for what you need, you can always turn to BVM for help and use our custom design and manufacturing services.