What are Direct Thermal Transfer Labels?

By Travis Carter


There seems to be a false impression about direct thermal transfer labels and it is the goal of this article to clear up some of the misconceptions. Today's businesses will blindly buy any labels based off of lowest price, I mean come on a label is a label right? FALSE! Labels come in hundreds of different sizes, shapes, and qualities. A few clicks of a mouse can lead you to boxes of unusable labels at your door step. By the end of this article you will become an expert on direct thermal transfer labels.

Direct thermal transfer labels are not "printed" like traditional labels are with ink jet or laser printers. These labels depend on the heat from the printing machine to project the information onto the label. Unlike regular thermal labels, which rely on heat sensitive paper, thermal transfer labels use heat sensitive wax and resin. The printer circuitry warms up the printer head that uses a thermal process to apply the information to the label.

There are various reasons why people consider direct thermal transfer labels the best labels in the industry. Two reasons of which are the speed and quality of the labels. Compared to other labels out in the market, direct thermal transfer labels set the bar to impossible heights making all other labels seem archaic. In the time that it would take an ink or jet, you would already be done with the job with direct thermal transfer printer.

The most common use of direct thermal transfer labels is for barcodes on products. It shouldn't be to hard if you search around your office or house to find a product that has one of these labels on it. In addition to barcodes, they are also used for shipping, pricing, and cataloging.

The number one advice that you can leave this article with is this... do not confuse direct thermal labels for thermal transfer labels. Even though the processes are very similar, the quality and uses in each label are vastly different.




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