what are thermal printers used for?

Question

who uses them? gimme basic instructions. 10 points to the one who has it simple yet informative ^^

Answer 1

TDDs have little thermal printers built into them.

Most receipts from restaurants use thermal printers.

Ultrasound machines often print out images using thermal printers.

Answer 2

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Ummm, I don't think that would be a good idea really. The coding that those printers use is very specific and unique to each manufacturer, and any regular print from a regular word processing program would not be compatible. They are also not designed for really long and wide prints like you may be trying to do. You could manually create the code to send data to the printer, but it's usually easiest if you buy a software program specifically designed for use with thermal printers. The software is mainly geared toward label format printing and not regular text printing, though it can be done. Most thermal printers limit their output to a fairly narrow print media, usually labels, of about 4" or less, though there are some thermal printers that are designed for wider media of about 6" or so. Also, printers of that size are usually several thousand dollars. The printheads on those printers can, and do, wear out and can be easily damaged if you're not careful. Most printheads for the 4" size media printers usually cost around $400-500 dollars to replace (part only). I don't think thermal printers are the best use for printing reports or anything like that on regular paper. You will need thermal compatible media to use, that is either thermally sensitive, or you will also need thermal ribbons for printing on non-thermally sensitive media. Any of those will also run at a higher price for the supplies than you could probably print with a regular laser or inkjet printer. Stick with a good laser printer would be your best choice.

Answer 3

Pure thermal, or thermal transfer?

Pure thermal printers require special paper/media. Basically the printhead burns dots onto the media. Usually the printhead is a wide strip single dot tall, though it's possible they stagger the dots in two rows as well, or whatever design pattern they use. They generally are very reliable, and great for small size printing that requires relatively high speed, and relatively low contrast, and low maintainance.

Thermal printers don't need ink. The medium is the ink, so to speak.

As other have mentioned, a lot of receipt printers use thermal tech. A lot of shipping labels use thermal as well, though most of those are "thermal transfer", meaning a black ribbon is involved, and the printhead actually burns the ribbon's "blackness" onto the paper underneath, rather than scorching the paper directly.

The theaters use a lot of thermal printers as those print small sizes almost immediately.

Airlines use thermal or thermal transfer printers to print those luggage tags they stick to your checked luggage.

Lots of uses everywhere, really. Those eStamps you get from post office automated service machines are thermal transfer printouts.