Can somebody please explain the economics of thermal printers vs inkjets?

Question

My business is switching over to printing out our own labels for about 50 packages per day. We heard that thermal printers are the cheapest long run, but we know just about nothing about thermal printers.

Could somebody explain the economics of thermal printers for printing shipping labels with postage vs inkjets and laser?

Answer 1

Keep in mind, there are two types of thermal printing.

Some printers use thermal paper. These are the ones you get from the cashier, maybe if you paid by credit card, and they are perhaps stapled to a regular cash register receipt. No ink ribbon to replace, but you must buy thermal paper rolls. ALSO, do this test. Put a thermal paper receipt on your dashboard or even in a jacket pocket for a while. Because the PAPER is thermal, there's a good chance you won't be able to read it after a certain amount of time. The paper breaks down rather quickly. And you may be limited in the size of labels available.

Others use thermal transfer ribbon, most commonly used in Brother's old fax machines. The black ribbon is heated in the form of the image, but then advances for the next image. You can use any label you like, but the ribbon needs replacing...but not as often as you think. The ribbons are usually big spools that last quite long. Anyone who has worked in a shipping department with a computer system and printer supplied by UPS or FedEx has used these printers. Do a search on TEC printers and you'll see what I mean.

I currently use all three, but for entirely different uses:

Inkjet labels are great for cutesy stickers that won't be exposed to the elements.
Thermal papers are great for receipts, but again, are vulnerable to the elements. Well, heat anyway.

I'd go for the TEC printer. It's fast as hell, accepts a wide variety of label sizes, and the thermal technology is not affected by exposure.

Answer 2

Thermal Inkjet Vs Inkjet

Answer 3

Ink Jets need an actual liquid to print onto the paper. Ink has to be replaced at a cost to your business. Thermal uses Thermal Heat to superimpose, if you will, an image onto a specially treated paper that is cheaper than replacement ink. My company use thermal printers in their cash registers and never replaced anything but the paper. All receipts from retail stores are more then likely done with thermal printers, like walmart, mcdonalds and so on. Good Luck!

Answer 4

Basically, the labels are coated with a film which when heated and pressured becomes dark.
For short-use shipping labels, these DT (Direct Thermal)
labels are the best choice.

In fact, many shipping companies do provide the gear, software, printer and set-up if you just call them and ask for it.
All for like $0. So choose the one that serves your company's shipping needs the best.

You are saving on all that inkjet ink. You can print about 750-1000 4x6 labels for the price of just 1 inkjet cartridge alone.

You are saving even more vs laser toner. Good Thinking!

Answer 5

I would agree thermal is better than inkjet, but necessarily because of the cost (although it may be cheaper too).

For me, the salient point is what's going to happen if or when the label gets wet? Inkjet labels will smear and potentially render the address unreadable. Thermal-printed labels will not smear, assuming you purchase a quality thermal printer. Laser printed labels will not smear either, but are definitely going to be more expensive than thermal.

Answer 6

I know that thermal, where I work, has been a cheaper option. The printing quality is not as good as that of an inkjet printer. It is simply done through a roll of colour ribbon which is applied in layers by heat. The inkjet, as you probably know, applies ink by spraying, rather than ribbon. I am not sure about costs for long term. We used ribbon for photo printing, as a faster option than a laser or inkjet.

Answer 7

For printing shipping labels, the best choice is thermal printers. They are small, cheap, quiet to operate and consume little electricity. They can print one label at a time.

Inkjet printers are cheap, but the ink is expensive. Laser printers are economical to print, but consume more electricity. Both inkjet and laser printers are more difficult to operate for printing one single label at a time.

Answer 8

Color inkjet printers have been fixtures in most small businesses for many years. They're cheap (under $60 in some cases), last a couple of years and everybody uses them. So they must be the perfect office tools, right? Maybe not. When you do the math on printing, inkjets may well cost you a whole lot more than you realize.

Answer 9

Laser printers, or as u say, thermal printers use toner instead of ink. toner is a fine powder that is sprayed onto the label/paper and then melted onto the sheet with laser. generally, toner is very much more expensive than ink but you can get more pages printed out with toner. also, laser printers are A LOT faster than ink printers.

Answer 10

-its economical that doesnt using any ink which cost much nowadays!just thermal sensitive paper is enough and the mechanical parts will do the rest!
-inkjet, ink alone is to much expensive. a drop of water in printed material will blur your project.
-laser, it uses toner which is also expensive that also contribute pollution and damage to ozone

i hope this will help you!