Industrial solutions for
product marking & coding
Industrial solutions for
product marking & coding
Development & manufacture
"Made in Germany"
50 years of experience
in business & industry

Industrial printers for product marking

What is an industrial printer for product marking?

An industrial printer for product marking is a paper and label printing machine used for industrial purposes.

As with tools and furnishings, a clear distinction is made between "consumer" and "industrial" quality for hardware. Industrial printers for product marking must therefore meet the high demands of the business world in terms of their design, performance and equipment.

How are industrial printers for product marking built?

Technically, an industrial printer for product marking differs only slightly from normal home printers. They consist of a housing, a feed for paper or labels, a printer and interfaces for the data and power supply. The main difference to the home printer is the performance in speed, quality and durability as well as the robustness for industrial use. For this reason, industrial printers for product marking are considerably more expensive and heavier than home printers.

Specifically, the following performance features are currently the standard for industrial printers:

  • An impact-resistant metal housing.
  • A printing speed of 300 - 400 millimeters per second.
  • A print resolution up to 600 DPI.
  • Interfaces with all common data input devices (LAN, WLAN, Bluetooth, serial, RFID, etc.).

Types of industrial printers for product marking

Three types of industrial printers for product marking have become established:

1) Thermal transfer printers

Thermal transfer printing is a mature, traditional printing process that has established itself as the standard for industrial printers for product marking. Similar to the old typewriters, thermal transfer printers use a ribbon for printing. Their greatest advantage is that virtually any label material can be printed with thermal transfer printing. Their disadvantage is that they can only output a maximum of two-color print results.

Thermal transfer printers are a very popular option when it comes to printing barcodes. The printed image is very stable and, to a certain extent, even waterproof. The printing costs are very low.

2) Direct thermal printers

Direct thermal printing is extremely limited in its choice of printing materials: it only works with thermal paper. The thermal paper reacts to the heat introduced and turns black.

Direct thermal printing is very inexpensive and fast. Since no consumables such as color cartridges or color ribbons are needed, direct thermal printers are very compact and even portable. However, the applicability of thermal labels is somewhat limited.

The main area of ​​application of direct thermal printers is in-house logistics or the printing of product packaging.

3) Inkjet printers

Inkjet printing is the most common form of paper and label printing in the consumer world.

Inkjet printers work with ink cartridges. High-resolution, multicolored printing is only possible with inkjet printing. When it comes to the label material, inkjet printers are also unspecific: what can be printed can also be printed with the inkjet. Nevertheless, the operating costs are quite high due to the high consumption of ink.

How to choose the right industrial printer for product marking?

Figuring out which industrial printer for product marking is the right one can be quickly done with the following questionnaire:

1) Color or black and white printing?

If black and white printing is enough, there is no need to buy an inkjet printer. Although they can deliver razor-sharp black and white printing, inkjet printers do this quite slowly and are comparatively expensive. This is especially true for the refill ink. Moreover, inkjet printers require a lot of maintenance as the printhead needs to be cleaned regularly.

But if you want to print colorful labels in small numbers, there is no getting around the inkjet printer. In the case of very high print runs, however, it is advisable to place the print job with a service provider who works with screen printing.

2) What is the printing material?

If different printing materials are to be processed, direct thermal printers are automatically excluded. For technical reasons, printing over different materials can only be operated with thermal paper. However, if the same material is always to be printed and the color is irrelevant, direct thermal printers are again the cheapest and most versatile solution.

3) What print quantity do I need?

How many identical labels should be printed per day? Although inkjet printers can produce individual and multi-colored labels, they also come with the highest operating costs. If single-color labels are sufficient, thermal transfer printers or direct thermal printers are cheaper for longer runs.

4) What resolution do I need?

The quality of the printing depends on the performance and resolution of the industrial printer.

Today, label printing also includes machine-readable elements. Examples include barcodes or the more recent QR code. As a result, it is necessary to first figure out which elements must be printed in order to determine which industrial printer is best suited for the job.

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Weber Marking Systems GmbH

Maarweg 33
53619 Rheinbreitbach
Germany