Industry Solutions

Thermal Transfer Printing

Thermal Transfer Printing

Bar code labels used in healthcare applications need to be reliable, durable and remain scan able. These thermal transfer ribbons need to be durable enough to withstand a number of conditions including autoclave resistance, solvents found in clean rooms and within the manufacturing process while maintaining legible print. Thermal transfer ribbons used in the healthcare environment contain critical information needed to assure proper and accurate identification of medication, blood bags, medical devices, and patient identification to improve safety and traceability in the healthcare environment. In addition, these bar code ribbons often need to meet a number of FDA guidelines and/or have specific certificate of compliances to meet the demanding performance characteristics required in this market sector where patient well being is critical.

Advantages of Thermal Transfer Printing:

• Thermal transfer printing produces a permanent print, which has excellent resistance to fading, even when subjected to direct sunlight.
• The durability of thermal transfer print can be determined by the choice of ribbon type. The most popular (and lowest cost) grade is wax, which has limited smudge resistance. The next grade up is wax/resin, which has good smudge resistance, but limited scratch resistance. The top grade is resin, which is scratch and water resistant and resistant to many chemicals (see the ribbon specification for information on which chemicals a particular ribbon is resistant to).
• There are a much wider choice of label materials available for thermal transfer printing compared to direct thermal. The choice of label materials varies from uncoated and coated papers and card through to cloth and a wide range of synthetic materials, including polyethylene, polypropylene, polyester and polyimide. The choice of adhesives is also greater with thermal transfer labels, in particular for very low temperature applications (-196°C) and very high temperatures (+ 575°C).
• There are a good range of coloured ribbons available for thermal transfer printing.
• Thermal ribbons have a silicon coating on the print head side to protect the print head against excessive wear.