If you're weighing up the benefits of thermal transfer printers, considered these points:
1. Factory floor environments are tough on printers. And up to 85 % of the total cost of ownership over the lifetime of the printer can be made up of consumables and part replacements. Thermal transfer printers built with a rugged industrial design can provide quality print performance for as many as 10 years. That does mitigate their upfront system, training and installation costs.
2. Thermal transfer printers are designed with either an “open” and flexible infrastructure or with a “closed” one. Open systems invite users to use the components that best suit their particular needs. Closed systems force users to use one particular company´s supporting technologies. Choose a thermal printer supplier that provides a truly open platform for best performance and lower overall costs.
3. Ribbon plays a very central role in the performance of thermal transfer printers. Ribbon costs can account for as much as 35% of consumable system expenses with thermal transfer printers.
In this decade's tight economy, identifying a truly cost-effective and high-performing thermal transfer printer can be an adjunct to success. To minimise total cost and miximise performance, look not only at printer specs and upfront costs but also at technology migration options, open system components and ribbon expertise.
With this as background, Allen Coding has launched two new thermal transfer printers designed for emerging markets and entry-level variable print applications. The new systems combine quality print with up to 40% cost savings and true real-time, variable Unicode performance in over 125 languages.
53XLc and 25 XLi provide quality, variable print performance on vertical and horizontal form fill and seal (VFFS & HFFS) packaging lines. Barcodes/2D data matrix codes, sell by/expiration dates, lot/ batch numbers, production date/ time, source codes, and other variable information can be printed on a wide variety of different packaging substrates including bags, pillow packs, bottles/vials, cartons, trays, blister packs, sachets and envelope packs.
25XLi: uses miniature ribbon for precise printing in small areas at up to 40% cost savings compared to alternative 53mm thermal transfer systems. This cost-efficiency makes the 25XLi comparable in pricing to hot stamp date coding technologies but with all the added benefits of variable, digital print making the system an ideal entry-level variable print technology. The system provides a print height of up to 32 x 40 mm.
53XLc: provides a new continuous print alternative for vertical and horizontal form fill and seal (VFFS & HFFS) packaging lines. The system is extremely cost-effective, up to 35% less expensive than traditional thermal printer technologies without compromising print or system quality. The 53XLc features a special ribbon-save mechanism that ensures minimum gaps between labels, resulting in up to a 50% reduction in ribbon waste dependent on application.
The Allen Coding XL series consists of four thermal transfer printers (53XLc, 25XLi, 53XL80u and 53XL40u ) that all feature highly durable, industrial designs with up to 600 meters of ribbon capacity for extended use with minimal downtime. All provide high-speed printing of up to 450 prints per minute at 5mm print height with true Unicode performance, flexible features and important value added services.
Allen Coding´s XL printers were specially designed to provide real-time and dynamic date coding, offset calculation, counter, formula and variable field printing in over 125 languages. Dual interior processors (one for printing and one for external communications) ensure high-speed performance despite the complexities of real time variable printing in many languages.
In addition, the printer’s iView user interface can be configured in ten standard different languages (English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Swedish, Korean, Russian and Arabic), and specific languages can be added on request.
