thermal vs. impact printer

[grez]

Hi! I am not fully understanding the advantages of a thermal receipt printer vs. a dot matrix / impact printer. Can anyone explain? Thanks in advance!!

grez

 

[franklin97355]

It all depends on what your requirements are Thermal is usually quicker and quieter while impact will do multiple copies.

 

[edfair]

Size-extra case size requird for print head and movement motor
Noise-impact printers hammer the ribbon
Supply trade off- ribbons vs thermal paper

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[CorpSysEngineer]

I was an engineer in the Point Of Sale industry for a while. One major advantage of Thermal is that its totally water proof, high speed printing, cleaner/crisper text, and very, very quiet. One down side is Thermal paper does not retain the image or text for very long because heat and light affect the paper. So if you are needing to keep a copy for records... then your choice is to make a copy of it on a scanner and print on an inkjet or laser printer, or keep records for shorter periods of time. Hope this helps...

Gregg

 

[grez]

All,

Thanks for your input on this! Also, in conducting my own research, the paper for the thermal is quite a bit more expensive (at least the stores that I checked) per case. Seems like the least expensive all around option is the impact. Thanks again!

grez