Types
Many of the products listed below can be provided with various adhesives from heavy coat weight permanents to ultra removable, and can be supplied in rolls, fan-folded, and sheets. There are specific adhesives for specific applications which depending on the actual conditions can make a huge difference in the performance and price. Our goal is to provide distributors with the best choice and quite often multiple choices for the application. This provides the end user with the most cost effective product for the application.
Thermal Transfer
The thermal transfer process requires the use of a thermal ribbon which can have different characteristics depending on the material that is being printed. Typically the ribbons are referred to as content of resign and wax. The more resin content the higher the heat on the printer is required, and usually higher resign content is used to print on film products.
Thermal transfer products can be produced to accomplish many tasks. They are used for address, barcode, carton and case ID labels. They can be used to identify pieces of equipment and assets and even circuit boards. There are many other uses such as Inventory ID, Pallet ID, Gaming labels, Pharmacy, pricing, drum, and even wire harness labels. Typically there may be as many as 3-5 thermal transfer labels on a small package shipped in the United States.
Direct Thermal
Direct thermal labels can usually be identified by rubbing your finger nail fast and hard across the label. It will turn black usually, or you can apply heat on the face, such as a match, lighter or even a coffee pot warmer. Generally the heat source needs to exceed 140 degree’s F.
Usages of the direct thermal labels are usually contained to a short term label that is NOT exposed to heat. Barcode labels are easily generated with this process, meat weigh scale labels, baggage labels, event tickets, ski lift tickets, and many warehouse or picking labels.
Typically the imprint color is black, although Label.Com can also produce a blue direct thermal imprinted label.
Laser
The laser technology is generally used in the sheet form; however there are also pin feed laser printers that can be produced in roll and fanfold format. These all go through a laser print engine that imprints the variable information with a toner.
There are many applications for the laser printer such as address, asset marking, carton labels, case ID labels, grade labels. Many hospitals use the laser printer to print laboratory, specimen, pharmacy, transcription, and property asset labels. There are many applications for direct mail and fundraising markets that are pre-printed and then imprint variable data such as addresses on laser sheets or rolls of laser product. Many times 55 gallon drums have pre-printed and laser imprinted labels to identify the contents of the drum and product ID barcodes.
Dot Matrix
This technology is slowly being replaced with newer technologies already discussed, however it still has a place in high speed variable data area where the quality is not critical for such things as barcodes. Dot matrix printers use an ink coated ribbon, the print is generated by a print head, or pins hitting the ribbon to make an impression on the paper or label below. Although barcodes can be printed with dot matrix, other technologies supersede dot matrix in print quality.
Examples of dot matrix are address labels, carton labels, shipping, price picking, security price picking, inventory, drum, pharmacy, piggyback, ski lift ticket, parking passes and many others.
Tags
There are many types of tags which are made of paper or film materials with out adhesive. These tags can be imprinted with thermal transfer, direct thermal, and even dot matrix.
Tags can be used as tickets, for amusement parks, event tickets such as theme parks, sports events etc. In some cases tags can be used to identify baggage, routing, construction tags, film tags to identify logs, paper rolls, even repair tags to identify the item being repaired.
General Roll and Prime
This is the largest product category label which is usually used to identify a product or company. It can be used in a variety of applications and isn’t necessarily imprinted with a printer. Although as the name implies, it is supplied in a finished roll. These rolls of labels can be hand applied or automatically applied to products.
This type of label is generally printed in multiple colors and applied to such things as produce, drums, pals, tanks, candles, and many other devices. We manufacture labels that are applied to telephones, tires, barrels, windows, ladders, cylinders, sinks and bath tubs. They can be used for LIFO/FIFO, transcription, warning, gift card, catalogs, and even gourmet foods.