In today’s life, thermal paper printing is widely used. You will need to print sales receipts in supermarkets, convenience stores, shopping malls, and other places where you need to buy things. While the demand for thermal paper has dramatically increased, it has also provided convenience for many businesses to manufacture and sell inferior thermal paper.
In the purchase of thermal paper, many merchants still don’t know how to identify the quality of the thermal paper. Choosing the wrong one can not only give customers poor-quality receipts but can also damage your printer. This article will help you understand the characteristics of thermal paper and how to choose high-quality thermal paper materials.
What is thermal paper?
The so-called thermal paper is actually a kind of processed paper. It is coated with a layer of paint on the base of the original paper, that is, the color-changing layer. This color-changing layer contains more than a dozen chemicals, mainly including: colorless fuels (such as fluorescent compounds), color developers (bisphenol, p-hydroxybenzoic acid), sensitizers, calcium carbonate, adhesives, stabilizers, lubricants, etc.
Thermal paper is generally used in specific thermal printers and thermal fax machines. At present, the printing methods of barcode printers can be divided into two types. One is thermal printing. The barcode labels printed in this way are easy to fade under high temperature, and the storage time is short.
The other is thermal transfer printing, also called carbon ribbon printing. This printing method can be resistant to compounds, high-temperature and low-temperature environments, and has a relatively long storage time.
As for why thermal paper will fade, it can be explained by its ingredients. Because the production principle of thermal paper is to coat some acidic chemicals on ordinary paper and separate them through a film. Under the condition of heat, the film melts, and the chemical substances mix to develop a color reaction. But the color reaction is reversible, and the colored products will decompose by themselves to varying degrees, and finally, the color of the text will gradually fade until the writing completely disappears on the white paper. Therefore, the text on the thermal paper is not stable, and it is easy to cause the content to be illegible. Especially in high temperatures and humid environments, the dyed product will accelerate the decomposition, and the handwriting will fade faster.
Of course, the quality of thermal paper will also determine the speed of its fading.
Features of thermal paper
1. The handwriting is clear and readable
Thermal paper is generally used on various receipts, invoices, and barcode labels. We need to make sure that the printed content is legible to the client. The thermal paper does this perfectly thanks to its material and printing method. Of course, the writing on thermal paper is not stable in a high temperature and humid environment, and the writing will eventually slowly fade, which is inevitable.
2. Save time
Traditional printers are very slow because they rely on ribbons to transfer ink from the ribbon to the paper. While thermal paper does not require ink to print, it uses heat energy to generate images much faster. Ni afikun, the surface of the thermal paper is very smooth and flat, which makes the printing process very smooth and noiseless, greatly improving the efficiency of cash register printing and reducing the waiting time in line.
3. Cost savings
In general, printing on thermal paper is less expensive than other printing methods. First of all, a thermal printer is a low-consumption printer, it does not need to use ink and toner, and in itself, its volume is small, and its price is much cheaper than ordinary ribbon printers. Compared with ordinary printing paper, the surface of thermal paper is coated, which makes the possibility of tearing the thermal paper very low, and saves paper to a certain extent. And it does very little damage to the printer, so you don’t need to spend money maintaining your printer.
Key points for identifying the quality of thermal paper
The quality of thermal paper will directly affect the printing quality and storage time, and even affect the service life of printers and fax machines. Thermal printing paper is generally divided into three layers, the bottom layer is the paper base, the second layer is the thermal coating, and the third layer is the protective layer. The thermal coating and the protective layer mainly affect its quality.
We can generally identify the quality of thermal paper by the following three methods.
1. Observe the appearance of the paper.
First of all, if we see that the thermal paper is very white or reflects light strongly, it means that its protective coating and thermal coating composition are unreasonable. There may be a lot of fluorescent powder added, which will make the storage time of the printing paper very short. Generally speaking, good thermal paper should be slightly greenish. If the surface of the paper does not look smooth or uneven, it means that the coating of the thermal paper is not uniform enough, which will cause the printed content to be dark in some places and light in some places. Moreover, the protective coating can absorb part of the light that causes the chemical reaction of the thermal coating, slow down the deterioration of the printing paper, and protect the thermal components of the printer from damage. If the coating is uneven, it will not only reduce the storage life of the thermal paper, but also rub against the printer components and accelerate the damage to the printer.
2. Observe by heating.
We can also use a lighter to heat the back of the thermal paper. Generally, thermal paper with good quality will appear black and green after heating, and the color blocks are uniform, and the color gradually fades from the center to the surrounding. If the paper takes on a brown color after being heated, it has a poor heat-sensitive coating formulation. If the black part of the paper has fine streaks or uneven patches of color, it means that the coating is uneven.
3. Use sunlight to observe.
We prepared different heat-sensitive papers, painted them with a highlighter and placed them where the sun shines. The purpose of the highlighter is to speed up the reaction of the heat-sensitive coating to light. By observation, the faster the blackening speed of the paper, the shorter the storage time, the worse its quality.
Extra tips
Thermal paper contains BPA and other chemicals. Although the toxicity is not high, long-term exposure still has certain harm. In order to avoid bisphenol A from invading our bodies in daily life, here are some suggestions for reference.
1. Please wash your hands as soon as possible after touching the thermal receipt. Do not touch your mouth or food with hands that touch the receipt.
2. Store receipts and other items separately to prevent other items from being contaminated with harmful substances.
3. Do not hand over receipts to children, keep them as far away as possible.
Thermal paper can be seen everywhere in daily life, whether it is cash register paper, fax paper, lottery tickets, movie tickets, etc., all use thermal paper as printing materials. Therefore, it is very important to purchase thermal paper with guaranteed quality. If you are still not sure about choosing high-quality thermal paper, you can directly come to us for consultation and purchasing of reliable materials.
