The rule of thumb that I have obeyed in the fifteen years of self-adhesive practice is that the length of the ribbon is equal to the length of the substrate, one:one. You can print a small barcode or a huge graphic and the ribbon will move along with the facestock. To estimate what ribbon you need, all you need to do is to measure the sum of the linear footage of your VIZLENT labels. Do not make your strategy complicated with complicated ink-coverage algorithms. I am quite pleased to explain this fundamental principle in such a way that the wholesalers might not buy too much.
Do thermal transfer labels need a ribbon?
Yes, they do. I have been working with self-adhesive products of VIZLENT fifteen years and it is disappointing to me that printing houses do not understand this aspect. Thermal transfer labels are the ones that are based wholly on the coated film to construct an image. Their substrate does not have any heat-sensitive chemistry, as do direct-thermal labels; without the ink layer, it is just scratching bare paper.
The process of transfer is brilliant. The polymeric resin or wax is melted on the substrate by heat generated by the printhead. Wholesalers and label converters must always ensure that they use the right ribbon when using B2B materials; failure to which the ink will not take. When a ribbon and a barcode are perfectly matched creating durable and sharp barcodes, I feel proud because it is a dance between materials creating harmony.
What is the best ribbon for heat transfer?
I prefer full -resin ribbons. Resin ribbons are the most permanent of all to use, and fifteen years of self-adhesion design experience can attest to this. Resins work well with hard chemicals, hence suitable with tough substrates. A good compromise is the wax-resin hybrids, which offer affordability to the customer, but at the expense of durability. I would never compromise the durability on a few pennies by using impure resin. Wrong pellicle might spoil a whole production run.
What are the different types of thermal transfer ribbons?
Three categories are used, namely, wax, wax-resin, and pure resin. The most common paper substrates are made of wax; they melt at lower temperatures, and they are safer to your printheads. Wax-resin hybrids provide a compromise between durability and cost of synthetic facestocks that do not rip off profits. Pure resin is designed to work in the harshest of chemical conditions; it provides maximum permanence. Having tested self-adhesive material in fifteen years, I understand that it is crucial to align the ribbon chemistry with the substrate to provide correct calculations of usage.
How to Select the Right Thermal Transfer Ribbon?
Determining an appropriate thermal transfer ribbon might seem like a game of life and death with self-adhesive substances. Even after 15 years in this business, I still feel a pit in my stomach when I receive the product of one person slapping a generic wax ribbon on high-performance synthetic facestock. You have to consider your substrate first, paper, polypropylene or polyester since your ink chemistry has to bond to that particular surface. To use a wax-based ribbon is most likely to be the most reasonable and cost-effective option in standard shipping labels. But I am very irritated when the B2B converters overlook these environmental stressors such as chemicals or extreme heat and use a rugged resin formulation instead.
