Thermal Transfer

Both ribbon and printer suppliers have been introducing developments over the years that have improved the cost/performance issues and/or broadened the applicability of thermal transfer printing. Ann Marie Phaneuf, director of marketing for Weber Marking Systems (Arlington Heights, Ill.), believes that the costs of printer ribbons and labels have been a drawback in the past, but says that these costs have been coming down considerably in the past 18 months. Additional constraints have come from thermal transfer systems' inability to meet the needs of very high-speed production environments. "However," says Phaneuf, "printer speeds have been increasing while maintaining image quality."