Thermal Transfer

Nick Mandrycky, senior VP of marketing at IIMAK (Amherst, N.Y.), lists some generic uses of thermal transfer printing, along with some specific packaging applications:

• Coding—Most common; adds variable data directly on a package in food and beverage, pharmaceutical, and personal-care applications.

• Print and apply—This process prints and then automatically affixes shipping or product labels as they go down a conveyor belt. These applications are often done on extremely high-volume products. A good example of this is affixing a barcoded label with color information to the bottom of a nail polish bottle.