What is a TTO ribbon printer

TTO ribbon printer, that is, Thermal Transfer Overprinter, is a kind of equipment that prints text, numbers, patterns and other information on flexible packaging, labels and other materials through thermal transfer technology. The following is a detailed explanation of the TTO ribbon printer:

Definition and principle

The TTO ribbon printer uses thermal transfer technology to transfer the ink on the ribbon to the printed object by heating the print head. Specifically, when the ribbon is placed between the inkjet printhead and the coded product, the inkjet printhead moves a certain distance on both the ribbon and the product surface. By rapidly turning on (hot) and off (cold) micro-heating elements on the inkjet printer head, heat is transferred to the ribbon, causing the ink to melt and release from the underside of the ribbon to adhere to the product surface, and then rapidly cooling to form the printed content.

Two, the main characteristics

Highly integrated nozzle ribbon module: TTO ribbon printers use highly integrated ceramic or glass nozzle modules that contain multiple individually controlled micro-heating elements per inch width, enabling high-precision printing.

Intelligent editing and printing: Compared with ordinary ink wheel coding machines, TTO ribbon printers are more intelligent. It can change the content to be printed through the computer, such as production date, product batch number, expiration date and time, shift and other variables, support Chinese characters, numbers, letters, pictures and other forms of printing content.

Wide range of applications: TTO ribbon printer is suitable for a variety of flexible packaging and labeling materials, such as milk powder, frozen food, candy, biscuit packaging, bread packaging in the baking industry, as well as packaging boxes, wet wipes, napkins and other packaging in the pharmaceutical and daily necessities industry.

Efficient printing performance: TTO ribbon printer has the advantages of fast printing speed, high printing quality, and less ribbon consumption, which can meet the efficient printing needs of large-scale production lines.

Three, printing mode

TTO ribbon printers usually have two printing modes: intermittent and continuous:

Continuous mode: For continuous production lines, thermal transfer inkjet printing on moving products. The substrate (the product identified by the code) moves continuously, the print head keeps the left and right position unchanged, and moves up and down, which needs to be used with a synchronizer.

Intermittent mode: It is used for intermittent printing in the production line, and the printing work is completed in the stationary period. The substrate moves intermittently, and when the substrate stops moving, the printer print head moves on the substrate, which needs to be equipped with a silicone pad.

4. Brand and model

There are many brands of TTO ribbon printers on the market, such as Videojet, Markem-Imaje, Domino, and so on. These brands offer a variety of TTO ribbon printers to meet the needs of different industries and application scenarios.

V. Summary

As an efficient and intelligent thermal transfer coding equipment, TTO ribbon printer plays an important role in packaging, marking and product tracing. With the continuous development of science and technology, the structure and performance of TTO ribbon printers will be further improved and perfected to provide more efficient and convenient printing solutions for related industries.