Classification of thermal print heads

Thermal printers are a common type of printer used in daily life and work, such as printing supermarket receipts, packaging delivery sheets, and labels

Thermal print head is the core component of thermal printer. What are the types of thermal print heads? Below are the classifications based on different methods.

1. According to the structure of the print head

According to the structure of the print head, thermal print heads are classified into three types: flat type, edge type, and corner type.

(1) Flat Type

Flat type is the most common type of thermal printhead. Flat type is suitable for printing on soft media,such as thermal paper,label.

(2) Real Edge Type

The heater line is formed on the real edge of the ceramic wafer. Real edge type is suitable for printing on hard media, such as plastic cards, which cannot be easily bent.

(3) Corner Edge Type

Corner edge type is for high-speed printing such as datecode printing. The unique design allows for a flat pass of the media, with the glaze and heater elements formed on the corner edge with ceramic substrates. A very small volume of glaze for the corner edge type print head achieves quick heat response.

2. According to the manufacturing process of the heating elements

According to the manufacturing process of the heating elements, thermal print heads are classified into thick-film type and thin-film type.

(1) Thick Film Type

Thick Film is manufactured by screen printing.(Conduction pattern creation via photo-etching)

(2) Thin Film Type

Thin Film is manufactured by sputtering or metal deposition.(Conduction pattern creation via photo-etching)

3. According to the printing resolution

According to the printing resolution, thermal print heads are roughly classified into: 200dpi(dots per inch), 300dpi, 600dpi, 1200dpi. Among which 200dpi and 300dpi are more commonly used, while 600dpi and 1200dpi are less commonly used.