eXtendo
®
Thermal Printer Family
HENGSTLER
Part No. D 684 124 Mod. No. 4 080812 LEV page 9 of 38
3. Overview
3.1. Overview of Thermal Printing Technology
A brief overview of thermal printer technology might be helpful to understand how the
eXtendo
®
thermal printer family works. In most direct thermal printers, paper is fed over a
soft, rotating platen and under the thermal printhead. The platen acts as a roller to advance
the paper at the same time it acts as a surface against which the spring-loaded printhead
presses the paper to insure good thermal conductivity. Circuitry in the printer determines
which heating elements to activate (“fire” or “burn”) to form the next row of dots on the paper.
The thermal paper is coated with several compounds. At room temperature, these
compounds are white in color and do not react with each other. The heat from the thermal
printhead acts as a catalyst in the areas where the small printhead dots are fired, causing
these compounds to react with each other and form a new compound which is a contrasting
color, usually black. The platen then advances the paper to the position of the next dot row,
and the process is repeated.
You may note immediately several of the advantages of thermal printing. First, since the
printing is done with heat, there is no noise from the printing process itself. Thermal printing
is inherently quiet compared to most other technologies, such as impact dot matrix. Also,
there is only one moving element in the thermal printer: the platen. This provides increased
reliability and life when compared to other technologies.
3.2. X-56 versus X-80
The X-56 and X-80 thermal printers are based on a single design concept and share many
components. The difference between them is primarily in the width of paper that they will
print and cut. The X-56 handles paper of between 49 and 60 mm in width, while the X-80
accepts paper from 60 to 86 mm wide. Narrower paper than the widest specified above is
accommodated by the use of paper guides to provide additional positional guidance.
This causes one specific minor difference between the two printers. The maximum paper
width the X-56 will accept is 60 mm, and paper guides are not needed for paper in this width
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