What are Industrial Label Printers?

Label printers are broadly categorized into three types in terms of their printing capacity: desktop label printers, commercial label printers, and industrial label printers. Industrial label printers are the fastest of the lot and often used for large runs for big commercial businesses.

Industrial label printers are, in turn, classified into thermal transfer label printers, color label printers, laser label printers, RFID label printers, and Inkjet label printers. All have their advantages and disadvantages. If you are looking to purchase an industrial label printer, continue reading for valuable advice.

Thermal Transfer Label Printers

Offering wax-based, waterproof ink, these printers work by heating wax and applying it to the stock. Relatively, thermal transfer label printers offer lower quality and accuracy. While printing smaller labels, however, that is not an issue.

The most common type of stock used for thermal transfer label printing is vinyl.

Laser Label Printers

Laser technology in printers allows for better control over the accuracy and detail. Consequently, laser label printers are used to print labels that need HD imagery, highly legible text, and more accurate graphics.

Laser label printers are also extremely fast. They can do a lot of printing without any significant delays.

InkJet Label Printers

InkJet label printers are generally expensive to purchase and maintain. They offer a superior quality of printing and crisper images.

They are also very versatile as you can use a variety of materials and stock with InkJet printers.

Color Label Printers

Color label printers are not a standalone category, but important to know about. Thermal transfer label printers, laser label printers, and InkJet label printers can all come in color variations.

There are various color safety regulations and different color label printers follow different regulations.

Color label printers can of course be used for printing packaging and branding labels, but also color-coding, such as within a warehouse for more efficient inventory management.

The color variations of printers are more expensive than their black and white counterparts.

Connectivity and Label Media

Knowing about the connectivity options and the types of media you can use for labels is important to make a more informed decision.

Industrial label printers offer a variety of connectivity options such as wireless, USB ports, Bluetooth, Infrared, cloud, or network and internet-based printing. How you wish to connect your workstation determines the type of connection you should go for.

Apart from that, you also need to pay attention to the types of media that labels use.

There are mainly 10 types of label media:

  1. Long-lasting label media is appropriate for signs, safety warnings, etc. that need a longer lifespan.
  2. Adhesive label media is used in industries such as shipping, import-export, IT and manufacturing, etc., wherever sticking is required.
  3. Chemical resistant label media is usually applied on containers that hold various types of chemicals so that the labels do not burn or erode.
  4. Oil resistant label media is used on materials that contain oil. These do not soak oil and as a result, do not come off.
  5. Water-resistant label media is used for containers and materials that are stored in wet conditions.

Apart from these, there are also more specific types used in awfully specific conditions, such as UV resistant, fireproof, tear-resistant, cold-resistant, and RFID label media.

At LabelBasic, we have all the printers and labels needed to design the perfect label for your product. Have a look through our catalogue and contact us with any questions.