eXtendo®
Thermal Printer Family
Part No. D-684-124
Mod. No. 4 270919 HW1
page 8 of 33
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 range. 58 mm
and 60 mm paper widths are very common, and are considered standards. Paper guides are not
needed to handle these two paper widths.
