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The fastest thermal transfer marking with resin ribbons on the market

Friday 09. July 2021 - Manufacturers already using resin ribbons can increase their profitability with the higher throughput. This means that even more companies can benefit from the extra durable and crisp prints achieved with this TTO system.

The innovation unveiled today is a market first, enabling manufacturers to achieve speeds of up to 600 mm/s when thermal transfer printing product labels with resin ribbons. This is almost twice as fast as any other comparable system. In addition, this thermal transfer printing (TTO) system reduces maintenance.
Missing prints on products lead to costly shipment rejections or fines; poorly legible prints compromise security and brand perception. When printed on common packaging materials such as flexible film packaging, it is common for imprints to smudge or smear in hot production environments or to be rubbed off in transit. High temperatures, oils and solvents affect the durability of the imprints. Resin ribbons provide the required durability under the most demanding production and/or transport conditions. However, until now, print speeds were limited to 300-400 mm/s, which had a negative impact on overall throughput. In addition, the print bars tended to wear out quickly.
TTO printing with resin ribbons is most commonly used in industries such as food and pharmaceuticals (e.g. for nuts, crisps and antibacterial wipes).
Faster TTO printing with resin ribbons
The advanced design of the SmartDate Xtreme Plus print bar allows companies to print crisp identification with resin ribbons at speeds up to 600 mm/s, nearly twice as fast as the second fastest resin ribbon printing system on the market. So high-quality, long-lasting prints no longer come at the expense of production throughput.
Reduced maintenance costs
Printing with resin ribbons requires a lot of energy compared to other thermal transfer ribbons, which can reduce the life of the print bars. The fact that many TTO suppliers offer no or only chargeable warranties for their print bars can increase maintenance costs. However, the SmartDate Xtreme Plus printbar, like all Markem-Imaje printbars, is covered by a 6-month or 40-kilometre warranty. This means that even in the most demanding marking applications, manufacturers benefit from 60% fewer failures than comparable systems.
The print bar can be used with new SmartDate X65 printers or retrofitted to existing SmartDate X65 printers.