Ticket Printers

Ticket Media

Tickets are usually produced in standard widths of either 2 inches or 3.25 inches. In some applications wider tickets of 4 inches may be preferred. It is important when deciding which ticket printer to purchase that you know what ticket width you require.

The length of a ticket to be printed is determined by the positioning of special registration marks on the reverse of the ticket. Once the customer has decided the required length of the ticket, the correct position for the registration marks can be calculated.

Ticket material used for direct thermal printing should have a top coat that ensures a smooth presentation to the print-head thereby reducing wear. In some applications customers will use semi or non-coated material to try to keep costs down but it should be noted that this reduces the life-expectancy of the print-head.

In other applications tickets may have a souvenir value e.g. pop concerts and a more expensive top-coated ticket material will be required. In applications requiring extra strength tickets e.g. wristbands used for swimming pools, hospitals or pop concerts then a PVC material can be used for the tickets.

Ticket Printing Explained

Thermal ticket printers are designed to product tickets in high volume at high speed using heavier weight stock of up to 280 g.

Ticket printers use two different thermal printing technologies, direct thermal printing and thermal transfer printing.

Direct Thermal printing requires special thermal paper, which is heated by the print-head to produce an image, a ribbon is not required.

In the thermal transfer printing process the print-head burns the image onto a ribbon which is then transferred on to standard paper stock.

Both methods are capable of producing tickets at a rate of between 4 and 10 inches per second depending on the model of the printer and the required resolution.

The advantages of direct thermal printing are that there is no requirement for consumables keeping cost down and operation simple.