What Is Thermal Paper?

Thermal paper is a type of paper impregnated with heat-sensitive chemicals. When the paper is exposed to heat, the chemicals will change color (usually to black), producing an image.

  1. History

    • Thermal paper was first created by Appleton Papers in the 1960s. In 1969, Texas Instruments introduced the Silent 700 data terminal, which used a direct thermal printer.

    Types of Printing

    • Printing on thermal paper using a heat source is called thermal direct printing. Thermal transfer printing uses heat to transfer ink from a ribbon to ordinary paper.

    Benefits

    • Thermal direct printing has some advantages over other types of printing, since it is fast, quiet and does not require ribbons or ink cartridges.

    Drawbacks

    • One drawback of thermal paper is that if a printed page is exposed to heat, the entire paper will change color and the image will be obliterated. Like many products, the paper also contains Bisphenol A, a potentially harmful chemical.

    Uses

    • Thermal paper has many applications, including fax machines, labels, receipts and lottery tickets.

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