Talk about printer ribbon sorting and price difference

We know that for dye-sublimation printers dedicated to photo printing, the consumables it uses are the same as those of ordinary fax machines and dot matrix printers. However, ribbons used in dye-sublimation printers are very different from ribbons used in facsimile and dot matrix printers. For example, the principle, raw materials, structure, and even price of dye-sublimation ribbons are related to traditional colors. With a big difference. The following is a detailed analysis of the printer's ribbon differences (especially in terms of price).

Ribbon type

Ribbon is a printing consumable that we are familiar with. From the earliest mechanically impacted English printers to the later dot matrix printers to the dye-sublimation printers currently used primarily for photo printing, ribbons are used. Under certain circumstances, there are a lot of office equipment currently using ribbons, such as ribbon thermal transfer fax machines, pin printers, sublimation printers, digital printers, punching machines, attendance machines, cash registers, and card issuances. Machines, typewriters, tax control machines, teller machines, barcode machines, etc. Of course, these different devices use different types of ribbons, respectively, because different devices have different requirements on the material, width, length, and color of the ribbons. People want to adapt the ribbons to each. As a result of the need for office equipment, a variety of ribbons have been developed. As a result, the variety of ribbon products available today can be described as varied.

Different from the principle of printing, the current ribbon can be divided into traditional needle-type ribbons, thermal transfer ribbons, and the latter gradually appeared, popular three sublimation ribbons. The former is mainly used in office equipment such as needle printers, English printers, punchers, and attendance machines. The thermal transfer ribbons are mainly used in office equipment such as fax machines and bar code printers. The dye-sublimation ribbons are used in sublimation printers and digital printing. Cameras and other office equipment.

The difference between the three ribbons

Although dye-sublimation printers are also an office device that uses ribbons, its printing principle is very different from that of office equipment that uses traditional ribbons. For example, the working principle of office equipment such as an English typewriter, a stylus printer, etc., usually uses a striker in a device to strike a ribbon, thereby generating a print effect on the printing paper and the printing film. Sublimation is the use of semiconductor element heating devices to sublimate the pigments of the three-color ribbons into the gas phase, a technique that is printed on special photographic papers instead of printing by impact, so the ribbons and traditional dyes used in sublimation printers There is a fundamental difference in color.

Here we need to point out that, from the printing principle, sublimation and thermal transfer are basically the same, and all the colors in the ribbon are printed on the printed object by heating, but they are slightly different. This is because thermal transfer generally refers to thermosetting transfer, and often the color material is directly printed on the object to be printed, and the color change is not well controlled. Therefore, it is durable and has small image changes, and is not suitable for photo-quality color printing. specialty.

Sublimation is a kind of gasification sublimation technology. It often requires the use of special printing paper. It can freely control the changes of color, depth, transition, etc., and has the characteristics of colorful and suitable for printing high-color pictures. Although sublimation technology is less durable than thermal transfer in terms of durability, the printed overlays are also durable with the added layer of thermal sublimation. Of course, sublimation ribbons are also much more expensive than thermal transfer and striker ribbons.

The difference between making raw materials and prices

The composition of the traditional ribbon is very simple. It is made by immersing and dyeing the base tape after the nylon base material is woven. The dye ribbons used in sublimation are composed of four layers of yellow, red, blue, and protective layers. They are generally called CMYK. They are all made of lightweight plastic films. In terms of price, a box of brand-name original traditional ribbons costs about 30 yuan, while a box of dye-sublimation ribbons requires about 90 yuan. This shows that the use of dye-sublimation ribbon supplies is indeed much more expensive than using traditional ribbons.

In addition, the dye-sublimation printer ribbons are disposable, and the ribbons are generally sold together with the printing paper. Each ribbon has yellow, red, and blue colors as a group. Each time a photo is printed, it is rolled over. A set of ribbons consumes faster than traditional ribbons, and traditional ribbons can often be recycled. Of course, in this case, although it is possible to print at a low resolution using a dye-sublimation printer, the printing cost cannot be reduced and the printing speed can only be slightly increased, so it is always recommended to print at the highest resolution. Secondly, the current sublimation ribbons are not compatible with accessories. Nowadays, the manufacturers of several major sublimation printers adopt the one-to-one correspondence, which further increases the price of dye-sublimation ribbons.

However, the dye-sublimation ribbons also have CMY tri-color ribbons and two CMYK ribbons with an additional protective layer. Although the use of CMY tri-color ribbons does not add a protective layer to the photos, it is cheaper and is suitable for photographs only in albums. Save it. The photos printed with CMYK ribbons can add a transparent protective layer to the photos at the end, which is suitable for carrying photos and passport photos.

Summary: Although the use of traditional ribbons may also leave a latent image on the base of the tape, after printing with sublimation printing, the latent images left by the printed images and text on the used ribbons are clearer.