Thermal Printers
Many of
the big chains in pharmacy either already have or are presently
installing Thermals. You may already know the benefits of thermal
printers in pharmacy, but if you would like us to perform a quick study
of your operations to show you the specific advantages of thermal for
your particular operations and work flow, please give us a call. For
those of you who already know the benefits, here are some questions to
ask:
How do I pick the right printer?
The answer to this question starts with the printer company itself. What
is their specialty? Do they primarily focus on receipt printers or on
label printers? Since you have a label application, do not consider a
manufacturer that primarily produces receipt printers, as the pharmacy
application requires a very special printer, and the manufacturer of
your printers needs to have great experience with label printing in order
to meet your needs.
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What resolution do I need?
The standard resolution (expressed in dots per inch) is 203
for thermal printers. This is fine for producing shelf tags or deli
counter labels. But not for pharmacy labels. Insist on the same thing
that you get from your laser printers, 300
DPI. Especially since your warning labels are printing at 300 DPI
right now, and they are pretty small. Some suppliers will tell you that
they can make warning label fonts appear quite legible at 203 DPI, but
don't be fooled. When a thermal printer starts to need maintenance, and
the print head loses a few dots of impressions, that lesser resolution
really shows up in a bad way. And, if you ever wish to print your logo,
or (someday) pill images, you will want the higher resolution.
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Where do I need to be on the quality and
price range scale?
Everyone wants to drive a Cadillac, and purchase it at a Saturn
price, but of course this is not possible, so you must figure out what
trade offs to make. Thermal printers range from $299 to over $5,000. Of
course, your budget will probably keep you to the lower end of this
range, and you can indeed get what you want at the lower price range.
However, make sure that you purchase the highest quality printer for the
money possible, and here is why: Inexpensive printers are made with
inexpensive parts. If the parts hold up during your testing phase, this
may not seem like a problem, but you need to be aware of two things.
First, the labels used in a thermal pharmacy
application are not like any other thermal application. They must be resistant
to both high temperatures and UV rays. If not, they will look like your
dry cleaning receipt after 24 hours in your hot car. This requires special coatings
(several) on the label. For a thermal printer to activate the
label so as to print your desired message, on a label that has all these
special coatings, the printer must have exceptional print head control. This can only happen with a high quality print head.
Second, the inexpensive printers turn out to be maintenance headaches, as
they just will not last nearly as long. So look at as inexpensive a
printer as you want, but try a range of them, because the difference
becomes apparent fairly quickly. Here at Printed Solutions we offer this
range of
printers so that you can choose what best suits your needs.
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What thermal printer companies have experience in my (pharmacy)
industry and can they give me successful references?
After carefully researching these questions and many others, Printed
Solutions is proud to have chosen Sato
America as the manufacturer of our custom printers for pharmacy.
We have been in the pharmacy industry for many years, and have also
researched the specific needs of individual customers. We took these
requirements to Sato, and they have created a line of printers just for
pharmacy which we would be happy to show you. Please click on the Sato
link if you would like to visit their web site, but give us a call at 585-218-9880
or send us an e-mail, and
we will be happy to tailor a printer to
your pharmacy needs.
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