Entries Tagged 'Thermal Receipt Printers' ↓

From: SupplyChainMarket.com

TSP800 wide form thermal printers with a number of enhanced features makes them attractive alternatives to dot matrix and laser printers traditionally used in hospitality applications such as lodging establishments, retail stores, and restaurants.

TSP800 wide form thermal printers with a number of enhanced features makes them attractive alternatives to dot matrix and laser printers traditionally used in hospitality applications such as lodging establishments, retail stores, and restaurants. The TSP800 has an extremely small footprint as well as utilizes advanced thermal technology that eliminates messy printer or toner cartridges and results in extremely quiet operation.

Because of their thermal design, the TSP800 printers have a fast print speed of 150mm/sec. Print time is further reduced by the TSP800’s logo store capability which also adds professionalism to a receipt. This print speed is complemented by no warm-up time, which means customer check out is dramatically expedited, increasing customer satisfaction. A Raster Driver with reduction feature that allows information from a standard 8.5×11 (inch) page to fit on 4.4-inch receipt is designed into the TSP800.

The TSP700 series of ultra high speed, two-color thermal printers is equipped with a number of advanced features and a small footprint, the printers are ideal for POS, credit card, restaurant, bar code, hospitality, and kiosk applications. Continue reading →

The TSP650 features the best of both worlds by coupling the comfort of legacy products with the speed and connection options demanded today in hospitality environments.

The TSP650 features the best of both worlds by coupling the comfort of legacy products with the speed and connection options demanded today in hospitality environments.

The TSP650 boasts valuable features like low cost and high performance combined with the ability to work effectively in any environment. Out of the box, the TSP650 can easily be configured in Star Line or ESC/POS™ emulation mode and features a wide variety of interface options including USB and Ethernet due to its plug-in modules. New vertical mount stand and splash proof cover options help make it one of the most reliable POS printers in the world.

The TSP650 ships with Installation CD (Printer Driver / Manuals), setup guide, wall mount bracket, vertical mount pads, 58mm paper guide, power switch cover and start-up paper roll. With its “drop in and print” paper loading, small footprint and reliable guillotine cutter, the TSP650 is a welcomed addition to POS systems.

In addition, the TSP650 comes with Star’s 3-year Limited Warranty, plus optional Extended Services Agreement Policies (Extend-A-Star and Swap-A-Star).

The TSP650 is ideal for retail establishments and restaurants.

Thermal receipt printers have become the standard offering on the majority of point of sale systems today. Especially in the restaurant industry it is hard to find a point of sale system that does not have a thermal receipt printer. 

Why is this? For the most part thermal receipt printers cost more to buy. The paper for thermal receipt printers is higher than dot matrix printers.

Here are 5 reasons why a thermal receipt printer is superior to a dot matrix receipt printer.

1. Speed

Thermal printers print at an incredible rate when compared to dot matrix printers. The average dot matrix printer will print around 3 lines per second. Thermal printers average in excess of 20 lines per second.

2. Print Quality

Thermal receipt printers have a much better image and print quality than dot matrix receipt printers. The name “dot matrix” helps explain the major difference between the two very different technologies.

The dot matrix or impact printer creates characters by impacting a ribbon with up to 8 small wires that are aligned vertically in a dot head. As the dot head travels horizontally across the ribbon/paper these dots impact like small hammers making the impression on the ribbon and then the paper. Look closely at a receipt printed by a dot matrix printer and you will see these very small dots that make up the characters.

These dots simply do not have the quality of image that a thermal receipt printer does.

3. Logo Images

Dot matrix receipt printers go not have the ability to print a quality logo image on the receipt. Thermal receipt printers not only have this ability the image does have some very fine detail and is easy to download to the printer to be stored in the printer’s RAM.

4. Reliability

MTBF stands for Mean Time Between Failure. This is the standard for measuring the average time between failure for any device. In the case of printers it is either the average number of lines printed before a failure occurs or the average feet of paper that can be printed before a failure occurs.

In either case, the thermal receipt printers win across the board.

There are some thermal receipt printers that are better than others, but dot matrix printers simply do not have the staying power of a thermal printer.

This is due to fewer moving parts on a thermal printer and the fact that dot heads break due to the dot pins snagging on ribbons or are damaged when coins are dropped into the printer mechanism.

Thermal receipt printers do not have these extra moving parts as the paper is pulled across a stationary heat mechanism that heats the thermal paper to make the characters and images.

5. Cost of Ownership

This goes beyond simply the cost of supplies. This analysis should also include downtime and the cost of repairs.

Thermal paper does cost more than dot matrix paper. However, the added cost of ribbons for the dot matrix printer sends the cost of ownership for supplies higher for the dot matrix receipt printer.

When you add in the cost of repairs and the more frequent repairs for the dot matrix receipt printers the cost of ownership clearly swings in favor of thermal receipt printers.

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The ability to make a profit and stay in business long-term depends upon repeat business.  This is true for almost every type of retail and restaurant operation.  Even in areas with high tourism traffic, it is the local repeat traffic that helps keep the business open during the off-season.  On top of that, if a business can somehow get a tourist to come back even once more before they leave the area they then have doubled their sales from that specific person.  Do this over and over again and you will build a nice business for yourself. 

What costs only a fraction of a penny to produce and can go with every customer as they depart your business?  The answer is a printed cash register receipt. 

What can you print on that cash register receipt to bring back customers?  The answer is only limited to your imagination and a piece of paper. 

Receipt Header

This is the portion of the receipt above and below the main body.  In general, this is 3 lines above and 3 lines below the main body that can be programmed to display a variety of messages.  Most often the header contains the name, address and phone number of your business.  This is important to identifying your business but you can get creative.  Maybe you can find room to add a bit of ad copy, your tag line or company motto.  “U Save More at Our Store” or some clever tag line. 

Use bold print to bring emphasis to your message.  But remember that you can only get half the letters on the row when you double the size of the letters.  Also, regular size font not only gets you more letters it can be emphasized by placing it between rows of double sized fonts.

The best possible scenario is that your point of sale software and printer allow you to use a logo in your header.  Using a professionally designed logo can add a lot to your customer receipt and free up the printed lines of your header for more marketing messages.  If you can have a logo on your receipt be sure to increase the marketing message on your customer receipts. 

Receipt Footer

Here you have a lot more options, all depending upon your point of sale software.  Generally, you have between 3 and 6 lines of footer messages that can be programmed.  This allows you a great deal of flexibility in getting a message to your customers. 

Here is where you can advertise your business. 

1. Announce upcoming events
2. Offer discounts on return visits
3. Offer discounts on portions of your menu (10% off appetizer on next visit)
4. Advertise special discount times such as Happy Hour or Early Birds
5. Receipt good for $5 off next visit

Like I said, this is only limited to your imagination and about 6 lines of print. 

Web Site Registration 

One of the best uses for the receipt footer that has come out recently is getting people to register on your web site.  This gives you a tremendous start on building your E-mail mailing list that is used to advertise your business.  Offer the visitor a reward of a coupon or discount for completing the registration. 

Have a nice web site built that has lots of pictures of happy customers at your business.  Advertise your menu if you are a restaurant and the latest arrivals if you are a retail store.

Customer Survey

Depending upon the point of sale software that you have you can have random customer surveys printed on the customer receipt.  These surveys are usually linked to a web site where the customer completes a short questionnaire about their visit to your business.  In return they get a coupon, discount or are registered for a drawing to be held on a future date.

You get to know how their visit was and another registration for your E-mail and direct mail mailings.

Change the Message

Don’t look at your customer receipt as something you are obligated to hand to them.  Look at it as if you are advertising to your customers and enticing them to come back.  Give them a reason to come back more often and watch your sales increase.

Many point of sale systems make it very easy to change the header and footer messages.  There are some that allow you to pre-program the message and automatically change it by day and time of day.  That means you can advertise specials on a daily and weekly basis, reminding your customers of upcoming events and specials that might interest them.

Be sure to train your customers to look at their receipt.  Have your cashiers or wait staff highlight the message by circling it or highlighting it with a market.  Get the word out.  Don’t just look at your receipt as an obligation and expense.  Look at the customer receipt as your marketing tool that is used to market to your best customers.  Those are the ones that just bought from you.

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Kitchen printers and receipt printers are a vital part of any point of sale system. They communicate orders to the kitchen and bar and prepare guest checks and receipts for the restaurant customers. Doing without any printer in a point of sale system is the worst possible scenario.

Without kitchen and bar printers the orders are not processed as smoothly as they should. Hand written checks are sometimes impossible to read and they must be hand carried to the kitchen or bar. Not only does this create confusion it opens the entire restaurant up for theft. As the tickets are hand written there is no way to confirm if they have been properly entered into the point of sale system.

The Solution

Point of sale software has the ability to have backup printers assigned and programmed into the system. This allows for setting up a backup procedure in the case of a printer problem.

Each printer in the system should have a backup printer designated. Receipt printers can be programmed to print on another terminal printer. Kitchen printers can be programmed to print on a different kitchen printer or on the terminal printer where the order was placed.

This pre-programming of backup printers is simple and something that needs to be done to prevent a problem from causing chaos later.

The Benefits

1. Backup printers allow for the smooth operation of the restaurant even when there are problems with the printers.
2. Having backup printers pre-programmed will allow the restaurant to continue operations until the problem printer is repaired or replaced.
3. Since Point of Sale software automatically recognizes when there is a problem with a printer it will display a notification on each terminal alerting management that there is a problem.
4. When the problem is resolved and the printer is back online the point of sale software recognizes this and returns print operations to the normal state.

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Repositionable Labeling Improves Order Accuracy, Increases Customer Satisfaction

Grapevine, TX, April 17, 2008

Epson, a leading supplier of value-added solutions for the point-of-sale (POS) industry, today announced the TM-T88IV ReStick thermal label printer with repositionable liner-free labeling for Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) and casual dining restaurants that want a cost-effective and efficient labeling solution to reduce inaccurate food orders and speed order delivery. The new TM-T88IV ReStick label printer is an enhanced version of Epson’s original TM-T88IV thermal label and receipt printer, the most widely installed printer in the food service industry, with more than four million units installed worldwide.

According to QSR magazine’s 2007 Drive-Thru Consumer Survey, 80 percent of consumers rated order accuracy as more important to a good drive-through experience than any other factor, including speed. With design improvements that ensure uninterrupted performance, the TM-T88IV ReStick printer is the industry’s most reliable solution for repositionable liner-free label printing. Unlike original linerless labels that could not be readily repositioned without tearing, “ReStick” liner-free labels can be placed and repositioned multiple times in the kitchen environment with no messy liners to discard-improving kitchen workflow and speeding order accuracy and delivery time. ReStick labels may be used for a variety of applications, including customer bag labels for validation, exception labels in the food preparation area and for easy identification and product labeling.

“Competitive food service label printers are prone to jamming due to adhesive build-up from the labels,” said Bud Weist, vice president of sales and marketing, Epson System Device Group. “Epson’s extensive product design and quality assurance process combined with new liner-free, repositionable label paper, prevent roller and paper jams, making the TM-T88IV ReStick printer the industry’s most reliable liner-free labeling solution.” Epson liner-free labeling benefits a variety of food service applications including pizza box labels, sandwich wrap labels, specialty cup labels and take-out order labels. In addition, the TM-T88IV ReStick printer prints both labels and receipts, allowing the same printer to be used throughout a restaurant, minimizing service, supplies and training costs.

TM-T88IV ReStick Features

Cost-effective ReStick Liner-free Labels: Epson recommends MAXStick® adhesive label paper for its liner-free label printing solution. With 60 percent more labels per roll than die-cut labels, MAXStick labels are more cost-effective than other linerless labels. Without the need for a coated paper liner, there is no kitchen waste and ReStick labels can be repositioned many times without tearing packaging. MAXStick labels are available in two sizes to accommodate customer needs — 2-1/4 inch or 3-1/8 inch paper widths for receipts and labels.

Flexibility:The TM-T88IV ReStick label printer supports both standard and wireless interfaces, from parallel and serial to Ethernet, 802.11b and BlueTooth®. The printer may be wall-mounted vertically or horizontally.

Easy Integration: The TM-T88IV ReStick printer includes Epson’s exclusive family of Connect-It™ Interface options, making it compatible with all current best-of-breed and component-based systems.

Availability
The TM-T88IV ReStick label printer will be available through Epson’s designated sales and distribution channels in Summer 2008.

About Epson
Epson is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of highly reliable point-of-sale technology, including printers, precision printing mechanisms and digital image scanners. For the second year in a row, Epson has been ranked first in POS peripherals in the RIS News 2007 Hardware Leaderboard and the Vertical Systems Reseller 2007 Hardware Leaderboard. Founded in 1975 and headquartered in Long Beach, CA, Epson America, Inc. is the U.S. affiliate of Japan-based Seiko Epson Corporation, a global manufacturer and supplier of high-quality technology products that meet customer demands for increased functionality, compactness, systems integration and energy efficiency. For more information, please visit pos.epson.com/foodservice

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Epson is a registered trademark of Seiko Epson Corporation. Connect-It is a trademark of Epson America, Inc. All other trademarks and/or registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Thermal printing takes place when a heated printhead contacts thermal paper. As the paper passes over the heated printhead the paper turns black at each place it is heated, creating words or images. Other colors are sometimes possible by applying heat at different temperatures to specially designed paper.

In 1993 only 5% of POS printers were thermal printers. By 2007 that percentage increased to over 34%.

Why use a thermal receipt printer in your restaurant?

• Speed. Thermal printing is up to seven times faster then impact printing.
• Moves the check out line quicker.
• May eliminate the need for two ply paper since the printer can print a second receipt while the customer is signing the first.
• Faster transactions lead to better customer service.
• Faster print speeds allow large volume restaurants to reduce the number of servers/cashiers used, saving payroll costs.
• Most POS software can buffer the entire transaction and print the customer receipt at the end of the sale with all products organized with discounts. Impact printers would take too long to print out that information at the end of a sale.

Noise level – Thermal printheads have no moving parts and are therefore quieter then impact printers. With the terminals of your restaurants POS system generally located in the customer area, a quiet receipt printer leads to a better customer experience.

Reliability – Thermal receipt printers use printheads that are about three inches wide and have no moving parts, on the other hand impact printers have about twenty or more moving parts and electrical devices. The printhead covers the whole width of the paper therefore printing one full line at a time. With no moving parts thermal printers are less likely to wear out. Less down time and fewer repairs directly affect your bottom line profitability.

Thermal printers are durable and easy to use. Because there is no ribbon, thermal printers cost less to operate than impact printers. Most mobile printers are thermal

High Quality Printing

• Prints crisp bar codes for coupons and or to simplify returns.
• Use of 2 color printing to emphasize certain information on the receipt.
• Use of font enhancements to generate customer loyalty from target markets, like using larger print for seniors
• Build brand identity by printing logos on customer receipts

When thermal technology first began the paper’s short shelf life was a problem. Some customers needed to keep receipts for an extended period of time and restaurants needed to keep credit card receipts in case of chargebacks. The thermal paper that is produced today can print receipts after being stored for up to five years and the printed receipts, when properly stored in closed containers and in normal indoor temperatures, can last for seven years or more. Thermal printing results from heat and therefore should be protected from high temperature both before and after it is printed.

In today’s economy printer choice contributes to your restaurant’s profitability. By choosing a thermal printer for the customer areas of your restaurant you will most likely see a decrease in total cost of ownership and an increase in customer service.

Looking for a thermal receipt printer? Look at myPOSprinter.com where you will find thousands of thermal receipt printers All with Free Shipping.

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