Kyocera has announced a new series of thermal printheads, the KMH series, which are mainly aimed at mobile barcode label printers for use in the logistics, retail and healthcare sectors.
Thermal printheads, as distinct from thermal inkjet, use multiple heating elements, each the size of several tens of microns, lined up in a row on a heat storage layer. They transfer heat through the printing media – in this case, a mobile barcode label – in order to print.
The KMH series are not replacing existing models but instead represent Kyocera expanding its range of thermal heads. They are said to be very compact, designed to support a new generation of lighter, more compact mobile printers. They are suitable for applications such as printing labels at logistics sites, including food logistics and refrigerated or frozen warehouses.
In general, these sort of refrigerated and frozen environments require higher printing energy to ensure adequate print density and this creates additional demand on the printhead. That’s because continued printing leads to rising temperature within the head, which affects the driver integrated circuit.
So these heads have been designed around improving the durability of the heating elements that are exposed to repeated electrical pulses.
Other uses could include printing price tags and shelf labels in retail environments or printing wristbands and specimen labels in healthcare settings.
This first head is three inches wide, with an effective print width of 72mm. It produces 576 dots with 203dpi resolution. This head runs at 7 inches per second, which Kyocera claims is the fastest printing speed currently available for mobile barcode printers. Kyocera is planning to launch further heads in this series to offer two- and four-inch print widths.
The KMH-72-8PBS1-PFS printhead should be available this month. You can find further details from kyocera.com.
