In today’s post we want to talk about choosing a label printer and the five things you need to think about before making your decision.
There are all different types of label printers, from the size to the cost, and figuring out what label printer is right for you can be difficult. The tips below should help you to narrow things down and help you decide on the label printer that is going to be ideal for you.
5 Things That Will Help You Choose The Best Label Printer
Print Durability: For tip 1 you need to give some thought to where the labels you print are going to end up. Will they be used on signs, on products that will be stored in freezers, on bottles, etc. Where you labels will be used can determine how durable they need to be. The majority of inkjet label printers will use water based inks and this means your labels won’t be water proof. If you need them to be, you’ll need a label printer that uses pigment based ink. This means a label printer with laser or LED technology.
Print Speed: The print speed of label printers vary greatly depending on the model type. If you are going to be printing large volumes of labels you need to check the print speed. After all, if it takes 6 hours to print 400 labels this isn’t going to work. You need to look for a label printer that is fast and this could be 6 or 12 inches per second. Our range of Zebra printers work with the volume needs for big and small businesses.
How will your labels be attached to the end product?: If you will be applying labels by hand this question won’t be a big issue, but if any form of automation is required this is a question you will have to pay attention to. For automation you need to make sure your labels can be rebounds onto rolls or cut to suit the product or application they will be applied to. Sheet fed label printers are not appropriate for automation processes.
Printing costs: Label printers range in cost but the general rule of thumb is that the more your label printer costs the less your running costs will be. Running cost are important and you need to look at a number of things to calculate this. The volume of labels you’ll be printing will be taken into consideration first. If you narrow things down to two different label printers and one is more expensive than the other you need to check the cost of the consumables and how often you need to replace the ink. You will then be able to calculate which printer is better value for money in the long term. It is important to calculate the running costs, but if you require some help, our AIS experts are always on hand to answer any questions you might have.
Label size: Label printers support different label sizes with 4 or 8 inches being the most common width. You will need to know what size labels you will be printing when determining what label printer will be the best. If you are printing 12 x 4 inch labels a 4 inch wide label printer will suffice as labels can be printed on their side.
These 5 label printer tips should help you narrow down your selection and our team of experts are here to guide you if you need any help in selecting the label printer that will work best for your business. Get in touch today and see how we can help. Whether it’s choosing a label printer or purchasing consumables, AIS is the number one choice.