Zebra's Industry Solutions can give your business a competitive advantage by connecting people, assets and data to help you make better decisions.
Scale and energise your retail strategy with a digital backbone that unifies your team, informs priorities and drives results with Zebra's retail technology solutions.
Zebra's healthcare technology solutions provide patient identity management, mobile health devices, and business intelligence data to improve efficiency.
Zebra’s manufacturing technology solutions enable manufacturers to become more agile, optimise plant floor performance and embrace market changes.
Zebra's market-leading solutions and products improve customer satisfaction with a lower cost per interaction by keeping service representatives connected with colleagues, customers, management and the tools they use to satisfy customers across the supply chain.
In today's world, the demands on transportation and logistics companies are higher than ever. Dedicated Warehouse, Fleet and Delivery, and Yard and Terminal solutions enable visibility to every aspect of your business and keep operations running flawlessly around the clock.
Zebra's hospitality technology solutions equip your hotel and restaurant staff to deliver superior customer and guest service through inventory tracking and more.
Empower your field workers with purpose-driven mobile technology solutions to help them capture and share critical data in any environment.
Zebra’s mobile computing, scanning, and printing solutions connect each operational area in your warehouse to give you the agility to realize transformational gains.
Zebra's range of mobile computers equip your workforce with the devices they need from handhelds and tablets to wearables and vehicle-mounted computers.
Zebra's desktop, mobile, industrial, and portable printers for barcode labels, receipts, RFID tags and cards give you smarter ways to track and manage assets.
Zebra's 1D and 2D corded and cordless barcode scanners anticipate any scanning challenge in a variety of environments, whether retail, healthcare, T&L or manufacturing.
Zebra's extensive range of RAIN RFID readers, antennas, and printers give you consistent and accurate tracking.
Choose Zebra's reliable barcode, RFID and card supplies carefully selected to ensure high performance, print quality, durability and readability.
Zebra's location technologies provide real-time tracking for your organisation to better manage and optimise your critical assets and create more efficient workflows.
Zebra's rugged tablets and 2-in-1 laptops are thin and lightweight, yet rugged to work wherever you do on familiar and easy-to-use Windows or Android OS.
With Zebra's family of fixed industrial scanners and machine vision technologies, you can tailor your solutions to your environment and applications.
Discover Zebra’s range of accessories from chargers, communication cables to cases to help you customise your mobile device for optimal efficiency.
Zebra's OEM scan engines, imagers, and private label OEM products offer flexible integration and help enhance product development with modern OEM technology.
Zebra's environmental sensors monitor temperature-sensitive products, offering data insights on environmental conditions across industry applications.
Keep labour costs low, your talent happy and your organisation compliant. Create an agile operation that can navigate unexpected schedule changes and customer demand to drive sales, satisfy customers and improve your bottom line.
Empower the front line with prioritised task notification and enhanced communication capabilities for easier collaboration and more efficient task execution.
Get full visibility of your inventory and automatically pinpoint leaks across all channels.
Reduce uncertainty when you anticipate market volatility. Predict, plan and stay agile to align inventory with shifting demand.
Drive down costs while driving up employee, security, and network performance with software designed to enhance Zebra's wireless infrastructure and mobile solutions.
Explore Zebra’s printer software to integrate, manage and monitor printers easily, maximising IT resources and minimising down time.
Make the most of every stage of your scanning journey from deployment to optimization. Zebra's barcode scanner software lets you keep devices current and adapt them to your business needs for a stronger ROI across the full lifecycle.
RFID development, demonstration and production software and utilities help you build and manage your RFID deployments more efficiently.
RFID development, demonstration and production software and utilities help you build and manage your RFID deployments more efficiently.
Zebra DNA is the industry’s broadest suite of enterprise software that delivers an ideal experience for all during the entire lifetime of every Zebra device.
Advance your digital transformation and execute your strategic plans with the help of the right location and tracking technology.
The Zebra Aurora suite of machine vision software enables users to solve their track-and-trace, vision inspection and industrial automation needs.
Zebra Aurora Focus brings a new level of simplicity to controlling enterprise-wide manufacturing and logistics automation solutions. With this powerful interface, it’s easy to set up, deploy and run Zebra’s Fixed Industrial Scanners and Machine Vision Smart Cameras, eliminating the need for different tools and reducing training and deployment time.
Aurora Imaging Library™, formerly Matrox Imaging Library, machine-vision software development kit (SDK) has a deep collection of tools for image capture, processing, analysis, annotation, display, and archiving. Code-level customization starts here.
Aurora Design Assistant™, formerly Matrox Design Assistant, integrated development environment (IDE) is a flowchart-based platform for building machine vision applications, with templates to speed up development and bring solutions online quicker.
Designed for experienced programmers proficient in vision applications, Aurora Vision Library provides the same sophisticated functionality as our Aurora Vision Studio software but presented in programming language.
Aurora Vision Studio, an image processing software for machine & computer vision engineers, allows quick creation, integration & monitoring of powerful OEM vision applications.
Adding innovative tech is critical to your success, but it can be complex and disruptive. Professional Services help you accelerate adoption, and maximise productivity without affecting your workflows, business processes and finances.
Zebra's Managed Service delivers worry-free device management to ensure ultimate uptime for your Zebra Mobile Computers and Printers via dedicated experts.
Find ways you can contact Zebra Technologies’ Support, including Email and Chat, ask a technical question or initiate a Repair Request.
Zebra's Circular Economy Program helps you manage today’s challenges and plan for tomorrow with smart solutions that are good for your budget and the environment.
Thermal labels use heat to create an image. Thermal transfer uses a thermal ribbon where heat from the printhead releases the ribbon attaching it to the label surface. Direct thermal images are created when heat from the printhead causes components on the label surface to mix causing them to (usually) turn black.
A label is a label right? Wrong. Each of the thousands of different materials used in thermal printing has its own unique set of features that must be considered to ensure optimal performance in its intended application—not to mention in the specific printer in which it will be used.
Sacrificing consistency for price is risky, because unscannable barcodes must be reprinted, cancelling out the intended cost savings. Workers may have to make adjustments to the printer between rolls to account for inconsistencies in the media, make more IT calls, deal with costly downtime and risk losing productivity, efficiency and customer satisfaction. And choosing printing supplies that aren’t well suited to thermal printers can cause unnecessary wear and tear on printheads, resulting in higher replacement costs.
On the other hand, the right printing supplies will help you improve operational efficiency, keep track of all your assets and optimize the customer experience. The right printing supplies will ensure brand consistency and maintain regulatory compliance. The right printing supplies will support the growth of your business—not hinder it.
Selection of the label material depends first on whether direct thermal or thermal transfer print technology is being used.
There are two types of thermal facestocks: paper and synthetic. Understanding these facestock types and qualities will be one step in helping you to determine the right label for your application.
Paper is an economical material for indoor use and a shorter lifecycle. It is a versatile facestock that supports labeling across a wide variety of surfaces such as corrugate, paper, packaging films, (most) plastics and metal & glass.
There are different types of paper labels, first there is uncoated paper which is workhorse for business and industrial applications providing an optimal balance between performance and price. Coated paper, which is ideal for high-speed volume printing and when enhanced print quality is required.
Color is a very useful tool to provide a visual cue for highlighting important information on a label like special handling instructions or package priority. Zebra’s IQ Color technology enables you to print color on demand using your existing Zebra thermal printer. With IQ color, the customer defines the color zones on the label and the color for that particular zone. The printed image for those zones are in the defined color.
Like paper, synthetic materials also support labeling across a wide variety of surfaces. However the advantages of a synthetic label over paper is their resistance and environmental qualities such as a longer label lifecycle, the ability to withstand an outdoor environment and resistance to abrasion, moisture and chemicals.
Synthetic labels are referred to as poly and are available in four variations of poly material. The key material differentiators are outdoor durations, temperature exposure or facestock color and treatments.
Polyolefin is flexible for curved and rough surfaces and an outdoor exposure of up to 6 months.
Polypropylene is also flexible for curved surfaces and outdoor exposure of 1 to 2 years.
Polyester is used for high temperatures up to 300°F (149°C) and outdoor exposure of up to 3 years.
Polyimide is also for high temperature exposure for up to 500°F (260°C) and is often recommended for circuit board labels.
Thermal printers are designed to operate with a variety of media configurations, including die-cut, butt cut, perforated, notched, hole-punched and continuous, receipts, tags, ticket stock or pressure-sensitive labels.
In order to identify the optimal print technology, material and ribbon (if thermal transfer printing), to ensure that the label remains readable during the products life, you should consider the following:
The type and the shape of surface being labeled needs to be considered to ensure that the label remains adhered to the surface. Have you ever noticed that a specific label does not adhere as well to a plastic bin as it does to a cardboard box? This is because these items have a different surface energy. The shape of the surface is also important to consider. For example, small curved surfaces are also difficult to label, since they require a flexible material with a mandrel adhesive to make sure the label does not pull away from the surface.
Materials and adhesives are also sensitive to very low and very high temperatures. There are two types of temperatures you need to consider, application temperature and service temperature:
Standard materials generally perform well when an application temperature is a minimum of 25°F (-4°C) and in service temperatures ranging from -65°F (-54°C) to 200°F (93°C). Labeling in conditions outside of this range requires the use of a thermal transfer solution and normally requires a specialty adhesive to insure that the label remains secured.
There are adhesives available for specific temperature ranges. The high and low temperature adhesives can maintain strong adhesion at high and low temperatures but they need to be applied to the surface at moderate temperatures. On the other hand, the all temperature adhesive is special in that the label can be applied to a surface at temperatures below freezing.
There are two kinds of high tack adhesives: high tack acrylic and high tack rubber.
High tack acrylic works well on hard-to-label surfaces and provides good resistance to chemicals and UV exposure.
High tack rubber works well on hard-to-label surfaces and provides better initial tack. In addition to permanent adhesives, there are a few types of removable adhesives: removable, multi removable, ultra-removable and security.
The key application of the removable adhesive is to provide good adhesion on the product when initially labeled while allowing a person to remove the label without damaging the label and product surface. Also being able to cleanly remove the label when the label is no longer needed.
The multi-removable adhesive is unique in that it allows the label to be applied, removed and reapplied to the surface. This enables repositioning of the label on the surface if needed.
The ultra-removable adhesive allows for clean removal from nearly all surfaces without damaging the label or the surface (including metal and glass surfaces).
Tamper proof adhesives enables you to visually see when a label is removed as an adhesive pattern remains on the surface. This type of adhesive can support warranty integrity claims when the label is removed.
Contact and rubbing will affect image and barcode readability over time. If in your application, the label will come into contact with items that could scratch it and make it unreadable, a ribbon with a higher resin content will provide improved durability.
When a label will be exposed to moderate to extreme chemicals, a thermal transfer labeling solution is required. In the case of harsh and extreme chemicals, a high-durability resin ribbon is also recommended. Below is a chart of chemical classifications:
Weak Chemicals | Moderate Chemicals | Harsh Chemicals | Extreme Chemicals |
Window Cleaners | Alcohol | Gasoline | Acetone |
Water | Bleach | Oil | Xylene |
If your product will be subjected to the elements outdoors (rain, sun, etc.), a thermal transfer synthetic material is required to survive these tough environmental factors. We offer thermal transfer labels and ribbon combinations that last up to 10 years outdoors.
By knowing how long the label will need to be readable for in addition to the environmental factors, will help you to identify the optimal solution. For example, if the label only requires readability for six months and does not need to resist chemicals, moisture, and abrasion, a direct thermal paper label would best meet your needs. However, if the label will be subjected to moderate chemicals and be on an item that will in use for 10 years or be stored outside for over three years, a thermal transfer synthetic label would be required.
This is a key consideration, as material and ribbon selection will influence the maximum print speed. Typically, synthetic labels do not produce quality text and barcodes above 6 ips, and in order to print at 12 ips or higher, a thermal transfer paper label with a high-speed wax ribbon is required.
Increasing print darkness is necessary when printing at faster speeds to get the best barcode ANSI grades and print quality. When using resin ribbons, which require additional energy, a higher print darkness is also required.
Printing at 600 DPI is necessary when printing formats with detailed graphics and / or small fonts. Not all materials are compatible to print at 600dpi resulting in low print-quality and durability.
With more than 1,000 combinations of high quality and reliable labels, tags, receipt paper, wristbands, and ribbons, Zebra has a media solution for virtually any application. Whether you’re facing shipping, electronic component manufacturing, prescription labeling, or even electronic citation applications, Zebra and our certified partners can provide an in-stock or custom-made solution for you.
Legal Terms of Use Privacy Policy Supply Chain Transparency
ZEBRA and the stylized Zebra head are trademarks of Zebra Technologies Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©2024 Zebra Technologies Corp. and/or its affiliates.