Did you know that the ATM that prints out receipts for your transactions has no ink? I don’t mean that the particular one you use has run out of ink, I mean that generically, ATMs don’t have any ink in their printers. Instead they use a special kind of inkless printer called a thermal printer.

Thermal means having to do with heat. So a thermal printer uses heat to print on special thermal paper. Thermal paper is paper that has a kind of heat sensitive ink locked up chemically on its surface. When heat is applied, the ink is released from the chemical matrix and becomes visible on the surface of the paper.

Not only do ATM’s use thermal printers, but many other similar receipt printing machines use them too. Self-serve gas pumps, credit card machines, and cash registers all use embedded thermal printers to create transaction receipts. For these high use devices, thermal printers are a better option than ink based or impact printers. In the first place, thermal printers can be made smaller so they fit into small Point of Sale (POS) machines easily. Second they have fewer moving parts. Fewer moving parts means they are cheaper and easier to build than traditional printers. It also means that there are fewer parts to wear out or break, resulting in a much more reliable device.

Another advantage is that the printers in these devices never run out of ink, so there is no need to replace ink cartridges. The paper is stored inside the printer in the form of a continuous roll. These thermal paper rolls are designed so that each printer can cut off the receipt at exactly the right length required for each receipt. That way there is much less wasted paper and the roll lasts longer before the machine needs to be refilled. Thermal paper rolls are usually just a few inches wide, but may run 100 yards long on a single roll. Exact sizes depend up the capacity of the machine.

The many different size options make it very important to know the requirements of your thermal printer when ordering thermal paper rolls. Many thermal paper vendors make it a little easier by listing compatible brands and model numbers for each type of thermal paper roll they carry.

By now you’ve learned enough to know that I was actually lying when I said at the beginning of this article that your ATM has no ink. It, in fact, does have ink. It’s just already spread over the paper’s surface and locked up in a chemical matrix, but it’s there.

Thermal Paper Printer Ribbons Okidata Ribbons POS Paper Rolls Thermal Paper Rolls

The first paper like material was used in Egypt as early as 2600 B.C. This substance was made from a reedy plant called papyrus that grows abundantly along the Nile River in Egypt. The people in Egypt adapted this plant for use in many items including mattresses, mats, rope, sandals, and paper because of its massive quantity in their country. This plant is still used among swampy communities where it grows for fuel, housing material and clothing.

Papyrus is made from the stem of the Cyperus papyrus plant. First, the outer rind is stripped off and the inner pith is exposed. This pith is cut lengthwise into strips. The strips were possibly soaked in water to help adhesion with one another. The strips were placed on a hard surface, horizontally and slightly overlapped. The overlapping would ensure that the strips stuck to one another. Then, another set of strips would be placed at a right angle (vertically) and also slightly overlapping. When the sheets were finished, the two layers would be hammered together. This would help form the layers into one single sheet. The sheet was then dried under pressure between two hard surfaces. After the sheet was completely dry, it would be polished with a round object such as a stone or a rounded piece of wood. This would relieve the rough spots enough that writing could be done. However, the writing surface was still hard to predict and didn’t absorb the writing media well.

The papyrus plant was abundant and easy to produce into paper. However, it was quite fragile. The papyrus was susceptible to moisture and excessive dryness and would crack and tear easily. In the dry climate of Egypt, papyrus was quite stable because it is made of cellulose that is highly rot resistant. However, storage in humid conditions can result in mold and decomposition. These, among others, are the reasons that papyrus writings have been discovered in Egypt, but are not found in other European countries where it might have been used. The earliest purchase of papyri by European visitors to Egypt is thought to be 1778. However, a papyrus writing would not have survived more than 200 years in European conditions. The climate in these countries was not conducive to the survival of this papyrus.

Shortly after its first use, papyrus was made into rolls (or scrolls) for recording and journaling events. These scrolls were hard to manage and cracked upon rolling, so they were quickly transformed into a codex. A codex is the ancestor to the modern book. Sheets of papyrus were bound together to make the document more readily accessible than the previous roll. Portions of the gospels in the Bible have been found on papyrus codices.

Important papyrus finds are still being made in Egypt today. These include the journals of Julius Caesar’s father-in-law, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, who was an important statesman in ancient Rome. His papyrus works survived the explosion of Mount Vesuvius, but have only been partially excavated.

Plotter Paper HP Plotter Paper HP Design Jet Paper Wide Format Paper OCE Paper