Your products need labels immediately to meet shipping deadlines! Is your desktop label printer speed really critical? And how fast is fast? Our label printer speed productivity analysis provides answers and gives recommendations on the #1 Desktop Label Printer for getting your product out the door.
What is Label Printer Speed
Desktop Label Printer Speed in its simplest form is usually measured in feet per minute or inches per second of printed label media, different than cut sheet printers that have standard speed measurements in sheets per minute. Desktop Label Printer Speed is measured by some type of sensor or encoder found on the printer, similar to the speedometer found on an automobile. This sensor records the rate at which the media moves under the printhead to create a printed image. The faster the media moves and produces a print, the higher the label printer speed.
Stationary Printheads and Print Speed
Stationary printheads that cover the width of the print produce the fastest speeds for inkjet printers. This is because the printhead avoids travel time to swipe across the width of the media. The NeuaLabel Callisto printer uses a special stationary printhead called FI-1000 that is made using HP PageWide Technology. This unique technology allows the Callisto Desktop Label Printer to print at much higher speeds than printers using traditional printheads.
Desktop Label Printer Speed: A Closer Look at Print Time
While your printer speedometer providing a feet per minute reading is quite interesting, other factors contribute to a more realistic label printer speed. These include the time for the print to start, often called Time To First Print (TTFP), and the time for the print to end. Both impact overall label printer speed.
Time To First Print can vary greatly among label printers and can be affected by many things. The primary factor affecting TTFP is a printer’s ability to begin printing before it receives the entire print job. While this may seem like a simple enough concept at first, it is actually a very complicated situation that involves a sophisticated control mechanism.
For a file to begin printing before it is completely received by a printer, the file must be “shared” by multiple Windows processes. One Windows process works to receive the file, another process feeds the file to the printer, and still another process watches to make sure the user has not paused or canceled printing on the printer or the host PC. When these processes are working in unison, printing can start within seconds after it reaches the printer. Most printers start printing a file within 30 to 60 seconds after the job is first received.
The time for a desktop label printer to end a print is usually only a few seconds. Most printers have “clean up” routines that run as soon as the print job is complete. Depending on the printer, this can take 15 to 30 seconds of print time.
To conclude, we can say that while the primary factor is the actual speed at which the media moves through the printer, the start and end print processing times factor in and should also be noted. The resulting print speed will be slightly slower when these factors are considered.
Desktop Label Printer Speed vs Label Printing Productivity
Whether your desktop label printer speed definition is limited to media movement or encompasses the entire printing process, it is not as crucial as overall label printing productivity. There are many factors that affect overall label printer speed and printing productivity. The following sections outline these time-critical factors.
Media Loading
Media loading not only includes feeding media into the printer but placing media rolls on label unwinding equipment. Be sure to obtain unwinders and rewinders that are designed to work with your particular label printer.
Loading media should be simple and straightforward. Place the media roll onto the unwinder and carefully secure it, making sure the unwinder is properly aligned with the printer. Once the unwinder is properly loaded, feed the media into the printer. Make sure to feed the media with the correct orientation. Most, but not all, label printers require the media to be loaded with the printable side up. Loading media should take no more than a couple of minutes. Because it is a critical step in the label printing process, it should be monitored as a part of label printer speed.
Job Cancellation following Errors and Mistakes
Printing errors can waste valuable time. Some amount of errors such as occasionally printing the wrong files or using the wrong media are unavoidable. When this happens the best possible course of action is a quick job cancellation. Part of overall productivity may be how quickly the system can recover from operator mistakes and how quickly the correct printing scenario can be implemented. While the primary goal will be to make zero to few errors, it is worthwhile knowing how quickly your printer will cancel a job if job cancellation is needed.
Printer Jams
There may not be a printer on planet earth that has not had some sort of printer jam, and die-cut label media is notorious for being particularly hard on any printer. Having a straight-through, easily accessible media path is the best defense for quickly clearing printer jams. Media should be easily removable, and if any label debris gets stuck inside the printer, it must also be easily accessible. In an ideal world, your printer will never jam; however, every printing system should be designed with an easily accessible media path to quickly recover if a media jam occurs.
Conclusions about Print Speed
While Desktop Label Printer Speed is usually measured in feet per minute or inches per second, there are many speed-related factors that contribute to label printing productivity. Stationary printheads, such as that found in the Callisto Desktop Label Printer, cover the width of the print and produce the fastest speeds for inkjet printers. Other elements, such as time-to-print, media loading, job cancellation, and recovering from printer jams, should also be considered when evaluating overall printer speed and workflow productivity.
Find out more about why the PageWide Callisto by NeuraLabel Printing Solutions is the #1 Desktop Label Printer. Contact us now for more information. Email sales@neuralabel.com or call 281-207-8555.