POS Printer

The POS printer prints the sales receipt.  In a restaurant, it may also be used to print the kitchen order chit.  There are also barcode printers.

POS printers use various technologies.  Thermal and Impact printers are common ones.

For there are 2 types of thermal receipt printers, direct and transfer.

Transfer printers use a ribbon containing wax, wax resin or pure resin to do the transfer.

Direct printers use heat to burn the images against a special paper (thermal paper).

Direct printers are economical, since there are no ink cartridges involved, and lower maintenance, since only the thermal paper has to be replaced when it runs out

Thermal paper will discolour from heat exposure.  This is where Impact printers come in.

Impact printers use ink ribbons to transfer to the paper. Though not as fast or quiet as thermal receipt printers, they create receipts/documents that are not affected by heat (e.g. in a hot restaurant kitchen) and they can produce multi-ply receipts, which a thermal printer can’t.