What Every Manufacturing Engineer Should Know About Printer Enclosures

Intermec is the worlds leading manufacturer of thermal label printers, they have been providing printing solutions to the retail sector for over 2 decades, the reason for this, is the robust build quality of the printers.

The reason for their success, is the almost indestructible nature of the label, this is down to the thermal transfer of the ink during the printing process. The print head melts a waxy or resin substance on a ribbon that runs over the label, the heat transfers the ink from the ribbon to the paper. These are ideal for extreme applications, for example in cold stores in food process plants.

However, in the past 12 months, the Printer Enclosure market has grown by 100%, with clients demanding better protection of their peripherals on the shop floor or in harsh areas.

Due to the huge name Intermec has in the printing arena, buyers think they can put the printers in areas such as abattoirs and food processing areas, which are washed down at the end of every shift with high pressure jets. However most of us know that water and electrical printers do not mix- hence the increase in the demand for protective printer cabinets!

The problem buyers of the printers have, is that any one who can weld can produce a steel box, however it is the Special components inside that separate the amateurs from the professional enclosure manufacturers.

Now imagine, if one of your clients had protective cases for the printers that collected valuable production data, until a forklift truck ran into a station and 1 production line went down for 4 hours at a cost of $15,768 per hour! The reason being the enclosures were made from plastic sheet, NOT steel! Who in their right mind would manufacture a protective enclosure for plastic? Once they saw the range of steel units available, they replaced all 32 units with superior steel printer enclosures.

The benefits of steel enclosures over plastic is that steel dents when hit hard (such as a fork truck), however a plastic case disintegrates and has possible contamination issues with the products the client manufacturers.

About The Author Computer Security & Solutions are a Global designer of protective enclosures for standard I.T. equipment including PC enclosure, TFT displays, LCD TVs and Industrial printer enclosures.