New Printers Tap Into Niche Segments

CRN printer

MIP480 Mobile Printer The MIP480 mobile printer is designed for use in trucks, and industries now using it include beverage distribution, fuel delivery and construction trades. This relatively lightweight printer (13 pounds, 9 ounces on our scale) can be vertically mounted in the cab of a truck. It is designed with the convenience of the harried driver in mind: simple paper loading that does not require opening covers and a backlit control panel. The long-life ribbon the printer uses can go without being changed, on average, for three to four months.

It's a small printer, but it's built tough and can withstand temperatures ranging from minus 4 degrees F to 140 degrees F. The print quality? Surprisingly good. The 24-wire print head produces a clear and crisp image. Print speed time is peppy, especially for a dot-matrix printer. Printer speeds can go up to 480 cpi depending on settings.

Connection options are as follows: RS-232, USB 2.0, Bluetooth and 802.11 b/g. The device is powered by the vehicle but there is also a power converter to run it from a 100v wall outlet.

Vertical mount kits are available to situate the device in the cab with the driver. What's great is that TallyGenicom will custom-design hardware for customers. The device lists at a starting price of $2,290, with the reseller price starting at $1,374.

700x Thermal Printer Series Thermal printers are a standard in industries like casinos (vouchers in slot machines, for example), gas stations, hospitals and in industries whose day-to-day operations require bar codes (which are many).

The 700x series are TallyGenicom's latest thermal printers. Reviewers took a look at the 7006 model, which is an industrial midrange desktop thermal printer. Print speeds are up to 6 inches per second. It can handle 8-inch large rolls in addition to the standard size. This model does not have an LCD, but the 7008 model does.

Connectivity options are parallel centronics, serial, USB and Ethernet.

An interesting feature is its indexing capability. The 7006 houses sensors that can detect gaps between labels, die-cuts, black-marks, notches and holes. This aids in fool-proof printing, a must in particularly print-volume-heavy environments.

The 7006 comes in two models; the 2-inch for narrower labels and the 4-inch for wider ones. The 700x series supports both direct-thermal and thermal-transfer methods of printing. Direct thermal printing does not require a ribbon, and ink is burned right to the paper. It is the preferred thermal-printing method of industries in which printing images do not have to last for a long period of time. For businesses that require printout images to last, the preferred method is thermal transfer. In thermal-transfer printing, the ink and wax are transferred to the paper. Thermal transfer requires the use of a ribbon.

The 7006 2-inch model takes up a small amount of real estate. Weighing in at 5 pounds, its dimensions are 7.1 x 5 x 10.04 inches. The 4-inch model is only slightly heavier (6 pounds) and wider (6.9 inches).

The 7006 2-inch starts at $875 and the 4-inch at $925.