The Physics - Time + Temp = Every Color Imaginable
Previously direct thermal printing in a single printing pass has been possible only in low quality, black and white applications. Now, with ZINK™ Technology, it is possible to do full-color single-pass direct thermal printing. This is possible, not only by the invention of special dye crystals, but also by another of the fundamental mechanisms of ZINK - the physics of controlling time and temperature. Our scientists discovered a method of individually addressing each color forming layer within the ZINK Paper™ structure to create the colors required for every image.
Imagine a Baked Alaska (ice cream with a toasted meringue shell around it). The challenge of making a Baked Alaska is warming and toasting the meringue shell (one layer) without melting the ice cream inside (another layer). The meringue is cooked at a very high temperature for a very short period of time so that the heat only browns the meringue but doesn't have time to melt the ice cream.
This is effectively how a ZINK-enabled device brings the color out of the ZINK Paper. The various colors in a print are created by controlling the temperature and time of the heat pulses delivered from the print head in the device to the ZINK Paper. This pulse pattern determines which crystals in which layers are melted and thereby which colors are formed
As the ZINK Paper™ passes beneath the print head, hundreds of millions of heat pulses are delivered by a linear array of heating elements, in a line-by-line fashion, to produce the desired colors at each printed pixel.
So, what does all this mean? Simply stated, ZINK has broken the code on delivering great full-color single pass printing in a magically simple experience.
