Thermal paper Market

Thermal paper, can be referred as Audit roll, is a special fine paper that is coated with a material formulated to change color when exposed to heat. It is usually used in thermal printers specifically for devices such as cash registers, credit card terminals, and adding machines. These papers are made through the application of specially made heat-sensitive materials.

Types of Thermal paper:

• Conventional Thermal Paper: This has three layers, namely, the substrate, base coating and active coating.
• Top-coated Thermal Paper Roll: It has the top coating in addition to three coatings of the conventional thermal paper.
• Synthetic-Base Thermal: It has anti-static coat including the 4 coating of top-coated thermal paper.

Applications:Images printed on thermal paper are high definition, reliable and the whole process is very fast. Due to these advantages, the technology has a wide variety of applications, these include-

• Its most common application is in the fax machines to produce fax documents and printouts.
• High quality pictures, images and technical printouts derived from thermal printing in specific fields like healthcare are highly accurate; these include data printed from ultrasounds, prescription labels, electrocardiograms, etc.
• Point of Sale Terminals and Applications in Retail businesses for printing receipts, bills, etc. generally use Thermal Paper. These include grocery stores, bank ATM’s, gas stations, etc. where speed is essential and an accurate service is also required.
• Dispatch labels for shipments, along with their contents, barcodes, and any other relevant data are printed on Thermal Paper as they can be scanned effectively.
• Bank account statements, medical documents that have to be stored for a long time, medicine bottle prescriptions, etc.
• Thermal Paper is used to print amusement centre tickets or tags, cinema or movie tickets, play tickets, etc.

Benefits: 

1. Thermal paper printers are much faster than other types of printers, resulting in less waiting at the checkout line.
2. The images created on thermal paper are clearer and of higher quality than other types of printing, making them integral.
3. Thermal paper printers are reliable and durable. Because there are fewer moving parts in an inkless thermal paper printer, they are unlikely to jam and don’t break down as easily as other types of printers.  This saves money through lower maintenance costs.
4. Thermal printers produce more lasting output than other types of printers that use ink, which can smudge and fade over time.  High quality thermal paper printouts can last years – even decades.

Global market: The global Thermal Paper market is valued at 2690 million US$ in 2017 and will reach 3090 million US$ by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of 4.66% during 2016-2023. Currently the global major manufacturers are: Oji, Koehler, Appvion, their production market share is over 50%.