ITW to launch online thermal transfer ribbon service

Over the past 12 months ITW Thermal Films, a manufacturer of thermal transfer ribbons (TTR), has been working on a long-term project to improve sales of its resin and wax resin TTR products.

In September 2008 the ‘ITW Extreme Solutions’ program was launched to study ideal media combinations that could withstand extreme and harsh environments.

At Labelexpo Europe, the company will launch a website service that allows customers to log on and specify their application requirement from a thermal transfer ribbon. The results will show the ideal ribbon(s) for the application and the label material to match. The result is driven by a database that holds test data of 100 labelstocks.

Tony Sahota, European business development manager and the creator of ‘ITW Extreme Solutions’, said: ‘For anyone to sell more TTR in today’s high end market such as electronics, automotive and healthcare you need to fully understand the solution, as many of these high end markets have conformity and regulations. There are a number of cases where either a ribbon or label will perform to certain demands, but if either is used with the wrong material the end user may not get the performance they expected.

‘We are a manufacturer of thermal transfer ribbons, not of labels, but they go hand in hand with the TTR in providing the solution. Working closely with some of the world’s largest substrate manufacturers has allowed us to gain a better understanding of the media combination and share it with the market. It also allows us to focus more on new product development and over the past six months we have been in the position to develop a number of new resin TTR for niche applications in the electronic and automotive market sectors.’

ITW will also launch a new range of resins, Extreme Series Resin, while promoting its complete product portfolio at the show.