Compact thermal transfer printer

The Datamax M-Class Mark II is a compact, rugged industrial-strength printer series that has been designed to provide ease of use and a lower total cost of ownership.

The versatile M-Class Mark II series is claimed to be up to 24% faster and 30% smaller than competing printers and offers the power and performance required in a broad range of industrial environments.

The M-Class series is designed with a smaller footprint, making it suitable for users who need the power of an industrial printer, but need to consider space limitations within their production environment. The printer features solid die-cast metal construction, large graphical display and modular design.

The M-Class Mark II series offers: reduced total cost of ownership due to its easy-to-maintain components; a broad range of connectivity to meet diverse application requirements; and ability to easily integrate the printers into any network. It has been designed for any level of user with modern, easy-to-navigate LCD graphics display for menu viewing and printer function control. UHF and HF RFID configurations for current or future requirements protect the printer investment.

IntellSEAQ technology helps optimise print quality, increase uptime and extend the life of the printhead. In addition, the DMXNet Manager offers the ability to status, configure and support the M-Class printers remotely across a network.

The M-Class series can print labels from 15-25 cm/s with 203 dpi resolution and can print labels from 19 up to 118 mm wide.

Printer options include: thermal transfer using ribbon to produce imaging clarity; a media cutter — this rotary-type mechanism automatically cuts material with a maximum thickness of 0.25 mm into minimum lengths of 31.8 mm; peel and present mechanism — an output control device that automatically separates printed labels from the backing material and allows subsequent printing to occur only after the removal of a previously printed label; internal rewind — an internal mechanism to wind rolls of printed labels, or the label backing material; present sensor — an output control device that allows subsequent printing to occur only after the removal of a previously printed label; and flash memory expansion — an optional main PCB assembly is available with 4 MB (M-4206), 8 MB (M-4306) and 64 M (M-4210) flash memory expansion for international language printing capability (ILPC) and/or additional fonts and graphics.

External ethernet connectivity is achieved via the DMX100 external print server which is an external network interface controller (NIC).

The RFID option demonstrates the flexibility and protection against obsolescence provided by the modular design of Datamax M-Class printers. Built from the ground up, the RFID antenna is located inside the paper path to give a more precise read.

MCL is a software tool suite designed for data collection applications. Once enabled, the printer can accept input data from peripheral devices such as bar code scanners, weigh scales and keyboards without the need of a host computer, requesting and sending data to locally resident lookup files or remote databases, enhancing communication capabilities within the system while reducing hardware investment.