Must-Have Thermal Printers for Horticulture and Cannabis Labeling

Changes in cannabis legality throughout the market have opened a world of opportunities for thermal label printing and barcode solutions. For manufacturers and distributors of cannabis products, it is crucial for a large amount of information to be recorded on the labels they print as it is a highly regulated industry. Additionally, the media needs to withstand exposure to the weather and elements, as cannabis-growing environments are unique. We pride ourselves on offering high-quality solutions for this niche industry. Our most recommended thermal printing solution for horticulture is our TTP-247. Our heavy-duty desktop TTP-247 was specially modified to handle horticulture lite stakes up to 12 mils and quickly became a popular choice for growers.

Read on to learn which thermal printing solutions help to solve labeling challenges in the cannabis and horticulture industry.

TTP-247 Thermal Transfer Desktop Printer

The 4-inch performance TTP-247 is ideal for the cannabis industry because of its unique design. The design is upgraded from its predecessor which was ground-breaking at its original launch. In addition, to being reliably rugged and durable, its dual motors make it a powerhouse for production. By using two motors – one to power the platen roller and one to power the ribbon spindle – the motors are allowed to use less torque and run cooler than single-motor competitors. Coupled with a high-quality printhead, the TTP-247 can print for longer periods of time without shutting down due to overheating. Printing up to 5,000 labels a day, a typical quantity in the cannabis industry can easily be accomplished.

For most desktop printers internal label roll capacity is no larger than a 5-inch- OD roll on a 1-inch- core with a 100-meter media roll which causes slower production due to frequent media changing. The TTP-247 houses a 300-meter ribbon and offers an external unwinder that allows customers to use a full 8-inch OD roll on a 3-inch core – the same size of label roll as a typical industrial printer. This is doubly beneficial as these features aren’t usually found in a 4-inch desktop printer, making the TTP-247 an amazing buy for its price point. Additionally, most plant stakes or wraps require a 3-inch core which is the most common use for a thermal printer in the cannabis industry.

As mentioned, a popular application for thermal printers in the horticulture industry is printing plant stakes and plant wraps. Plant stakes are a rigid vinyl material, and wraps are a pliable material designed to be printed on and then wrapped around the trunk of a plant. Growers use these stakes and wraps to identify the plants while growing as well as to price the potted plants that are shipped to stores for sale. Most of the printers used to print these materials are very expensive customized metal industrial printers and allow for a large range of materials to pass through the printers. We were able to develop a specific printhead and firmware that was designed to print on thicker plant stake materials. The TTP-247’s high-quality industrial-class printhead can produce enough heat to properly transfer the ink from the ribbon to the vinyl materials used in horticulture.

The 4-Inch desktop TTP-247 has the high-quality performance of a much larger industrial printer at the cost-effective price of a smaller desktop printer making it an ideal solution for smaller growers and enterprises in the cannabis industry. As the cannabis industry continues to expand, count on your barcode label printing experts to provide top of line thermal printing solutions.

Enterprise-Grade RFID Family of Printers

We have a family of RFID printers, offering several impressive options with different sizes and functionality for cannabis and horticulture industry applications.

The T800 4-inch enterprise desktop RFID printer is a small-sized, affordable desktop printer packed with features and available with printer management tools. It works well for low-volume production print jobs of up to 1,000 labels per day at fast printing speeds of up to 8 inches per second. 

Positioned between our T800 desktop printer and T6000e enterprise-level industrial barcode printer model is the T4000 compact industrial printer. A reliable and high-performance workhorse, it prints up to 5,000 4x6-inch labels daily at a speed of 10 inches per second.  The T4000 can also work with many different tag constructions, such as traditional labels, smaller plant stakes, and on-metals tags used to track metal objects like trolleys.

The T6000e enterprise industrial RFID printer is a powerhouse that can encode and print on standard RFID paper labels most commonly used in carton or pallet supply chain applications. This printer also has optional ODV-2D barcode inspection for consistently accurate and readable barcode labels.

The T6000e can also work with complex tag constructions like the T4000 but supports an even broader variety of tag types, including plant stakes/wrap-tags up to 6.8 inches long.

For your horticulture and cannabis product labeling needs, our Genuine Supplies experts offer custom horticulture tags for customers including cannabis growers, commercial greenhouses, nurseries, and retail markets.

Explore all our cannabis and horticulture printing solutions online, or contact your local TSC Printronix Auto ID sales representative to learn more.