VPF GmbH & Co. KG has added chemical-free thermal paper to its product range. The trend towards more sustainable self-adhesive materials continues and is now also extending to direct thermal printing. VPF now uses a bluish thermal paper on which the printout does not result from a chemical reaction but from a physical process. The new type of paper is chemical-free and suitable as an adhesive material for direct food contact.
Consumers are familiar with bluish thermal paper from retailers, where it has been in use for some time. In supermarkets, for example, the blue eco-receipts are increasingly replacing the previous white receipts. This is not a marketing strategy, but rather an effort to use more sustainable paper across the boards. In the course of this, the self-adhesive material specialists at VPF have also expanded their product range and added the new product 1470579 thermal paper blue clean 70g/sqm to their portfolio.
The material can be used on common direct thermal printers and, in comparison to previous thermal papers, is free of chemical developers. It has a four-layer structure and consists of plain paper, a black pigment layer, an opaque functional layer that creates the blue colouring of the paper, and a protective layer against mechanical damage. The printed image is created physically: the opaque layer becomes transparent when exposed to heat and makes the underlying black layer visible.
The thermal paper blue clean is approved for direct food contact and is renowned for its excellent printability, resistance, legibility and durability. The print image is long-lasting for at least 35 years without fading.
