Industrial Label Printers Gold Medal Winners

In the spirit of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang, we thought it might be fun to hold our own games. Of course given what we do, our games have nothing to do with superior amateur athletes but rather superior label printers in an industrial setting.

We started by selecting 6 different categories and then worked together as identification marking experts to choose what we thought was the best printer for each category—a harder task than originally anticipated. We evaluated each printer in each category by looking at a few specifics such as which printer is the most flexible in terms of printing capability, price, ease of use and benefit to the customer. Here are the categories and gold medal winners that we came up with.

The Gold Medal Winning Industrial Label Printers

Best Industrial Portable Label Printer For Field Use

The Epson LW-PX900 wins the gold medal for this category due to its extreme flexibility. This rugged little printer feels balanced in your hand, prints fast with a high resolution and is extremely versatile in its uses. It comes with almost every variety of labeling supplies you could ask for—heat shrink sleeves for wire identification, labels for equipment identification or electrical panels, self-lams for terminated cables and magnetic tape for removable labels on metal shelves—all in a large selection of sizes and colours. Need to switch from one size and colour label to another in the field, no problem. This is done with a simple switch of a cartridge.

Other features include:

Industrial specific hot-keys streamline and simplify template selection.
Half-Cut function makes it easy to create pre-cut sleeves.
Mixed Length option creates variable length labels in a single print.
Drop-Stop and Pick-and-Print functions holds the labels until you need them.
Industrial strength removable magnets for easy access in the field – included in the full kit.
Lifetime warranty.

Learn more about the Epson LW-PX900.

Get an informative tutorial of the Epson LW-PX900 features.

Best Portable Label Printer For Warehouse Use

The Brother PT-D600 wins the gold medal in this category due to its simplicity. It is a portable label printer that just works—no fuss, no bells and whistles—it simply does what you need it to do.

With this label printer, it is very easy to print a label with a barcode, part number and a description to be used as a product identifier in your warehouse. When a carton of filters comes in, simply create your label with part number and description for each filter prior to placing on the shelf.

Other features include:

Full colour graphical display.
Automatic tape cutter for high-volume jobs.
Prints labels with up to 7 lines of text.
Prints up to 8 font sizes.
Personalize labels: use 14 fonts, 11 styles, 99 frames, over 600 symbols, plus barcodes.
Save up to 99 commonly used labels and help save time with reprinting.

Learn more about the Brother PT-D600.

Best Desktop Label Printer for Production Heat Shrink Marker Panel Builds

The Impact AWMS-245 Plus wins this category because it is the workhorse of industrial heat shrink printers. A powerful 32bit or 64bit label/marker design program comes free with this printer making wire marking and label printing simple in any industrial environment. The printer’s label supplies include a large of selection preformatted heat shrink sleeves mounted on a paper backing, available in two colours and two heat shrink ratios.

Other features include:

Up to 5” per second print speed.
203 dpi thermal transfer print resolution.
4.32” x 984’ black ribbon included.
USB 2.0, parallel and serial ports.

Learn more about the Impact AWMS-245 Plus.

Watch the Impact AWMS-245 in action.

Best Portable Label Printer for Datacom/Telecom

The Dymo XTL 500 wins this category due to its pre-loaded templates including several templates for patch panels, cable wraps, cable flags and heat shrink tubes. The Dymo ID software makes formatting your labels, heat shrink sleeves and self-laminating wire markers very easy. Easily transfer labels to and from the DYMO ID software and the PC-connected Dymo XTL 500 for jobsite editing and printing.

Other features include:

Life-like on-screen print preview.
Colour touch screen.
Built-in label applications.
A variety of pre-loaded templates including pre-set layouts for almost 100 patch panel models.
An on-screen label indicator that automatically detects and displays the loaded label.

Learn more about the Dymo XTL 500.

Watch a quick demo on the Dymo XTL 500.

Best Portable Label Printer with App Integration

The Epson LW-PX400 portable label printer wins this category because it has no keyboard and relies solely on apps when not connected to a PC. The LW-PX400 can be used with the Epson iLabel or Epson Datacom apps for easy label creation from your iOS or Android device. The information is sent wirelessly from the app to the label printer via Bluetooth. You can also print wirelessly or via USB using intuitive label-creating software that has hundreds of templates, images, barcodes and features to help create labels quickly.

This printer and Datacom app also works with Fluke Networks LinkWare Live making it a close second for Datacom/Telecom users. Enter your data drop information once and have the LW-PX400 print it for you where and when you want it.

Other features include:

Print labels from 1/8″ (4 mm) to 1″ (24 mm) wide in more than 160 colors and materials.
Split-back labels and auto-cutter allow for fast label creation and application.
Voice-to-text enabled mobile devices significantly cut label data entry time.
A smaller lead margin compared to other brands adds up to 60 percent less waste.
Lifetime warranty.

Learn more about the Epson LW-PX400 printer.

See how the Fluke Networks LinkWare Live integration works with the Datacom App.

Best Handheld Ink Jet Printer

The EBS-260 Handheld Ink Jet Printer wins this category because of its ease of use, large print and ability to print on a variety of surfaces such as concrete, wood, steel, paper and fabric. Simply attach an ink cartridge, power up the printer and enter your message on the colour touch screen. Then squeeze the trigger and roll the printer on its coding wheels. Your message is sprayed on the surface. No more need for stencils, ink rollers or spray paint!

Other features include:

Prints up to 4 lines of text.
Ink usage for one cartridge – approx. 17,000 characters at 2”, 34,000 at 1” and so on.
Li-Ion Battery operating time – approx. 16 hours (60 printouts 1m long, 550 dots/m per hour).
Operating temp range +5 C to +40 C.

Learn more about the EBS 260 Portable Ink Jet Printer.

Watch the EBS 260 Ink Jet printer in action.

Which Industrial Label Printer Gets Gold in Your Category?

Of course this is just 6 categories of many. If you want to know what is the gold medal industrial label printer for your identification needs, give our identification experts a call at 780-434-9152 or Toll Free at 1-800-268-7636.

Want to do some exploring on your own before calling – visit our online store or download our Introductory Guide To Industrial Labeling.