News

New thermal printer has Bluetooth, IrDA and serial interfaces

September 27, 2004

CHESHIRE, England - Able Systems has announced three development and production kits for its recently introduced AP1300 thermal portable printer. The AP1300 range offers options of RS 232, IrDA and Bluetooth interfaces. Respectively available as the AP1300-KIT1 (Serial RS232 only), AP1300-IR-KIT1 (Serial 232 and IrDA) or Ap1300-BT-KIT1 (Serial RS232 and Bluetooth), each kit contains a printer fitted with rechargeable batteries, a universal trickle charger, two paper rolls, a data cable, a wall mounting bracket or belt clip, a primary cell adapter for AA cells and full documentation. The kits can be used in the development environment or in low-volume OEM applications.

The new printer is small enough to be held in the hand and has a strong case design that eliminates hinge stress while allowing for one-handed drop-in insertion of a paper roll. Dimensions are 47 x 92 x 108 mm and weight is just 330 g, including a full paper roll and battery. The printer uses a Fujitsu FTP-628MCL103 printhead that prints 384 dots per line at up to 60 mm/s. A complete set of Windows drivers are available from Able Systems. Typical applications for the AP1300 include mobile ticketing and recording, PDA printing, utility billing, in-vehicle receipting, test and measurement equipment and medical systems.

This newest release follows Able Systems announcement of its kiosk printer, the KC-1800. The printer features a presenter system that allows the item being printed to be completely printed before delivery to the user. This feature dramatically reduces call outs for paper jams, as well as providing more security during the transaction. In addition, if the user does not take the printed item, it can be retracted back into the printer for later disposal. The printer is fully modular with printer engine, control board and paper holder all slotting simply but rigidly together in a variety of seven configurations to suit the application. The paper holder allows for 80 mm wide six or eight-inch paper rolls. A non-presenter version of the new printer is also available for space limited applications, and is fitted with the standard automatic cutter.