Using Thermal Ink to Print on a Silver Lacquer CD-R

[taxman150]

Could there be any potential long term storage issues with using thermal ink to print on an unbranded Taiyo Yuden Silver Lacquer cd-r as opposed to using their cd-r's especially made to be printed with thermal ink?

I've been told that unbranded discs are somewhat fragile and I'm wondering if I should worry that over time, the ink might eat through the top silver lacquer protective layer.

I am not actually printing the discs myself, someone else is doing it for me and he says that his thermal ink printer seems to work better with the silver lacquer discs instead of the thermal ink discs. This sounded strange to me so I thought I would ask the experts.

Thanks in advance for any assistance!

[cfitz]

I just happened to come across this while looking up something else:

http://www.microboards.com/current/reso ... beling.htm

According to these people, the thermal inks work just fine on normal lacquer topped CD blanks, and you don't need the special printable blanks.

Just a link, not my personal experience (which, in terms of direct printing to CDs, is zero)...

cfitz

[taxman150]

I just happened to come across this while looking up something else:

http://www.microboards.com/current/reso ... beling.htm

According to these people, the thermal inks work just fine on normal lacquer topped CD blanks, and you don't need the special printable blanks.

Just a link, not my personal experience (which, in terms of direct printing to CDs, is zero)...

cfitz

Thanks so much for passing along this link cfitz. As it turns out, my friend checked into it a little more and found that the manufacturer of his thermal ink printer actually recommends the use of Taiyo Yuden thermal discs, so he is going to go ahead and use these for the discs he is making for me. I think he prefers using the regular unbranded lacquer discs as he says the results are the same and they cost a bit less than the thermal discs. My only concern was whether the thermal discs offered greater protection against the ink going through the top lacquer layer and affecting the reflective layer. It doesn't sound like this is an issue after all though.

Regards,

[cfitz]

No problem. I had remembered that you asked about this. At the time I first read your post I had no knowledge of CD printing (I still don't), but when I stumbled onto this link today I thought you might like to read it.

cfitz

[jase]

Don't worry about it.

Many discs' protective coating is applied thermally, so a slight high temperature for a short period of time is not going to hurt the discs.

Many manufacturers use a powder-like plastic resin which is sprayed onto the media then melted onto the top, to create the coating. This would cause far more damage than a thermal printer!