How many times have you wondered how good it would look like your car with a fancy sticker on your bumper?

We’re sure more than once in a lifetime!

According to one report, the ZX-40 is one of the most popular bumper sticker printers in Q2 2019. It offers all the essential features that you would expect from a flagship-quality ribbon printer. 

If you’re looking for the best ribbon printer or searching for a ZX-40 review, this blog post is for you. Let’s discover why this printer is the best bumper stickers machine in the market right now.

Why Is The ZX-40 Ultra Ribbon The Best Bumper Stickers Printer?

The ZX-40 is one of the few bumper sticker printers that offers flagship and industrial-grade quality printing. There are many reasons why you should go with the ZX-40. 

• Unlike other ribbon printers, which are only capable of printing 1200-150 dpi characters, the ZX-40’s printing machine is capable of providing a 200-300 dpi printing mechanism.
• To use the ZX-40, you don’t need to install any other external printing software. MS Word, Photoshop, and In-Page can read the prints easily. 
• The machine supports 8 MB of RAM and 4 MB of ROM, ideal for commercial-based printing.
• The ZX-40 can distinguish between 5 million colors, while other ribbon printers with the same price tag can only support up to 1 million colors.

We have only scratched the surface of this printer. We will unveil way more features soon.

So stay with us and keep reading!

What Kind Of Printer Do I Need To Make Bumper Stickers?

To create bumper stickers, you need a specific type of printer, “Ribbon printers.” You can’t use your standard inkjet printer for that.

Ribbon printers are specifically made for ribbon printing, car bumpers, and custom vinyl sheets for walls, laptops, tables, etc.

Unlike regular paper printers, ribbon printers use electrocharged jell ink, which easily sticks to a glossy PVC surface like ribbons and car bumpers’ vinyl sheets. Moreover, ribbon printers usually have a faster printing speed than regular inkjet printers, making them perfect for commercial purposes.

Precisely, a traditional printer can print about 20 characters per minute, while ribbon printers such as the ZX-40 are capable of printing 40–60 characters per minute. 

Lastly, ribbon printers are relatively more inexpensive than regular inkjet or laser printers.

Review Of The ZX-40 Ultra Ribbon Printing Machine

Now, let’s talk about the best bumper stickers machine, the ZX-40 Ultra Ribbon Printer. Below, we’ve written an ultimate review about it.

Let’s dive in!

Design

The design of the ZX-40 is pretty decent. It seems like designers have focused more on simplicity and an easy-to-understand look. There’s nothing we can talk about in its design. The machine comes in two generic colors: black and white. However, currently, the company is only producing white color variants. 

Speaking of its layout, it’s simple. On the top, you’ll notice the lid, from which you can access the printing mechanism. You can get to the operating buttons and notification lights on the left side, such as power, connecting, and working light. From the backside, you can get to the ink slot for refills.

Printing Mechanism

The printing mechanism uses old-school thermal transferring technology to print the characters on the ribbon. No, it’s not what inkjet printers use. In thermal transferring technology, a thin PVC sheet on which the character (made up of ribbon ink) is heated onto the ribbon, and the sheet is then pressed onto the ribbon in the presence of heat. As a result, the character is transferred from that PVC sheet to the ribbon due to the heat.

This process is called thermal printing and is widely popular in the commercial printing industry.

Ink Refill

The ZX-40 uses carbon pigment ink, the most common type of thermal printer, e.g., bumper sticker printers. The carbon pigment ink is heat sensitive and is best for printing expiry dates on consumer products. Unlike regular inkjet inks, carbon pigment ink is highly durable, water-resistant, and scratch-resistant to 3rd grade ISO standard scratches. Moreover, carbon pigment ink is highly affordable. For example, an inlet printer ink refill would cost approximately 20–40 dollars, whereas ZX-40 carbon pigment ink would cost around 3–10 dollars. The above factors make the ZX-40 highly convenient, less inexpensive, and best for standard commercial printing.

Printing Speed

Now here comes the most important thing, which is the printing speed of the bumper sticker printer. For personal usage, printing speed doesn’t matter, but for commercial purposes, it does.

The ZX-40 comes with a printing speed of 40–60 characters per minute, which is faster than any other personal printer on the market. 

It’s because ZX-40 uses thermal-based printing, which makes it faster than non-impact technologies such as printers and laser technology. Furthermore, the ZX-40 bumper sticker printer doesn’t sacrifice quality for speed even though it is faster. The thermal printing technology of the ZX-40 will remain the same or even better than the regular printers, even if you use it at full speed. 

Printing Quality

The ZX-40 bumper sticker printer provides a printing quality of 200–300 dpi, which is the top-notch and most detailed quality you can see in any other commercial printing machine. For instance, a commercial plotter can print 100–180 dpi, and a laser printer can print 130–200 dpi. 

Scientifically and physically, thermal printing technology has no limit to dpi. But due to physics, you can only have a maximum of 300 dots per inch on a printer. Hence, ZX-40 is capable of reaching 300 dpi. 

Can Cricut Make Bumper Stickers?

Circuit makers create custom designs from various materials such as vinyl, PVC, paper, and chipboard. So technically, you can develop bumper stickers through circuit makers. However, please note that circuit makers will provide relatively lower quality than ribbon printers since this isn’t their primary function. You can use them for DIY circuit designing and embossing, but we don’t recommend printing bumper stickers. It’s better to invest in a specific printer for bumper stickers.

Is Inkjet Or Laser Better For Stickers?

No way! On paper or cardboard, inkjet and laser printers can only print characters. You can’t use them to print stickers on PVC. If you do it, the print will not stick on the sticker label.

The inkjet uses ink that doesn't stick to the PVC surface, and the laserjet uses a laser that will burn the PVC sheet.

Inkjets use the same link as fountain pens do, and that ink never sticks to PVC or glossy surfaces, e.g., bumper stickers. A laser printer uses laser-sensitive ink, which could burn the PVC sheet due to the heat emitted from the laser.

Can You Print Stickers On An HP Printer?

HP only offers laser or inkjet printers. We already mentioned above that you couldn’t use inkjet or laser printers to create bumper stickers. So far as we know, HP doesn’t offer any bumper sticker printers right now. They only provide inkjet or laser printers.

Is It Illegal To Have Bumper Stickers?

Generally speaking, no, but it depends on the situation and country. We are 100% sure that having bumper stickers on your car isn’t illegal in any way unless it offends any religion, promotes racism, promotes illicit content, or does anything similar. Your car is your property; it’s your decision how to keep it. But if you use bumper stickers to promote or reflect any of the illegal contents above, they will be prohibited. 

Conclusion

Today, bumper stickers are one of the most grossing and trending car decoration businesses. These stickers look cool, trendy and let you showcase any text, message, or character you want decoratively. That’s why in this article, we’re reviewing the ZX-40, the most popular bumper sticker printer for your bumper sticker printing business.

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