Pricing Guns & Label Guns

There is an increasingly wide variety of pricing guns on the market today. Pricing guns come in one, two and three line models, are made from plastic, metal and steel and boast features and options to meet the pricing gun and pricing label needs of almost any retailer or manufacturer. Pricing gun or pricing labelers are designed primarily to apply labels to products but can also be used for inventory and date coding as well as to assist in marketing, customization and color-coding. Yet, with all of the options and features available in pricing guns, the mechanics of pricing guns remains much the same. Pricing guns are constructed of a series of parts, all of which contribute to the functionality and efficiency of the price marking process.

The print head of a pricing gun is made up of bands. The bands are made from rubber and contain the outline of characters, numbers and text. When the print head presses against the inker, or ink roller, the band leaves an impression of the selected character on the label.

Each pricing gun has a select number of bands, each with its own configuration of available characters. The number of bands a pricing gun can hold determines the variety of characters the pricing gun can print.

Ink rollers are made from a synthetic material whose construction almost resembles a paint roller—a sponge wrapped around plastic. Ink rollers are soaked in ink and then sealed so as to retain the moisture. Ink rollers can last for a few years and are relatively inexpensive. However, ink rollers are specific to their pricing gun manufacturers and should not be used on pricing guns from other manufacturers or on pricing gun models for which they were not designed.

Pricing gun labels are adhesives on which the pricing gun characters are printed. Pricing gun labels come in different sizes and colors and many are customizable. Pricing gun label adhesives are also available in grades of adhesive such as freezer-grade, for extreme cold, and high-humidity for outdoor products. Additionally, pricing gun labels may have security slits or tabs. Pricing gun labels can carry one, two or three lines of text depending upon the pricing guns used. Like ink rollers, many pricing gun labels are specific to their manufacturer and pricing gun model. However, there is greater flexibility in pricing gun labels than in ink rollers and, in some cases, it is possible to use one manufacturer’s pricing gun label in another manufacturer’s pricing gun. Moreover, many pricing gun manufacturers use the same labels for a number of their pricing gun models.

Pricing guns are equipped with many new features and options but the most elemental parts of a pricing gun are the print head bands, which determine the characters, the ink rollers which apply the ink and the pricing gun labels, which displays the information.