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Practical Motorsport Wiring - Professional Level

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Looking for recommendations for a quality heat shrink printer. I currently have a Dymo Rhino 4200 and its great except for the fact it can printer wider then 3/4" 19mm tape.

I keep finding myself wanting to print labels to fit over 1" diameter bundles. I know the 5200 can do 1" but I've already tried that a few times and I need like 1.5" diameter tape. Would also be great to be great to print off a computer via a vector file or something similar. I know the 5200 does this too but I don't know how limited it is, and its limited to 1" tape anyway.

Googling for a bit theres a lot of options. Many many types of thermal transfer labels but I don't know which ones do heat shrink, although that seams to depend more on the cartridge or real it uses.

Dymo XTL 500 seems to be a great option, about $700 buuuut the cartridges only come in white and everything I'm doing is yellow. Doesnt need specific software to use.

Hellerman Tyton TT230SM $2200 ish, not sure about software. Cartridge options are plentiful, prints up to 4" I think. 300 dpi is also a bonus.

Kroy K4350 also about $600, printer reels are pretty affordable. Can print up to 1.5" wide (maybe more) but I haven't found a supplier for anything wider then 3/4" yet. No idea what software looks like for it but since it uses a serial cable I cant imagine its cutting edge lol.

Then theres like TE T200 IDENT that uses Raychem TMS but that seems to be the most expensive option for the printer, consumables and software, $2k plus.

So is there an option that prints wider then 1" for under $1000? Not afraid of spending money here but given how cheap the consumables are for the 4200 I'm not likely to use a fancier printer for more then a few labels on each harness. Seems like every harness is under a time crunch, sending out for a few prints hasn't proven to be time or cost effective, and I haven't found a place local to me that has a printer on this level.

Pretty sure the Kroy was discontinued a year or more back as well as the kroy tube. I know Racespec now has an alternative tube up to 1" for it but I dont think the printers are actually available new anymore. And man they can be painful things anyway...

I have a brother E550W - only does up to 1" but does decent quality images etc and can be run from PC or phone app via wifi. You can save common labels in the app etc so you are not constantly typing in stuff you do often. Im only a hobbyist though really. The small cartridges would be an issue if you are doing a lot. I just use cheap Chinese cartridges.

Good to know about Kroy, thanks.

I looked into the Brother product line, they do have a few label printers that would be ideal and can go up to 1.5" width but as far as I've found so far they dont do heat shrink beyond 1".

So back to the drawing board lol, though printing from PC would be cool Id just get the next step up Dymo Rhino as it also can and works with the stock of cartridges I have.

I also use the cheap aliexpress special cartridges and I have no complaints. They get covered in raychem clear anyway.

Was in the same boat as you and even found a used Kroy 4350 that turned out to have a burned head. Settled for using a Chinese 300 DPI thermal transfer printer that was intended for shipping labels. Runs flattened tube just fine. Only use it for the main trunk logo / serial numbers. Anything small like sensor ident, I just stuck with using the trusty ole Dymo.

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