What is an Auto Cutter for Receipt Printers?

Auto-cutters, commonly attached to receipt printers, tear receipt paper from the roll automatically for you. The  Star TSP700 Receipt Printer comes standard with this feature. When the printer reaches the end of the receipt, a signal is sent to your auto cutter that trims the receipt automatically for you at the desired length. The advantage of auto-cutters is twofold. First, Auto-cutters greatly speed up the checkout process since the receipt is torn for the cashier. Second, it improves the error rate for receipts. The auto-tear perfectly tears the receipt every time, ensuring no receipts are torn in half and preventing a second copy from having to be made.
Auto-cutters are normally contrasted with tear bars as on the  Epson TM-T88III Receipt Printer. Tear bars are a set of sharp “teeth” that lay on one side of the receipt printer. When the cashier goes to retrieve the receipt, he or she will pull down on the receipt and cut or “tear” the receipt along the teeth at the designated spot. This is the cost affordable option compared to an auto-cutter but introduces the opportunities to make mistakes.
While there are advantages and disadvantages to an auto-cutter, we here at SaleTerminal.com recommend customers use auto-cutters when they are able to do so. The speed and efficiency gains are well worth it over the marginally higher costs.