Currently, I live in China and have been outsourcing my printing and packaging to some local printers here. I am scaling up my business and would like to own the printing process. Since I am in China I am able to go directly to the factories that make any printer I can find on Alibaba. I have been to a few trade shows as well. I am not certain how the brands I can buy here rate to the stuff people are buying in the US. I imagine like most things they are high quality knock offs. All of them come with 1 year warranties and since I am close by, it isn't too expensive for them to send someone out if there is a problem. From my conversations with manufacturers here, I am budgeting about 50,000 USD total for printing equipment.
I need a flatbed UV printer. I am somewhat familiar with them now that I have outsourced for the last 6 months. The only thing I don't know much about are my ink options. I prefer to have less odor and less toxicity at the sake of print quality and print deterioration.
Something I figured out recently is I may need to buy a machine to print my own packaging. My customers all want unique packaging and they order small batches (under 5,000 small prints) so I am having trouble getting my package roll company to accommodate this. They would need to change the plates every 5,000 prints and its not worth it to them, even if I am paying for 2 tons of material in advance. So now I am looking at buying a 4 color Flexo printer and printing and switching plates in house. This possible solution just came up so I haven't thought it through on what I am getting myself into.
My printable surface and packaging are all the same size. I don't need to do any size adjustments. I have no experience printing myself. I am trying to get a local consultant to help get me started with the maintenance and set up, but from there I'm on my own if something comes up.
Any advice is appreciated.
I need a flatbed UV printer. I am somewhat familiar with them now that I have outsourced for the last 6 months. The only thing I don't know much about are my ink options. I prefer to have less odor and less toxicity at the sake of print quality and print deterioration.
Something I figured out recently is I may need to buy a machine to print my own packaging. My customers all want unique packaging and they order small batches (under 5,000 small prints) so I am having trouble getting my package roll company to accommodate this. They would need to change the plates every 5,000 prints and its not worth it to them, even if I am paying for 2 tons of material in advance. So now I am looking at buying a 4 color Flexo printer and printing and switching plates in house. This possible solution just came up so I haven't thought it through on what I am getting myself into.
My printable surface and packaging are all the same size. I don't need to do any size adjustments. I have no experience printing myself. I am trying to get a local consultant to help get me started with the maintenance and set up, but from there I'm on my own if something comes up.
Any advice is appreciated.