Can any pigment based ink printer print on Vinyl?

[Humble PM]

Just re-read OP, this is an SC400 pro-sumer photoprinter. Profile it right, then cross render to a regular production machine, and sure, it'd do the job for proofing (suitable CM SW required to do the job).

Print it on Epson Premium Photo Gloss, using all the available colours in the design, and the gamut will likely be outside what the service provider can do.

 

[damonCA21]

That said, aqueous is the wrong technolgy for this purpose.
I'm in a wierd edge scenario - 90% of my clients are galleries, artists and photographers. The exterior pieces I make are usually short term, and as an addition to/for the art clients. But some of the work goes up, and five years later is still up, even though we talked with the client that it was a solution to the 3-6month duration of the activity.

I suspect that an 80600 is in my future, but from all I've seen and heard, it'll not make the cut for maybe 80% of what we currently do (gallery, art, etc). But it will allow us to expand the vinyl, phototex and banner sides of things, as well as quick and cheap poster / blue back.

Ah yes I can see how for your main work it would be ok if printing straight posters. It sounds more like for the OP they also need to have a cut function though rather than just printing onto vinyl and cutting out by hand

 

[whatsinaname]

Why?
Or rather, why not print on paper? Or even transparency if you want something closer to a film. I mean, if you have a production machine, then tell them to suck it up and wait the 10 minutes it will take to come out of it, but if they want to see how a salt life sticker looks with a green background, they can run it on paper and play pretend.

Our purpose is to design decals and stickers for Electronic devices like laptops etc..And for that we will be using Self-Adhesive Vinyls from Oracal or LG, 3M etc. So even for sampling & testing in the desktop printer it has to be the same vinyl materials..we can't use anything else for sampling...May be we can compromise on the color accuracy but not on the materials. It has to be Vinyl. So all we need is a decent desktop sized printer which can print on Self-Adhesive Vinyl.

 

[whatsinaname]

Ah yes I can see how for your main work it would be ok if printing straight posters. It sounds more like for the OP they also need to have a cut function though rather than just printing onto vinyl and cutting out by hand

We already have a cutting plotter. Our purpose is to design & sample decals and stickers for Electronic devices like laptops etc..And for that we will be using self-adhesive Vinyls from Oracal or LG, 3M etc. So all we need is a decent desktop sized printer which can print on any Self-Adhesive Vinyl.

 

[whatsinaname]

We will be using this only for our design and sampling decals and sticker wraps..not for actual production.

Dekstop printer ink will also fade very badly in quite a short time. You couldn't sell customers work done with a desktop printer

 

[damonCA21]

We already have a cutting plotter. Our purpose is to design & sample decals and stickers for Electronic devices like laptops etc..And for that we will be using self-adhesive Vinyls from Oracal or LG, 3M etc. So all we need is a decent desktop sized printer which can print on any Self-Adhesive Vinyl.

Basically, you won't get what you are looking for. The closest you will get is a Roland BN20. They aren't expensive and will be perfect for what you need to do.

Are you actually making these samples for your own products or are you hoping to make them and then sell them online somewhere? To me it sounds like you are making decals at home to sell on ebay or something and just trying to do it as cheaply as possible without paying for the proper equipment that is already out there?

 

[Humble PM]

We will be using this only for our design and sampling decals and sticker wraps..not for actual production.

Sounds like a job for the BN20

 

[JBurton]

May be we can compromise on the color accuracy but not on the materials

That seems silly for a proof of concept?
BN20 does sound like it will fit the bill.

 

[Humble PM]

None of the vinyls I've found to run on an aqueous machine behave anything like a wrap vinyl when it comes to compound curves, or thinness even with relief cuts. If you're running design, test fit POC, run the tests on the right class of material. And for a relatively small investment, you can be colour managed, so very little compromise needed (you are looking for the best test prior to production?).

 

[whatsinaname]

Basically, you won't get what you are looking for. The closest you will get is a Roland BN20. They aren't expensive and will be perfect for what you need to do.

Are you actually making these samples for your own products or are you hoping to make them and then sell them online somewhere? To me it sounds like you are making decals at home to sell on ebay or something and just trying to do it as cheaply as possible without paying for the proper equipment that is already out there?

We need it for our own sampling by our designers, this is not meant for proofing. The purpose is just to design decals for phones and laptops and not actually bulk print them for production. We want to get the designs right as much as possible first on the in-house desktop printer. The designed decals will then be anyway finally printed on an eco-solvent printer for final sampling/color corrections and then go for bulk production.

In simple words we want to set our designs first before we go for the final sampling. We don't own any kind of eco-solvent printer and we can't be running to the signage shops just to test each and every design and then come back make corrections and print a sample again. We know the colors will not match with eco-sol but that is what our final sampling stage on the wide format eco-sol printers is for.

We are getting into this for the 1st time and looking to get things done through job works. We plan to invest on a dedicated in house eco-sol or UV printer only if things work out business wise. I hope I was able to bring more clarity in our case.

 

[whatsinaname]

Just re-read OP, this is an SC400 pro-sumer photoprinter. Profile it right, then cross render to a regular production machine, and sure, it'd do the job for proofing (suitable CM SW required to do the job).

Print it on Epson Premium Photo Gloss, using all the available colours in the design, and the gamut will likely be outside what the service provider can do.

Will it print on self-adhesive Vinyl?

 

[Humble PM]

Canon IJM538 is an aqueous vinyl, so you could get a roll and cut it down to A4/A3 sheets, but without a laminate, the colours would be flat, and the work flow a PITA.
For design and testing purposes, a BN20 would be a far better choice, and would allow for actual testing of output that might wrap over edges.