Need Help Help me find a better printing solution

[JessicaS]

Hi guys, I'm new to the forum and I'd love your help in finding a better printer solution for the company I work for. Any ideas are greatly appreciated. With all the printing options out there, I'm hoping you can help me narrow down my options.

My work prints automotive gauge faces (speedometers, tachometers, etc). We offer a variety of colors on the faces including our most important colors: opaque black and opaque white. We must be able to print gauge faces that block out bright LEDs positioned directly behind the gauge face. Also, the gauge face is then laminated for greater rigidity and laser-cut into shape.

Currently we use the Gerber Edge printer which gives us the ability to achieve those opaque colors, however the Gerber Edge software is overly-complicated, the product performance is inconsistent, and it can only print vector art.

In a nutshell, I'm looking for a printer with these capabilities (in order from most critical to least):
• Can print both transparent colors and, most importantly, opaque black and opaque white (where bright LEDs won't shine through opaque parts)
• Can print tiny details in high resolution, both images and vector art
• Can print large quantities quickly
• Can print on rigid media to eliminate lamination process, if possible. (Perhaps we print gauge face backwards so there is no need for the additional lamination?)
• Can also cut to eliminate laser-cut process, if possible

This printer I'm describing would be a dream! Below is an example of a gauge face that has both opaque and transparent colors. Thanks everyone.

 

[bannertime]

You could try one of the Summa thermal printers and run full color images in their CMYK process ribbons while still being able to do metallic and other cool overlays.

 

[JessicaS]

You could try one of the Summa thermal printers and run full color images in their CMYK process ribbons while still being able to do metallic and other cool overlays.

Thanks Bannertime, the Summa printers couldn't produce an opaque black nor an opaque white. I'm trying to veer away from thermal printers because they seem to have more limitations and lower resolution capabilities.

 

[Gino]

There are digital shows almost every weekend somewhere in the country and many of them out near you. I would suggest going to one or two, checking out what you like and finding a distributor nearby you and take them YOUR files and have them make samples for you.

 

[2B]

There are digital shows almost every weekend somewhere in the country and many of them out near you. I would suggest going to one or two, checking out what you like and finding a distributor nearby you and take them YOUR files and have them make samples for you.

This,
if you have a sample made, make sure it onto the material you will be using. you want as close as possible to your situation.

 

[White Haus]

If you're ruling out Thermal then UV is really your only/best choice, paired with a flatbed cutter. A roll to roll plotter might be able to achieve what you want but won't be as reliable as sprocket fed that you're used to. (assuming you've paired your Edge w/ a Gerber plotter)

You didn't mention your budget, but you could probably get set up with the above combination for $150-$175k if you went new.

Probably not what you want to hear, but that's the only thing that comes to mind.

 

[rjssigns]

May want to look into Mimaki's UJF small format UV printers. Can pair it with a Mimaki CF2 flatbed.

 

[JessicaS]

If you're ruling out Thermal then UV is really your only/best choice, paired with a flatbed cutter. A roll to roll plotter might be able to achieve what you want but won't be as reliable as sprocket fed that you're used to. (assuming you've paired your Edge w/ a Gerber plotter)

You didn't mention your budget, but you could probably get set up with the above combination for $150-$175k if you went new.

Probably not what you want to hear, but that's the only thing that comes to mind.

Thanks for pointing me in the UV gel direction. I think that's where we need to go. Does the UVgel printer offer an included cutter option? I plan to look into it as well, just wanted to see if you knew anything. We'd need to both print and cut the prints.

 

[equippaint]

Mimaki UCJV is a UV roll printer and will print and cut without taking it off of the machine. I don't have any idea if it fits your other requirements though.

 

[White Haus]

Thanks for pointing me in the UV gel direction. I think that's where we need to go. Does the UVgel printer offer an included cutter option? I plan to look into it as well, just wanted to see if you knew anything. We'd need to both print and cut the prints.

As Equippaint mentioned, the Mimaki series is the only one that I know of that does print/cut with UV. Just a note, Canon is the only company that currently offers UVgel which as far as I know is proprietary.

Keep in mind that a built in plotter may not be able to handle rolls of lexan and cutting rigid media. We print a lot of .010 polished/velvet lexan and our Rolands (with up to 300 grams of downforce) can't handle it or cut it accurately. I will be testing this with a summa plotter next week and can let you know how it goes.

I do think that due to the accuracy of this type of part your best bet is a flatbed printer(or flatbed with roll to roll option, such as Oce Arizona) and flatbed cutter. Bigger $$ but would give you much better results.

 

[jfiscus]

I think you just need to attend some training from Gerber and stick with the Edge. You might also need a different printer. Some Edges print better (and more consistent) than others. We print a LOT of lexedge here and some of our printers print better than others for different materials and color schemes. The software is great, but you also have to know/understand its quirks and why it does things the way it does. We have a lot of different technologies here also besides Gerber and I know that nothing else is going to come close as far as accuracy and longevity. You might be able to get opacity close on a UV/flatbed but it wont cut with the same accuracy or allow long runs/batches like you can on sprocket-fed and it'll look WAY different.