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Is a UV Printer The Only Way?
- Thread starter SteveHem
- Start date
rjssigns
Active Member
I need to understand something. Why are you wanting to print on clear and leave a clear "bleed"?
Normal CMYK printer combined with a Summa or Graphtec plotter will bang those out all day and you don't have to mess with white ink.
They won't have the clear edge but you also won't have to deal with white ink.
I tell my students even though you are in a four color environment the substrate(white) is your fifth color.
As far as white ink goes UV printers are no better with white. If you don't use it regularly you WILL have issues along with the printer hosing it into the puke tank during cleanings.
UV ink also has expiration dates that need to be monitored as some inks "go off" and can cause clogs etc...
If you absolutely have to print white on clear you may want to check into the HP 700 or 800 series printers.
Normal CMYK printer combined with a Summa or Graphtec plotter will bang those out all day and you don't have to mess with white ink.
They won't have the clear edge but you also won't have to deal with white ink.
I tell my students even though you are in a four color environment the substrate(white) is your fifth color.
As far as white ink goes UV printers are no better with white. If you don't use it regularly you WILL have issues along with the printer hosing it into the puke tank during cleanings.
UV ink also has expiration dates that need to be monitored as some inks "go off" and can cause clogs etc...
If you absolutely have to print white on clear you may want to check into the HP 700 or 800 series printers.
Thanks for your reply, very interesting. The clear bleed as such is important to give the sticker the professional look as skateboard stickers which these are have always been done like that or 80% anyway. I guess to demand £2 for a 8cm sticker they need to go beyond the norm.
Print the white base with a Summa thermal printer and diecut with a Graphtec?
rjssigns
Active Member
Ahhh...now I understand. Two quid for a roughly 3 inch sticker. I'm doing something very wrong.
I'd look at the latex rigs as you can remove the white print heads when you don't need them and you don't waste ink either.
Brain fade this morning. One of these bad boys would do it all in one shot.
DC Series
The DC Series is the most advanced thermal printer cutter available. Explore a print-and-cut system designed for serious indoor & outdoor graphics production.www.airmark.com
love this forum, thanks for the advice.
This is about to end and is 15 mins away from me in the UK: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/17544199...qz8mcINQsi&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
This is about to end and is 15 mins away from me in the UK: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/17544199...qz8mcINQsi&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
rjssigns
Active Member
Hmmm....I don't know a lot about them but there are no inks to dry out. Lots of spare parts too. Not sure about parts but Phil from Arimark would be able to help you out.
Honestly for that kind of money I'd be tempted to take a flyer on it. Worse case you can part it out or write it off and bin it.
APCInk
Merchant Member
Fun looking designs, yes white with solvent is a nightmare, whereas white with UV printers such as the Mimaki UCJV300 or UV100 makes great decals.
Uv is the way to go for clear stickers. Main draw back is uv printers are pricey and require a lot more maintenance than solvent printers. Most require daily use or you start running into issues. If your gonna go this route make sure to build up customers base first before making the jump.
? Are you saying the Gerber setup would be a good option?
Yeah i hear ya, to be honest though i’m to excited about the whole prospect of doing them myself i couldn’t stop myself now haha
Isn't doing CMYK on a thermal printer a pain in the ass / not good quality? Sure it'll do a nice white underbase.... But then you're limited to the colors on top.
$2 a sticker - is that retail? One at a time? Or bulk, selling 100 of them for $200? If the former... $2 isn't much and you'll take forever to make your money back.
The only white I'd ever consider is a latex. You're looking at about 20-25k for the latex with white ink though.
Honestly, outsource it and save up for a latex printer. I don't think you'll be happy with a thermal printer for what you're trying to do ..
{Edit} huh. The dc4 does CMYK pretty good... I stand corrected. I still think latex is the way to go, but now I'm interestedbin a dc4 for myself....
[Edit2] 50 cents per sqft per color roughly ... So cmykw would be $2.50 per sqft just for the ribbon... I changed my mind, I'll stick with my 15-30 cents a sqft printer.
$2 a sticker - is that retail? One at a time? Or bulk, selling 100 of them for $200? If the former... $2 isn't much and you'll take forever to make your money back.
The only white I'd ever consider is a latex. You're looking at about 20-25k for the latex with white ink though.
Honestly, outsource it and save up for a latex printer. I don't think you'll be happy with a thermal printer for what you're trying to do ..
{Edit} huh. The dc4 does CMYK pretty good... I stand corrected. I still think latex is the way to go, but now I'm interestedbin a dc4 for myself....
[Edit2] 50 cents per sqft per color roughly ... So cmykw would be $2.50 per sqft just for the ribbon... I changed my mind, I'll stick with my 15-30 cents a sqft printer.
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Pauly
Printrade.com.au
That's the only thing latex impressed me by. It's white.