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Looking to buy a pad printer
- Thread starter bigben
- Start date
bigben
Not a newbie
Thank you, but I'm looking to buy the printer not the end product.
A good pad printer with multiple colors was a really good money maker a few years ago, but nowadays the flatbed UV printers takes all the jobs, better, quicker, cheaper. So the question is whether the hats alone will bring you enough profit. I use my pad printer only to stamp the "fake postal stamp" on my bubble envelopes.
bigben
Not a newbie
I'm just starting my homework. I would like automatic with a 5 colors, but it depend of pricing.
It's just I've got more and more demand about this. Just for the hard hat, I think I would print maybe 50 to 100 units per week. If there is a better technology to print on hard hat, I'm open to suggestions.
visual800
Active Member
May I ask who is showing all this interest in you doing hardhats? Would this be easier to sub out the printing as opposed to you owning the printer? Hardhats is an odd thing for someone requesting they need printing. Not trying to stomp your pad printer dreams, just asking can you justify owning one.
Pad printing is the only way to customize hard hats. What I try to tell you that it's not an easy money. A used 5 color machine is around $5000, if you make $1 profit on each hat (I don't think you can make more than that with ink, plate making, labor) that's still 5000 hats to do just to return the investment. Beside of the hard hats you can do custom balloons too
Johnny Best
Active Member
Signman001
New Member
Check out Boston Industrial Solutions Volta Pad printing machines.... https://www.bostonindustrialsolutio...ial-printing-equipment/pad-printing-machines/
tefisen
New Member
This depends on the area of the printed content and its complex procedures. Generally speaking, if the area is larger, we recommend a curved screen printing machine. If the area is smaller and the requirements are very high, we recommend using a pad printing machine.
... I used an Autoroll pad printer to make collectible baseballs and bats.... I had training at their Boston facility (well close to Boston.... I was coming from the left-coast). These can print on your hard-hats, balls, knobs, fingers, fruit... pretty much any contoured or flat surface. (there is a learning curve for making the pads - to get them to conform there are lots of tricks like varying rigidity of the silicone, leaving strategic voids in the middle of the pad, etc.... really fun way to "put ink on paper"!!
I've had a few pad printers in my time.. Not much to them really. The issue are the pads themselves. Although in your instance it'll probably be registration. Most multi colour printers move the whole object to be printed to each station - hard hats would need a method to register them so they print in the same place - so some form of holding and supporting arrangement. It'll end up costing time and money - make sure you do the math on this. Better and easier to sub it out unless your the manufacturers brother.
Have you thought of sublimation transfers? Cheaper and easer - plus much better quality.
Have you thought of sublimation transfers? Cheaper and easer - plus much better quality.