Liquid Resin Doming, is there a market for this?

[Simon Clayton]

My Wife bought a new motor bike it had domed stickers

Simon

[Jon Aston]

Martin:

In my experience, selling domed decals doesn’t really require alot of marketing savvy. Buy an inexpensive resing doming kit and show it to every decal customer. You’ll sell more than enough in a month to recoup your investment.

[Rodney Gold]

Theres a huge market in the trophy industry for 1″ and 2″ diameter customised and sport code inserts , its a world wide standard
Then there are rosette inserts and then if you apply the printed decal to a substrate you have a high class badge or an upmarket designer label or a zip puller etc , it allows you to print and protect.
Adding a dome to a printed decal makes it look like a million $ , you can sell it for a lot more
Computer cases , branding promotional items , industrial uses , button labels , car wheel inserts , branding on furniture , designer goods , leathertte folders etc , the list is endless , anyone that wants an upmarket label will choose domed.
Its a real cheap process thats easy to try.

[Robert Lambie]

lets take 4 colour process badge about 2inch by 2inch cost approxx £1.75
what would you add to this for doming the same badge?

just curious.. 🙄

as for a marketing domed badges. i wont name the company as i feel like ill be just plugging them.. but!
they have a “doming machine”.. they told me they got a contract to dome something like 150000 car badges for mitsubishi.. so the list goes on…

[Kevin.Beck]

We use the pc600 ( still for sale by the way, if your intrested) to print small decals, then dome them. Then fit them to a leather keyring with a medalion attached. Turning a 50p key ring into a £4 product…

We buy cheap desk calculaters, put a domed decal on them.. £4 easy money..

As with promotion items, minimum orders of 100 apply…

[Martin C]

Who is the best supplier for Doming Kits then?

Can you dome a standard Inkjet print if it’s produced on something like photographic paper or does it have to be Colorcamm/Edge stuff?

[Rodney Gold]

A badge would be about 2″ x 1″ or a little longer , but lets say we worked on a 1″ x 2″ instead of a 2″x2″

Cost to print on a pc60/600 per sq ft in all 4 colours is about gbp 7 inclusive of material – lets be generous and say add a metallic spot and you looking at gbp 10 per sq – ft , ie you would get 70 badges off that size per sq ft , thus cost per badge is less then 15 pence , add a substrate to the badge , lets say a simple slightly larger piece of whatever gold/black laminate is available , cost per sq meter of that is around 27 gbp at worst (2.70 per sq ft) and thus 70 blanks would cost around 5 pence or so
A decent pin back from a wholesaler is about 10 pence at worst
Worst cost scenario to produce a badge (assuming a reasonable qty) is about 30 pence
Resin coverage is about 1gram per sq inch , the badge should take 2gm and resin shouldnt exceed gbp20 per kilo , thus add another 5 pence cost to resin , total cost 35 pence MAX
A simple formula we use is to x material cost by 5 for selling , but this is way too cheap for a badge of that nature , I would say x the cost by 10 to arrive at the selling cost for that badge , round Gpb 3.50 – you will still probably be too cheap for the market assuming you are selling a full colour badge with metal foiling.
I dunno what a badge like that generally costs in the UK market ?
You can easily double the price of a decal when doming it and doming doesnt cost a lot.

[Robert Lambie]

im not sure martin.. i think it has to be contour cut but i maybe wrong.
i havent made any domed badges as yet. but did think about buying a kit to have play around with..

we dont do promotional stuff but i do think the domes can be used in various combination of ways.. take the trophy posted earlier on the site. becky mentioned on key rings etc etc the list could go on..
at the same time, like everything else.. i think you would have to work at selling them to get a bulk order of any kind. 🙄

[Rodney Gold]

You can dome anything so long as the resin doesnt “soak” it , you cant generally dome paper products even if coated cos the edge of the paper isnt coated when it is cut and the resin seeps in and “soaks” it
You can however use a cheap inkjet and inkjet vinyl and dome that.
(like an Epson 870 that cost about GBP 150 , and with inks and vinyl , the cost to print an A4 at 1440 dpi full colour is at worst gbp 1.50 per page)Problem is cutting the decals to shape if its not square or rectangular
Some inks might have a problem in that they “run” into the resin when applying the resin , you have to test this , but letting inkjet output dry well normally solves this if it is a problem

[Robert Lambie]

when you cut a rectangle rodney are you not supposed to have a small radious on the corners so the liquid doesnt run off the badge at these sharp bits..?

[Jom]

Robert,

It doesn’t seem to matter (in my limited experience). The epoxy kind of “clings” to the corners of the decal.

Ever dropped water drops on top of a quarter (or the UK equivalent)? The water will begin to spread to the corners and then will “hold” a certain amount of extra water until it gets to a point where you flood it and run over.

The epoxy acts in the same manner.

Jom

[Kevin.Beck]

I have seen a supplier(can`t remember thier name.)They were selling a complete kit. You had plain precut decal blanks on a a4,in varois shapes and sizes. Software so you han drop your image onto them, and you printed them on your inkjet. They were at Printwear & promotion NEC 3 years ago.
Varous people sell the domeding kits. victory etc.

We sell a product, 40mm dia, 4 off, single colour print, domed. Sells for £6.50.

We also sell domed reg plates, these are the latest fad. Precut the lettering out of carbofibre effect vinyl. Apply to the top of the plate. Making sure you have radius the corners slighly. Its the inner radius you have to worry about. Dome it. You used 1 tube which costed about £2. you sell the plates for £39.00…

Rodney. Do you buy the kits or mix your own. I looked into buying in bulk then mixing it my self. Seems I would save quite a bit. But it`s the mess thats putting me off.

[Rodney Gold]

Sharp corners can be a problem but you can pull the resin to the corners , a decal is domed on the backing paper in sheets after you strip the cutters , you must leave a little space between decals , you do occasionally get a spill over . but essentially the resin runs to the edge of the decal and stays there 😉
People who see sheets of domed decals wonder how I do it , they think there are moulds of some sort
The more honeylike or thicker the resin , the higher the dome , however thick resin doesnt de bubble all that well.
The Commercial kits are horrendously expensive , we bulk buy the resin in 10kg packs , 10 kg resin and 5kg hardener.
There is little mess , you really need a cheap digital scale or 2 horse type syringes and a few paper cups
We are careful as to mix ratios , essentially we either mix by weight or by volume , the easiest is by volume (using the horse type syringes to measure) if you dont have a digital scale.
The EXACT cost of the resin is ludicrously cheap , about R185 per 5 kg , and the exchange rate is R14 per GBP , ie about GBP 12 per 5kg or about GBP 2.50 per kg , 1 kg will do about 1000 1″ diameter discs. , IE less than a pence per item. (the rule is 1 gram per sq inch)

We use mainly epoxy resins as they are easier to work with and have 2 types , glass hard and flexible (we developed the flexible ourselves) , the glass hard is a little problematic cos some vinyls have high levels of plasticisers and the decal can seperate off the resin , the flexibles tend to stick more to the decal – we have NEVER had a glass hard decal run back tho , despite the lesser adhesion to the substrate.
The most important thing about ANY resin system is to limit ANY moisture , moisture in the air or the mix or anywhere will cause big problems , a nice warm air heater in the place tou resin is essential on those cold damp days.
Polyurethane resins are best , they are UV stable whereas certain epoxys will yellow rather quickly in direct sunlight , this is a problem with white background stuff , but your resin supplier should be able to add a UV stabiliser quite easilyShould you wish to use polys , you need commercial dosing or dispensing systems , you need to build a vaccum chamber and you need exceptional control of the environment when doming.
We built our own drying racks , basically sets of shelving which have been leveled (you have to leave the domed product flat) with thick clear builders plastic curtains that seal the units and we use 60 watt globes on the underside of each shelf which warms the shelf beneath it , this accelerates curing time a lot.We use sheets of glass and use a Pritt glue stick to stick the sheets of decals to this and load them into the drying racks.
We dome by hand , I have a bank of ladies that just do doming , a dosing system is better , but still needs an operator and they are VERY expensive here , we are working on a home made one.

[Lorraine Buchan]

There are quite a few companies who can supply you with all you need for doming.

Try these for inkjet production:
make-a-gift.co.uk/intro.htm

resin supplies and starter kits:
mockridge.com/index.htm

also
spandex.com

[davidfx]

I brought one from Spandex a few years ago now, was well worth the investment, untill someone in the office gunged it up. 👿

[stevry]

(?) can anyone recommend suppliers for blank pins and walking stick mounts, i want to add domed logos etc for resale…. (?)

[juddr]

mag wheel and steering wheel centers.. you know the domed things that have the brand name in them..

machine labels. people building machinery who want to put there company name on there.

as already said trophies and plaques.

car dealers and mechanics, some like to apply a nice domed badge to the car with there company name on there.. its more likely a customer will leave a nice domed badge on there rather than a sticker.

large graphic jobs, i put our contact details and company name in a small domed badge on any large jobs i do or any work thats likely to get seen up close by a large number of people.

giveaways.. as we know everyone loves stickers, same goes for domed stickers.

doming is easy you just need a dust free area to do this in and a completely flat surface, checked with a spirit level. i use a heating pad made for raising seedlings that sits under the doming tray to speed up the drying process as in our cold weather it can take over 10 hours to set.

i charge per 25ml of doming liquid.

[Jim Clough]

Have a look at eze-badge.com They provide ready-made domes of various shapes and sizes on sheets, peel off and stick, along with the corresponding precut sheets of labels to print, also a range of items to attach to. Don’t know what they are like as I’ve not tried them.

Cheers
Jim

[hightown]

Looked at ezebadge.com site – I am looking for a similar supplier of blank doming/ domeable blank products (but without the frills of a whole package – because you are bound to pay more for it). I do like their blank keyrings, cufflinks etc and will enquire about them.

Also – I wander if Rodney (the guru :lol1: ) can give us some detailed analysis of the pros and cons of UV curable resins. I say that because 2-part epoxies though give great results are difficult to play with because
1) They take ages to dry – during that time dust can fall on the domes.
2) You have to mix a little by little or they get too thick to apply – and if you manage to apply, bubbles dont burst so easily.
3) time consuming to mix the resin and you waste syringes and cups.

UV curable resins are one-part and ( if they work) could solve all these problems as there is no mixing involved and provide curing in seconds.
I obtained a sample of uv curable resin and tested it on a very old UV glazing unit (made by Award and co) and the result is not entirely satisfactory. I can blame that on the UV lamp. if I buy both components (resin & UV curing lamp unit) from the same company – surely I should get good results? I don’t mind paying a little more for resin as I can save elsewhere…..so anyone know of a good uv curing unit?

[gizzy75]

I am following this doming malarky with interest. Does anybody know how much I should expect to pay for A4 sheets of inkjet vinyl suitable for doming and who supplies it ?. I’ve managed to rig up my plotter to cut out the vinyl after it has been printed with my desktop printer. Any shapes radius corners etc. Its a bit fiddly to set up initially but it works very well.
Dave.

[Jim Clough]

Hi Dave
Printed items for doming do not need to be vinyl. I believe you can obtain some sort of polyester or similar coated sheets for ink jet printers with various shapes and sizes kiss cut ready to print/dome then peel off and apply.or full uncut sheets to run through a cutter to customise sizes.
I see you are in the Nort East, EZE Badge are in Killingworth just north of Newcastle.

Cheers
Jim

[Rodney Gold]

Wow , finally I can log in
UV curables are the answer but have 2 proviso’s
1) Expense , they are VASTLY more expensive then other resins , up to 10x the price
2) You can’t build high domes with them , they tend to be a lot more viscous than other resins.
You also need a serious UV source – not a blacklight or sunshine. Like one of those sources that can give you skin cancer at 50 paces in 5 secs;)
As to inkjets etc , papaers tend to be a no no when doming for various reasons , primarily that the doming stuff soaks into the edges if the paper is coated and if uncoated , soaks into the whole piece. Inkjet Vinyl should be available from any speciality paper shop , ours was made by the Daito Co in Japan.
(clear and white)
Be careful of certain resins , they might bleed ink into the resin and in general epoxys have low adherence to vinyl due to plasticisers etc , urethanes are the answer.