What can & cant Print on Premium Cast Vinyl

[Peter Normington]

welcome to the boards Mark
I little intro in the say hello forum would be nice.

I may be wrong. but I dont think the encad will print to vinyl
at least not uncoated.

Peter

[Mark Clarius]

Thanks for your reply peter…

please let me rephrase my question

I want to print onto conformable vinyl such as metamark MD7, Orecal etc..and then laminate. But I do not need a wide format printer.

A3 or even A4 would suffice. However these materials are designed for solvent wide format printers. So I am wondering what is the lowest cost smallest size printer capable of printing onto these materials??

I think these materials are only supplied in large rolls but I see no reason they couldnt be carefully cut down to fit any machine?????

Thanks again

Mark

Sorryto waste your time Peter and any onther readers…

Ive answered my own question "Solvent inks only on premium cast vinyl"

[Mark Clarius]

Sorry about this but im really confused, Metamark and Oracal both state Solvent Ink Printers on their literature, But surely they can be printed on UV based systems also???

The literature states Solvent based inks but it doesn’t say "only"

Could anyone confirm wether premium cast or "wrap" vinyl can be printed on using a uv printer or standard ink jet.

Or is it fact that only solvent based inks can be used???

Thanks

Mark

[Robert Lambie]

Do you have a UV printer or will you be using a UV printer to print onto these small sheets of vinyl?

[Mark Clarius]

Thanks for the reply Robert.

I do not have a printer as yet,

I am just looking for the cheapest way to print small sheets wrap vinyl.

Just trying to establish what the alternatives to solvent ink are ….IF any!

Mark

[Robert Lambie]

you need to be more clear on the questions mate… your jumping from inkjet, to UV… machines within the same post. you need to be clear on what you are trying to do first, what your budget is for a machine before folk can advise you properly.

wrap vinyl can be bought from most quality suppliers. but your not going to get it in anything under 15m x 30"wide…. but yes, you can cut it up to fit a smaller machine.

the smallest machine which i have seen for printing onto vinyl was a Fargo printer which i think was onto a coated media. i would be amazed if they still sell these machines. we had a demo on one about 12 years ago… think that printed onto A3 paper….

then theres a second hand Roland PC 600 or PC60… second hand you will get one at about £1000.

[Mark Clarius]

Thanks Robert I think that might be helpfull

If I understand you correctly you are saying that wrap vinyl such as Metamark MD7 etc can be coated and then may be printable by means other than solvent Ink.

I will certainly investigate that further with one of the material suppliers.

Thanks again.

I will not disturb you again in the near future!! 😀 😀

[Robert Lambie]

no, you need to buy a pre-coated media… i doubt you will get a wrap material that is coated though.

[Jason Xuereb]

Don’t confuse HP UV Pigment inks with UV inks.

[Michael Potter]

May be a Gerber edge thermal printer would suit prints about 300mm wide onto 381mm punched vinyl plus a lot of other products.
cheers Mike

[Mark Clarius]

OK thanks Jason

Coated vinyl wont do what I want. Ill keep my eyes open for a used solvent machine but by they are just a little over what I was hoping to spend which is frustrating when only really want a small machine. The only other alternative is outsourcing which I dont want to do.

Thanks Mike I’ll look into that.

[Peter Normington]

the problem with a gerber is low print quality at small sizes, and also the material needs to be sprocketed,
Peter

[Mark Clarius]

Yes the Gerber machine is ideally compact and has a good range of sprocketed material available. But I dont think 300dpi will be high enough to give me the end product im looking for.

Thanks to all for your comments a great help!!

[Martin Pearson]

Your best bet would be to out source the graphics to start with and then when you start to make money think again about buying a decent machine to print inhouse.
Might not be what you really want to do but at least it would get you started if a solvent printer is currently above your budget. The other option would be to try and get a loan or either buy or lease a new machine using some sort of credit agreement.

Not really what you want to hear I know but if you could pick up printers that were capable of doing the sort of work you want really cheaply then everyone would have one :lol1:

[Mike Fear]

It may help if you give us some more idea of what you need the printer for as it sounds like you have quite a specialist reason for wanting it ?

Unfortunately I think for what you want, you are looking at a budget of around £8000 – £10000

If you are looking for properly made printed ( and cut ) graphics for wrap use, there isn’t really a shortcut way of doing it – one of the reasons printed work seems expensive is that the printer has had to shell out for the machine in the first place !

As Martin says in the previous post, if the printers were that cheap, everyone would have them and there would be no profit in the work.

[Dan Osterbery]

if you are looking for A3 or A4 vinyl get in touch with the magic touch and ask for a sample of CL media, it can be run through a lazerprinter (just check with them that you can use with your printer some our incompatible)printer, you will then need to laminate it, to make it scratch, sun, water resistant. This might be the cheapest, easiest way to start!!

You will not have a cut option going one this route.

[Peter Normington]

quote Dan Osterbery:

if you are looking for A3 or A4 vinyl get in touch with the magic touch and ask for a sample of CL media, it can be run through a lazerprinter (just check with them that you can use with your printer some our incompatible)printer, you will then need to laminate it, to make it scratch, sun, water resistant. This might be the cheapest, easiest way to start!!

You will not have a cut option going one this route.

But not suitable for wrapping on any scale.
the magic touch is only good for flat surfaces

Peter

[Mark Jahn]

If you have a cutter there is a cut option using colour laser. We use Robo Master Pro (have never mastered this in Corel) to import the file. Get the outline then print with reg marks. Put the sheet into your cutter ensuring the "search for reg marks" is ticked and set it away. A very quick way of producing colour stickers if that’s what your after.

[graffica]

For small stickers I use an Epson printer/scanner with Durabrite inks that are long-lasting even in bright sunlight, and are waterproof…therefore no lamination needed.

For an Epson A4 printer you´d pay about 80.00 quid.

I have vinyl in A4 and A3 sheets bought years ago from Folex in the UK, but there must be loads of other companies that do it.

Chris A

[Mark Clarius]

Thanks A lot Everyone!!!!!
Really impressed with this forum I will pay my membership subscription shortly and happily.

Keep up the good work!!!

[OwenTaylor]

I’m not 100% sure why you need such small pieces of wrap vinyl as you didn’t tell us. Maybe you want to protect your idea which is why you are also reluctant to sub the work out?

If I were you I would sub out the work to someone with a wide format solvent printer and get them to sign a non disclosure or some sort of agreement.

You could supply the material and the artwork (in the correct format) and all they would have to do is print the stuff, leaving you to get on with other things. Then you can take it away, laminate it, chop it up, or whatever. I know this would reduce your margin but I think the results would be better than trying to mix and match printers and media.

Think about it this way. When you release your product, it’s out in the marketplace for everyone to see. If yours are anything but perfect you are open to copycats who can also produce a better product.

Best of luck with your idea :thumbsup: