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Which printer to buy
We’re an industrial screen print company specialising in membrane switches (which can involve dozens of screens).We have in the past offered customers “samples” printed onto the back of clear polyester with an epson 1520 inkjet and laminated to a white backing glue – which is OK for them to assess the look of switches/ overlays (if holes in the white are not needed). But now they’re asking for working samples which have to stand flexing and have holes in the white layer to shine LED’s through. Does anyone know of a digital printer which can print in perhaps solvent based ink and is capable of backing it off with white and which does’nt cost a fortune? Or a digital printer which we can then backoff whith white by screen printing.
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2 Replies
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hi i have made several different pannel covers and dashboards for special vehicals which envolve print and cut with both my pc60 and roland soljet- some envolve windows for lights anf holes for switches – some laminated with both covered windows and cut out switches – it gets complcated to explane – but not done any with covered buttons i belive that the edge world has a lexan type material for this. you realy have to know your machine because the process can go like this print & cut then laminate to create windows then send a different cut path to finish the job including switch holes and finished shape when done with thought it can be really accurate. – hope this might help
chris
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I do them with my soljet in a number of ways , the soljet prints crop marks onto media and you can reload and the machine automatically reads the crop marks and can cut the decals/media after you have done stuff like laminate
1) The simple way is to print on white and then cut any holes etc , take it to my laminator and overlam it with a thick floor graphic overlam (very tough and flexible) and then send it back to the printer to cut the outline of the panel and any thru holes)
So in essence , the white has all the detials and any shine thru holes and the overlam is the overprotective tough layer.
the only bugbear is that open sections have a glue layer (IE where the membrane covers the open hole in the white that the led shines thru etc.
2) When a more durable panel is required , we us various grades and thicknesses and finishes of polycarbonate.
The soljet can cut or print media up to 1mm thick (well its difficutly to cut it) but essentially I do the same thing but apply whats called crystal clear front mount double sided adhesive (with my laminator) to the polycarbonate and then apply the sticky poly/lexan membrane to the white.
There are various other strategies , for example we do the same to 1.5mm perspex for rigid panels etc.
We can produce a prototype membrane in abut 2 hours.
We also use our lasers to make male/female dies for embossed sections (takes about 10 minutes to make the die out of acrylic)
there are various other strategies we use for these type “membranes” but if you have a cut and print machine and a laminator , you can do 99% of everything. the crystal clear adhesive is totally transparent and with a pressure laminator , you can apply it to any substrate , front or back and the soljet can either score or with multiple passes andf high pressure and a 60 degree blade , cut most stuff (we cut .5mm styrene we print directly on)
Cut and print or print/relaod/cut registration is very very good , in the order of 1. to .2mm if you have calibrated the machine.
In terms of die cut decals , it’s only when screenprint quantities get to the multiple 1000’s that it becomes more economical to screen than use the inkjet.
The print resolution is incredible , its a 1440 dpi printer.
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