Digi Press Printing on UHMW? Still Doesn't Work
Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 2:32 pm
Thougt I;'d share a learning experience, that might be obvious to most of you.
A local printer turned me onto printing UHMW bases with a large format digitial press. When i explained that only epoxyable ink would work, the printer counted that that the ink layer was so thin it would make no material difference to the UHMW surface texture, which would account for at least some of the bonding properties. That made sense, so i tried two tests:
1) Digi printed, using the press, straight to UHMW
2)As above, then encapsulated with a silk screen application of clear epoxyable coating.
Results: Initially, it seemed to have worked and formed a good bond. However, neither test stood up to my extended "stress tests".
In case 1), the bond seemed to have been with the ink and did not sufficiently reach through to the UMHW. In case 2) same thing but bond was with epoxyable coating.
My final sugestion to the printer (hacking his $200,000 machine to use epoxyable inks) was not well recieved and, moreover, is bullshit and would never work.
I guess I'm kinda dumb that way. This how i learn.
A local printer turned me onto printing UHMW bases with a large format digitial press. When i explained that only epoxyable ink would work, the printer counted that that the ink layer was so thin it would make no material difference to the UHMW surface texture, which would account for at least some of the bonding properties. That made sense, so i tried two tests:
1) Digi printed, using the press, straight to UHMW
2)As above, then encapsulated with a silk screen application of clear epoxyable coating.
Results: Initially, it seemed to have worked and formed a good bond. However, neither test stood up to my extended "stress tests".
In case 1), the bond seemed to have been with the ink and did not sufficiently reach through to the UMHW. In case 2) same thing but bond was with epoxyable coating.
My final sugestion to the printer (hacking his $200,000 machine to use epoxyable inks) was not well recieved and, moreover, is bullshit and would never work.
I guess I'm kinda dumb that way. This how i learn.