Printing Your
Printing Your Types of Digital Printing machines Digital printing is a term that encompasses a lot of different equipment that produce different products and different levels of quality and expectat...
Printing Your
Types of Digital Printing machines
Digital printing is a term that encompasses a lot of different equipment that produce different products and different levels of quality and expectations.
First let's start with the term digital printing:
Digital printing's definition is taking an electronic file and directly from that file creating your final output without going to plates or any other type of intermediary step or proof. It can be black or color.
The black is usually done by copiers on the low end and machines such as the Xerox Docutech or the Kodak Digimaster. These machines are capable of @ 100 copies a minute. Even these machines use toner although they are capable of higher resolutions than copiers. Although, higher quality than copiers the docutech & digimaster still don't rival true offset quality of true offset presses.
The reasons these machines evolved and have become so popular is the ability to do low quantities at reasonable costs. They are limited as to the products and substrates that customers will use these machines for.The evolution of doing this same thing to color was a natural evolution. The higher the quality the better it could replace offset on the low end of the quantity spectrum.
Also as color digital printing machines improved customers deemed quality acceptable for more and more products and uses. Color copiers came first and use toner in the four base colors of CMYK to reproduce color photographs and images. The quality is on the low end for color and is susceptible to scratches and rubbing more than liquid ink. Then there is the classification of digital presses. There are toner and two types of liquid ink presses.
All of these color machines have strengths and weaknesses like any other kind of manufacturing process. Toner based machines are the IGen3 and the Nexpress. The quality is much better than color copiers but can still have toner look to them and sometimes don't print smooth screenes. The only true offset entries are either Heidelberg or Ryobi machines. These actually produce temporary plates to produce the print job that is on press at that time.
This is true offset printing but has some limitations because the vast % of machines are small format and don't have the ink carrying capacity that larger presses do. These machines also can't print variable data printing where the image or text can be changed from sheet to sheet. The other liquid ink machine is the HP Indigo family. The Indigo 3050 can print variable data while rivaling offset quality.
The Indigo digital press family is the only machine that can print variable data as well as being capable of printing PMS spot colors as well. Customers will use this machine to print postcards, brochures, posters, sales sheets, flyers and any other printed product. These are your choices in digital printing. As final users have continued decreasing quantities of their orders and use more and more of customized marketing digital printing's market share has increased. It is a powerful option to promote your business from small startups to large corporations.
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The Odee Company.com
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Types of T-Shirt Printing Equipments
T-shirt printing traditionally uses a mesh for screen printing. The textile inks are filtered through the screen using a squeegee, which is a piece of rubber with a wooden handle that is used to push the ink against the mesh. Innovations in t-shirt screen printing, however, have made the process easier and faster with new t-shirt printing equipment, especially the large drying machines that can cure multiple shirts at the same time at a faster rate.
Using A Squeegee and A Fine Mesh
A fine mesh with a high resolution is stretched from end to end in a square wood frame. The size will depend on how large the design area is on the t-shirt. Print screens with mesh counts of 160 to 280 can use multi-print standard opacity ink types while those with mesh counts of 230 to 305 can use process colors.
The ink is pushed against the mesh using a squeegee. The firmness of the rubber and the amount of pressure you apply will determine the right flooding of ink on the mesh. Too much will bleed the ink out of the design’s boundaries.
Using A Rotary T-Shirt Printing Machine
There are two types of t-shirt printing machines: manual and automatic. Manual rotary presses require human labor to move the different screens for each color and to apply ink using a squeegee. They also have different types based on the number of colors they can carry: Four Color, Six Color, and Ten Color.
The automatic t-shirt printing presses, on the other hand, only requires human labor for placing the t-shirts on the platforms under the screens and for taking them off for curing. The automatic rotary t-shirt printing machines have special parts that allow automated application of ink and for rotating the shirts from one color screen to another.
Types Of T-Shirt Printing Machines Based On Function
These t-shirt printing machines have different types also based on function. Belt presses are used to print designs all over the t-shirt by attaching it to a moving belt under the screens.
They are quite expensive because the registration and ink deposit are controlled in amounts that are outside of the industry standards. Discharge inks are often used to control the thickness, or "hand," of the design.
A second type of t-shirt printing machine is the all-over press. Similar to the belt press, the all-over press can print the design over the entire area of the shirt, including the sleeves.
However, instead of a belt, the all-over press uses one large and two smaller platforms to spread the shirt under the screens for printing. Although all-over presses can provide greater control over the quality of t-shirt printing, they cannot cover the whole shirt from end-to-end because of the edges of the metal plates.
The rarest of the specialized types of t-shirt printing machines is the cylinder press. It creates a continuous image of the print around the middle of the t-shirt. It works the same way as those printing presses for designing mugs, cups and other cylindrical objects.
About the Author
Screen printed clothing from printed tops, printed hoodies, and printed sweatshirts to printed men's t-shirts, printed ladies' t-shirts, and printed work wear. Call 0800 046 7633 for a free quote now!