Printing golf balls ...durability

[matic serbelj]

Hey!

I recently bought a mimaki ujf 6042 mkii and am printing on golf balls. The print is good but am searching for a method so that the print lasts a bit longer than one round. Do you guys spray the balls with another clear coat? I thought about dipping the balls in a clear coat and leaving them to dry. Any other ideas?

 

[Gino]

Ahh, wouldn't that change the way it soars through the air, if the clear is not applied properly ?? You cannot just let them drip-dry. They need to be painted uniformly, thus preventing balls from cutting...... or filling in some of the dimples.

 

[Bingleardicus]

What is your ink configuration on this unit?

 

[Superior_Adam]

UV print will not stay on a golf ball for more than a few holes. Even if you could rotate the ball to where the club head is not hitting it there will still be impact from hitting other objects like cart paths and trees. By the rules your not supposed to rotate your ball in the fairway and that would just be a nuisance anyway. Best way would be to pad print them to get better life, UV printing is for decoration on them not playing them.

 

[Bingleardicus]

UV print will not stay on a golf ball for more than a few holes. Even if you could rotate the ball to where the club head is not hitting it there will still be impact from hitting other objects like cart paths and trees. By the rules your not supposed to rotate your ball in the fairway and that would just be a nuisance anyway. Best way would be to pad print them to get better life, UV printing is for decoration on them not playing them.

I have not had the same experience with my UV method.

Pad print is preferable for durability

 

[Jun Lanon]

There's a guy from Dallas who's printing on golf balls using a stratojet flatbed. He applies promoter and printing it on 8 passes. Works fine for him.

 

[Chriswagner92]

If they make it to the end of a round that would be decent in my book

 

[BALLPARK]

I researched options for golf ball logos...

I was hoping to find a UV printer that could speed up the process and hit full color on the logos. It's more like a shank using UV from my time researching UV printers for golf balls in terms of making them last.

We will move to pad printing for golf balls when our partner company launches. We found some nice entry level and mid range pad printers that could do enough balls with enough colors to make it worth investing into it.

There is one person on this website that has a great deal of knowledge on golf ball printing. I forget his name, but I think he is from overseas. His company makes a ton of custom printed balls... Perhaps he has some knowledge to lend on what other types of UV printing can be done with golf balls in terms of the process. Search the system here for custom golf balls or something like that to see if you can find him.

Good luck... I'm sure you will make some cool golf balls!

 

[MikePatterson]

Why not set up a nail bed so after you print them you can spray a light coat of clear over the print area.

 

[matic serbelj]

little update ..

Just played a round and the balls look good. The print on the balls looks good. I was surprised. I will try the nail bed option also, and spray a light coat ...

 

[StratoJet]

A Jig on the StratoJet Shark 2512

https://stratojetusa.com/shark-2512

 

[cptrick]

Hey!

I recently bought a mimaki ujf 6042 mkii and am printing on golf balls. The print is good but am searching for a method so that the print lasts a bit longer than one round. Do you guys spray the balls with another clear coat? I thought about dipping the balls in a clear coat and leaving them to dry. Any other ideas?

Hey Matic, did you ever find out a good method to print on the golf ball? I just got the 3042 last week and so far when I print on the golf ball the print area is quite small and the print quality is pretty bad. Its a bit faded.

 

[matic serbelj]

cptrick well .. the best we can do is using a primer for pad printing (manualy), then printing ...and after that - spraying another clear coat. I tried with Marabu liquid lamination (spray can) and some water based clear coat. Basically the same result. Its not perfect but good enought. I tell my customers that uv printed golf balls are meant for promotion and that the print doesnt last as good as the one printed with pad - but noone would print full color 100 balls with pad printing, so thats what they have to take into consideration if they want uv printed balls. We make also personalised boxes.