Printing white ink (only) on ABS

[MoultrieMade]

I run a CNC routing shop, and I have a client for whom I produce ABS plastic control panels. He currently sends these to another vendor to print the labels, etc., in white ink on their flat-bed printer. This causes logistical problems for my client, plus it's a pain for the printer guy, because he has to set up his equipment for white ink just for these small jobs.

I'm looking for a dedicated white-ink-on-black-abs flatbed printing solution. I have learned that white ink can be a hassle, but I'm wondering if a white-ink-only setup would be easier to maintain. Can anyone suggest a printer that could handle this easily?

Since the content being printed is made up of simple vector graphics, I'm also considering non-traditional options, such as a pen plotter or even some sort of white paint pen that I could attach to my CNC. Has anyone faced a similar need and developed a clever solution they'd be willing to share?

 

[TSC1985]

Screen print? If it just this one panel over and over you could probably set up an in house small operation, get the screen burned by another company.

There is a special additive just for ABS plastics that makes the ink stick.

 

[GaSouthpaw]

The only thing springing to mind is screen printing.
The "problem" with white ink is titanium dioxide pigment used to make white. It tends to settle in the liquid (whether it's in the line to the printhead or in the ink reservoir). The way to avoid this issue is by having a market for using the white ink all the time. Having a printer that only printed white would just compound the problem by adding more printheads/lines to be clogged.

 

[CropMarks]

I have a Stratojet 4x8 econo shark. It works ok and has paid for itself. But, I can tell you from LOTS of white printing experience that it gets really tricky. That ink is really goofy stuff. You constantly have to play with head temperatures because just about everything can throw it off. I've printed giant 4x8 sheets of glass with a solid back flood coat of white over the reversed graphics. I've printed lots of spot areas of white and lots of things with "valid" image settings. The stuff loves to overspray. it's just really weird ink, that's the only way I can describe it. When you're printing that much white in that big of an area it can "condensate" (only way I can think to describe it) around the head area. When it pools up too much, it DRIPS... right on your print. You constantly have to battle indoor temperatures... head temps and subtank temps to try and get it to behave. It's definitely not for the faint of heart. If you're doing small pieces it's not so bad.

Another problem is, not a ton of people do that much white printing so when you ask the manufactures of ANY of the machines they say..."oh yeah... totally easy! Our machine is the greatest thing ever!"... you get the machine and start running into the issues and they go... "um, well, it might be this???? or that??? or?????".

The picture I'm attaching is of the head area on my machine... we totally cleaned it off before this was printed. - CMYK printing NEVER does any of this.

 

[CropMarks]

here are some drips.... It almost makes you think that screen printing or a spray booth might make better sense. But for what we do, this works out for the most part. But it does take a crap-ton of white ink. We actually lost an account because the manufacturer of the ink couldn't keep up with our demand. And since we were the only customer using that much white ink I am pretty sure it didn't make sense to up their production just for us.

 

[VISCOM]

here are some drips.... It almost makes you think that screen printing or a spray booth might make better sense. But for what we do, this works out for the most part. But it does take a crap-ton of white ink. We actually lost an account because the manufacturer of the ink couldn't keep up with our demand. And since we were the only customer using that much white ink I am pretty sure it didn't make sense to up their production just for us.

You got static going on .....

 

[CropMarks]

You got static going on .....

Not sure... It was April 11, 2017 when that photo was taken. The humidity was maybe around 40-50%. But after the actual people who built the machine came out and looked at it (flew in from California) They messed more with the head temps. You might be right. I don't really know because I do not have all the data on hand to look at. If it happens again I will look into that.

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

Geez, in 4 years and hundreds of full panel 4x8 white prints, we've never seen anything remotely like the above on our Océ. Head temps always at 46.2C from the factory, no misting or dripping.

That being said, white is an interesting beast and in all likeliness there would be nothing easier about a purely white printer compared to CMYK+W.
CMYK is never an issue for maintenance or head clogs for our setup, but as GaSouthpaw mentioned above, white inks are heavier and the heads clog up waaay easier.

 

[Bly]

Gotta say our Oce white ink is trouble free and pretty opaque.
One thing is it's harder on the pump system and we've replaced a couple of pumps.
We do make sure we clean the heads well every day though.

 

[ChicagoGraphics]

Depending on the print size you can also look into pad printing.

 

[MoultrieMade]

Thanks, everyone! Looks like I need to get him to nail down his number of part variations and look at a screen printing setup.

 

[CropMarks]

Geez, in 4 years and hundreds of full panel 4x8 white prints, we've never seen anything remotely like the above on our Océ. Head temps always at 46.2C from the factory, no misting or dripping.

Question for "SignMeUpGraphics".... is your shop pretty darn controlled as far as environment goes??? Our shop is in an old remodeled warehouse that was built in 1910 and it is just about impossible to maintain any type of controlled environment. We are in Michigan so one day it's 95f.... the next it's -20f (well, not that bad but you get the point). Humidity fluctuates wildly too. Winter it sits around 16%... summer around august its like a rain forest. ---- I'm thinking I have to build a smaller area around the machine with lower ceilings that can be controlled better. I know not to have lots of wind from fans.

As far as the machine goes.... We are now going on our 10th year as a business. Yes, this forum I owe a lot to especially since I spent the better part of the early years fixing the FJ-540 that I converted to solvent myself. EVERY SINGLE HEAD had to be replaced... none survived. blown transistors on the main board.... never could afford anything so I did it all myself. Well, the Stratojet was the first machine that was 4x8 that I could actually afford. LED.... lower power consumption than the CET that advantage tried to sell me. The stratojet was roughly $80k. It has been worth it but by all means not perfect at all. But at the time it was all I could afford. We built this company from literally nothing. I'm proud of what we've done and grateful for the help that I did receive, especially through this site. (originally I had a personal account here... something like "triplerockdesign".... then made a company one under Crop Marks).

 

[pants]

I run a CNC routing shop, and I have a client for whom I produce ABS plastic control panels. He currently sends these to another vendor to print the labels, etc., in white ink on their flat-bed printer. This causes logistical problems for my client, plus it's a pain for the printer guy, because he has to set up his equipment for white ink just for these small jobs.

I'm looking for a dedicated white-ink-on-black-abs flatbed printing solution. I have learned that white ink can be a hassle, but I'm wondering if a white-ink-only setup would be easier to maintain. Can anyone suggest a printer that could handle this easily?

Since the content being printed is made up of simple vector graphics, I'm also considering non-traditional options, such as a pen plotter or even some sort of white paint pen that I could attach to my CNC. Has anyone faced a similar need and developed a clever solution they'd be willing to share?

Have you considered just coating with a highly agressive white vinyl or poly film? This has been a great trick for us when we need to run flatbed prints on black substrates. If you want to try, let me know and I can recommend some materials.

Is this smooth ABS or textured?

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

Question for "SignMeUpGraphics".... is your shop pretty darn controlled as far as environment goes??

Not particularly. We operate out of a concrete warehouse 40' x 30' with 20' ceilings. 10' wide roller door (15' high) for deliveries.
No environmental modifiers except for a small heater near our UV machine to warm up the inks when it's too cold for the printer to achieve it on its own.
Our area isn't too extreme weather wise. Probably never see less than 60f or higher than 85f indoors. There is an AC unit for cooling but it rarely gets used.

 

[MoultrieMade]

Have you considered just coating with a highly agressive white vinyl or poly film? This has been a great trick for us when we need to run flatbed prints on black substrates. If you want to try, let me know and I can recommend some materials.

Is this smooth ABS or textured?

It is textured. When this client first came to me, he had a couple of samples that already had vinyl applied. Apparently, it stretched during application, because we had a hard time getting the cut holes, etc., to match up with the printed labels (and not just a scaling issue - different % errors on different areas of the panel, etc.) He also had trouble with the vinyl getting distorted or coming loose when he installed the hardware (tightening screws/bolts through holes in the vinyl.)

I have no idea what type of vinyl it was or if that would make a difference. I guess coating with plain white vinyl first would give us the option to use another local shop to do the printing, since it would eliminate the white ink issue. That is, assuming there's a product that would adhere more securely than the first one he tried.

 

[pants]

If it's a haircell texture I have a film that sticks to it just fine, stronger than 300LSE. let me know if you want specs, not sure what the rules are about posting products here.