3D Vacuum Printing

[bms]

2013 may be the year of exciting new developments in 3D printing and I've today had a really interesting meeting with a UK company developing 3D vacuum printing machines for sublimation (with over 10 years of experience already in the market). The range of printables explodes - imagine not being restricted to printing in a mug press or a flat bed press or any other type of press. One press, all products.

Imagine printing a cat/ dog bowl but full internal printing at the same time as external printing (no white spaces!).

Imagine printing a mug including the handle, imagine printing money boxes - the top in full colour and all down the side in full colour with no white spaces. Image plates, imagine...well anything! Anything that can be moulded can be printed - the shape, contours etc don't matter as the special film used for holding the sublimation inks forms over the shape of the product as it is heated and moulds into the shape. Inks transfer and the carrier film is removed. End result = full colour, customised coverage of any shaped sublimation blank.

It may well be that in time we look back at "flat bed' presses with a wry smile at what 2D printing used to restricted us to....

Roll on 2013...

[JMugs]

Looked at the existing market place machines, and thought nice idea, almost there, but not quite. I saw drawbacks, of which you will be more aware than I. So I wait with excitement.

[bms]

Looked at the existing market place machines, and thought nice idea, almost there, but not quite. I saw drawbacks, of which you will be more aware than I. So I wait with excitement.

There are different designs coming to the market. We will have a 3D vacuum machine in a couple of weeks for testing, but the routes to getting things printed vary. Some simply suck out air and get hot, others are computer controlled for different products and soften the film with heat, cause a vacuum and let the product to be printed enter the softened film which encapsulates the product. The larger the product to be encapsulated the larger the machine and the greater the cost obviously. Some use paper and others use film - film will probably be the way to go as it will mould to the substrate whereas paper will require cutting to avoid crease marks (but paper will be cheaper).

[mrs maggot]

my neice works in london and uses one of the biggest 3d printers and vacuum machines around, she makes models for a lot of film companies, and adverts - i know its a different kind of printer/set up, but the technology thats about now is just truly mindblowing

[Mossy88]

Ive been looking into 3D printing as there are some on the market now, very interested in one for 3d printing of phone cases which uses a film.

Youtube has a few videos of this.

[Renniwano]

It would be a fantastic piece of tech to have.. I have seen quite a few that require separate jigs for products.. which then could become costly.. I can't wait to see what you have in store..

[ASLCreative]

The technology used seems as it is not much different to vacuum forming. It will be interesting to see how they perform with different products.

[pisquee]

the drawback I can see is the time it takes - on our biggest press (which is a bit bigger than A2 per bed) I can press a lot of iPhone aluminiums in one go. From what I've seen of the vaccuum presses, you need some kind of jig to hold the iPhone cases in position, and then can only do so many, and it seems to take a bit longer for the process than in a flat bed heat press. Whilst I agree the end finished result does seem a lot better, I am yet to be convinced it is the way to go for us. Does anyone have a price on the rolls of the film that need to be printed, and do they take standard sublimation inks, or do you need a different formulation to print on a film as opposed to papers?)

Being able to print more interesting shaped mugs (not just flat sided) mind, that holds a lot of appeal for us, especially as potentially the common problems with mug pressing will be done away with - all around printing right up to the handle, no issues (?) with inconsistent heat/pressure. Also, being able to print the glass tumblers without them breaking, and seamlessly all the way around - now that would be great. We'd definitely be interested in one for mug pressing

[pisquee]

Ooh, just seen that BestSub have a vacuum press for doing 12 mugs at a time - now I'm interested!

[Ian M]

Does anyone have a price on the rolls of the film that need to be printed, and do they take standard sublimation inks

From what I have been reading 100 sheets of A4 film costs £200+VAT & you will need different inks too. The ink I've seen advertised is called Visi-Sub 3D ink & I think we all know the price will be a premium one. As for the jigs I have seen them priced up at £196+VAT each & these jigs are just for the phone cases. I don't think any of this is going to be cheap.