Best Ways to Print on Plastic

1. Best Ways to Print on Plastic Plastic is an amazing material with varied uses and wonderful properties. However, there are hundreds of different plastics available with different properties and it can be a tricky task to print on them. Plastic has a lot of uses. From signage to folders, to luggage tags, plastic is used everywhere. Plastic products are not necessarily single-use, disposable type, but useful items like a business card that needs to be lightweight, flexible, waterproof, and durable. You might have to use full color printing on some of them to make things work. With a lot of different plastic printing methods available, it’s hard to figure out which type of printing would be needed for your particular purpose. Keeping that in mind, below we explore the best ways to print on plastic. Digital Ink-Jet Printing Digital print technology has seen ground-breaking developments in the past few decades. Digital inkjet printing is one such development. With the help of this technology, you can print high-quality images onto several plastics. The setup required is minimal and thus inkjet printing is ideally suited for one-off printing. However, the inks required can be expensive, so long-run plastic printing is not recommended with digital inkjet printing. Unlike regular ink that soaks into the paper, digital ink dries by evaporation, making it possible to print on almost anything. Screen Printing With the rise of digital printing, the demand for screen printing has reduced but it’s still a viable option for many applications. In screen printing, blocking stencils are used on a fine silk mesh and then ink is used to transfer the stencil design onto a substrate. High-power UV light is then used to dry the ink to achieve a durable print with strong, bold colors. Vector graphics reproduce well with screen printing making this printing technique particularly useful to print onto several types of sheet material and fabrics. Flexo Printing Flexo printing is normally used to print on thinner and flexible substrates such as plastic bags, food packaging, etc. With this process, you can also print on metallic films, cellophane, and paper. Although Flexo printing creates better images than screen printing, the print quality is still low compared to inkjet printing or UV printing. UV Litho Printing UV litho printing is similar to litho printing and you get all the benefits of litho printing including high definition images in a broad spectrum of colors. The difference is in the drying unit. UV litho print uses UV drying units to dry the ink onto the surface of flexible substrates. The initial setup for UV litho printing is time-consuming and costly but it does good in the long run, making it a suitable cost-effective choice in the long production runs.

2. Pad Printing In pad printing, a silicone plate is used in which the image is etched. This is then flooded with ink and wiped clean, thus leaving the ink in only the etched area. Once the ink gets tacky enough it is then pressed onto the surface of the printing pad. This pad is then pressed onto the surface of the plastic substrates you want to print on. With pad printing, you can print 2D images directly onto the surface of 3D objects such as balls or bottles. Also, pad printing is also possible with multiple colors. Laser Printing Laser printers, mostly used in offices can also print on certain plastics. However, you need to make sure the plastic you are printing on is laser compatible because the fuser inside the laser printer gets very hot and it can melt the plastic inside the printer which can be disastrous. So, these are the ways to print on plastic. As you can see there are multiple options available to print on plastic and your choice will depend upon the type of plastic you are printing on and the results you are trying to achieve. Full color printing is also achievable on plastic but you need to choose carefully from the several plastic printing options. Source Url : https://medium.com/@williamtaylor9559/best-ways-to-print-on-plastic-89a8a944b4ea