Anyone heard of or know how to do this process?

[Rodne Gold]

According to a fellow engraver in south Africa , there is a place that will print on any curved surface , evidently the surface is prepped by spraying it , then the image is printed , evidently its like a powder when it comes out the printer (laser toner?) , the printed output is rolled onto the prepped curved surface which accepts the "powder" and then "fused" using a heat gun. Anyone know more?

[Rangarajan Saravana kumar]

Hi Rodne,

Have you know a bit about Water printing which is used for curved or any surface?

Regards
Saravanakumar

[Rangarajan Saravana kumar]

water Transfer printing !!!!

[Richard DiMaggio]

Rodney,
I have to assume you are talking about a dome when you reference "curved" surface?
Remember that I have solved this problem with my setup with the exception of making the beam perpindicular to the surface. I can keep a constant distance (focal length) of the beam to the surface. This is certainly much better than attempting to average the beam focus over +/- the curve distance...
If you need a solution, maybe I can help...
rj

[Rodne Gold]

Its a powder of some sort..not water slide. It's a colour printing process richard , low tech , print on paper , use paper to transfer powder , seal...

[Doug Griffith]

I'm going to guess it involves photocopying a printed image onto a transparent substrate... or vellum. Even better if the substrate is a bit flexible. The spray could be some type of PSA that cures when heated.

Just a guess for a crude process.

[Martin Boekers]

Rodne, if it uses a poweder I'm not sure. I have a friend that has designed a process for printing onto 3 dimentional substrates.
Won't tell me how it's done ;-( the have patented the process as i is unique in the sign industry. Heres's the link

www.3dphotoworks.com/ (http://www.3dphotoworks.com/)


Here is a video of the water transfer process, not like water slide and it's durable as car paint. They use this a lot for making camo
gun stocks.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJdkZUwH2UU (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJdkZUwH2UU)

Not sure if someone came up with a powder method for graphics, have to do some research on that.

Keep us informed on what you find out!

[Rodne Gold]

I got bit more info.

The item is sprayed with a "receptor" coating , some items arent....

The graphic is printed on glssy paper via a laser printer , without pressure or fusing

The graphic is transferred by rubbing

The "print" on the item is either fused via a heat gun or infrared globes and sometimes just sprayed with an overvarnished and sent out.

The receptor spray comes from an automative paint supplier.

I spoke to my cousin who is a laser printer specialist
He said you have to bypass the pressure roller and the fuser and let the print come out without heat or pressure
However you need to have the heat and pressure roller working for the laser to print. He suggests removing that whole mechanism and leading it to outside the laser toner cart so the machine thinks it's still operative. He also recons to print on transparency as the toner will transfer off it much better and you can see where to place the print.

As to the coatings , we will have to see what works , but I think a polyester based clear coat will for the "receptor" (depending on substrate) I would imagine a protective overcoat can be anything clear and durable.
Any more thoughts?

[Martin Boekers]

Rodne, you might do some searching under electro-static printing processes. They have electro-static printers
for large format graphics over 12 foot wide. They are faster printing than ink jet, but there is a trade off on quality.
Technology moves so fast it's hard to keep up! There may be some new small format printers coming out that do what you want.
In my former life in photography, The company I worked for did a powder-based "proof prints" called Chromalins. Not sure anymore exactly
how the process worked anymore:( Maybe the receptor spray was to "melt" the toner so it sticks to the substrate? There are a few
"glazing" ovens out there now to help fuse the toner to substrates to give it a stronger bond. If you remember the days of "press type"
that was used for layouts, you bought the letters in sheets then rubbed them onto the layout sheet. This was before the ammonia printers
that made "stats" that you cut out and attached to the comp sheets with a glue machine. I believe they sold kits at that time that you could
make you own "press type" so you might search that.

Amazing how technology has changed over the years. We used to set type with special equipment and apainstaking process of layouts.
Now we can design, print and bind a hardcover book right at home!