Ceramic Cups

[Gabriel Rangel]

Has anyone ever tried engraving on Ceramic Coffee Cups.
I got it to engrave but now trying to figure out what kind of ink to
us to fill it and what to use to seal it so it is water proof. For
washing.

If anyone have any ideas

thank you
Gabriel

[Darren Null]

car paint and WD40 would work. It'd take a bit of bashing, but don't know how often it'd cope with being washed.

[martin g. boekers]

I had a job to quote awhile back for a german stein style ceramic mug. The client wanted to incorporate color for military shields. They did't like the dye sub versions available so my quest began.... Conde had a decal material for dye sub that I thought might work, but the client felt that it could be peeled off so no luck there. The mug being a non-standard shape created problems to laser and fill, plus multiple colors wouldn't make it any easier. (I tried the Cermark for china and glass and just made a big mess!!!) The best solution I came up with was waterslide decals that I could do one-ups with my Xerox Phaser. The problem I ran into was sealing the decal to the ceramic. The more research I did the less I found. I contacted Krylon figuring that they could recommend something. They couldn't recommend anything that would hold up and that would be "food safe". More research into the china industry I discoved that they incorporate a screening process and then kiln fired. I have access to kilns on base but there wasn't a way to bypass the screening process. Evidently the inks they use have a high metal content and no one has worked out an ink jet system that would produce these decals.

I know this is a little long winded, but I wanted to share my experience with this project. they ended up with the dye sub mugs as I couldn't come up with a better alternative.

Also in case someone else has any other ideas to make it work!


Thanks,

Marty

[Dee Gallo]

There is a company called Lazertran (lazertran.com) which makes waterslide decals they SAY are good on ceramics, glass and metal:

"To bake on ceramics, glass or metal to give a hard, waterproof finish- copy image in reverse, put the sheet of Laertran in a hot domestic oven or use a heat gun to make sure the toners are completely fused on the paper before cutting and soaking in water. This will avoid air bubbles later. Soak the transfer off and apply face down, toners next to the ceramic and wash away any gum on the surface of the decal. Squeegee out any airbubbles. Put immediately into domestic oven on the lowest setting for at least one hour then slowly increase the temp. as little as possible every 15 minutes until the image goes shiny like a glaze. This should take at least anoither hour (about 200 degrees C gas mark 7) or 350-400 degrees F. The longer you take the better the result."

I have not used this on ceramics, but their product works very well on wood for me.

cheers, dee

[martin g. boekers]

Thanks Dee!
I will check them out. On the wood how do you transfer do you go through the same steps as with ceramic. Is the transfer fairly durable and fade resistant? Thanks again for your input.

Marty

[Mark Winlund]

Way back when, my company went through the same process. We had a complete screen printing setup for cups. It was expensive and time consuming. The quantities required to make a profit were in the hundreds. Our best profits were made with simple sand (silicon carbide) blasting of a graphic onto a colored mug. Now and then, simple color filling. Dye sub worked OK, but would wash off after a while. As has been said, kiln fired with glass pigments is the best. Big bucks, and very time consuming. Can you say "Chinese suppliers" and "large quantity", and "long wait"?

Mark

[Dee Gallo]

Marty-

Wood is a lot easier: you cut out the decal, wet it for a minute until the thing slides around and put it on the wood. Done!

If you want permanent impregnation into the wood surface, you put a coat of real turpentine on the wood first, place the decal, let dry. Then a thin coat of poly and that's it.

cheers, dee

[Don Necaise]

Try rub and buff