Hello you wonderful graphic designer colleagues,
Today I am looking for your help.
I want to apply a logo very small (13mm) on (coffee) machines without leaving an edge of e.g. a transparent foil around the logo.
If you can think of a supplier or process that could work for this task, that would be great.
My customer repairs and trades coffee machines and I would like him to stick his logo on them in silver and black. Unfortunately, conventional methods such as foil cuts or transparent foils are too imprecise or too unsightly in our case.
Unfortunately, it is too time-consuming to take the machine parts to the pad printer 30 minutes away by car each time.
I was thinking of gel doming stickers but these are limited to silver backgrounds which clash with the silver materials of the machines and these types of stickers would also probably be too intrusive for the end users and the logo would often not sit centrally in the sticker at that size. Inside the coffee machine we have a smart service sticker made of aluminium foil with the company name, logo, address and everything, but it would be too obtrusive on the front of the machine.
For some time now, I have been looking for a method to replace cutting plots for die-cut stickers on carrier foil when these fail due to the smallness and fineness of the design. I have already come across the possibility of doing this with a handheld device for pad printing. However, at several thousand euros, these are too expensive for a single one of my customers and I had no intention of getting into the printing service business. I also don’t know enough about the quality.
Stamp and ink processes I saw were too inaccurate.
The internet says there are also laser-cut plots, but I can’t find any service providers, only laser manufacturers.
Thanks
(I couldn’t find a better category than General, maybe Printing&Prepress - admins feel free to move this to a better category, please excuse my non native english)
The problem with laser cutting vinyl is it’s made with PVC. You’re not supposed to cut stuff with a laser that releases chlorine gas when burned. There are some places that do cut small stuff, like the vinyl dealer logos you see on the backs of cars.
Here’s a couple examples I pulled from a websearch. Buyer beware.
Thank you all. I have found a very satisfactory solution.
I contacted a couple of laser manufacturers who have dealt with the issue and one recommended a fellow designer. He told me, two days after my mail, when he was already looking for test material that would not be melted off by the laser, he happened to get a call from a supplier of HQ t-shirt transfer printing that there was a brand new process for stickers. Laser cutting is not the way to go though. He sent me some test stickers with my design and it is perfect. To be applied like cutting plots between protective films and carrier film. Only “ink” remains on the target surface. The result is visually similar to pad printing and holds better than normal stickers. I can not say exactly how the manufacturing process works, but it seems to be a kind of transfer printing partly with UV varnish.
Something like an INT?
Didn’t even give that a thought, we use it so rarely and only for custom built models (did windows for a whole factory town model once several years back)
My age is showing. INT is the term I learned about 20 years ago for Rub down transfers.
Ink on an INT paper with adhesive applied to the back.
Rubbed down like Letraset letters.
I’m old enough to have used Letraset letters it’s probably my non native English.
But there’s nothing to rub in the above solution. The prints can be handled in exactly the same way as cutting plots. (Readjusting with liquid probably won’t work, but is unnecessary given the small size).
More when the delivery arrives. I was just informed of a delay.
Works like a charm. As this is printed and now that I see it I could have sprinkled the grey one instead of making it all 25% black to get a more silverish appearance.
I will check if they can deliver 0,45 mm lines.
it’s probably my non native English.
