one other thing - what would be a good price to charge for printing bags...like say they are for the Chamber of Commerce to give out information to newcomers...how do you determine how much to charge? i'm so full of questions....and i certainly appreciate your help
thats a tough one. depending on the bags you probably could sub the job out to a company that does this on a regular basis. there are tons of companies that print on bags like what you mentioned.
Hi, I have an earth friendly packaging company which sells biodegradable retail bags and have looked into this extensively.
It depends on whether the bags have been treated for printing or not and it's tough to tell whether they have been. I sent some bags to Nazdar and the 1800 series uv curable ink works on mine which are treated however the ink is designed for untreated plastic so that's always a good option however expensive with uv curing. the 9600 series with 10% NB80 also works and it's air dry.
As for price, it is really dependant on quantity. for the majority of printed bags they are done while the film is still on a roll and the minimum quantity people offer for them is about 3000 bags and for these the price of printing will 10 cents or so ontop of the price of the bag. I offer customers order quantities as low as 500 bags and these are hot stamped (as my screen printing setup isn't ready yet). these bags sell well for me and the cost is the price of the bags plus 25 cents per impression. basically for low quantity order the price is much much higher since virtually no large packaging company will deal with quantities under 3000.
Hope this helps and if you ever find another suitable ink that works please let me know and keep me posted on your progress.
thanks
about printing bags: because plastig bags are very pricy when not ordered in thousands (it is not even posible to order 200 or so printed plastic bags), i chose paper bags.
they have more style, in my opinion, and you can buy 20 - 50 pieces as a minumum order.
there are natural paper bags (kraft paper), or laminated paper bags, a lot of colors, different colors, and spahes and sizes on and they can support up to 8 kg (i believe that is about 18 lbs) or so in weight.
printing paper bags is more simple than printing t-shirts, but you need a storage space, as the ink (solvent ink) air dries in 15-20 min.
i use some regular textile spray adhesive.
BUT! from my experience, you can only print one color logos, and i tried to find a solution for that - i suggested clients to choose gold or silver, so the look has some style - and it works
if they really insist, i can get printed paper bags for as minimum as 500 or 1500 units for diferent types og bags.
i have seen a youtube video in which a guy was printing 2 color dsign on paper bags and the ink did't smugge...i can't find the video right now.
oh, and you need to use a 300 mesh.
and there a few different kinds of plastic inks..the ink for coroplast signs doesn't work with laminated paper bags, for exampls.
ask your ink supplier and your bag supplier for details.
sorry I should have explained, hot stamping isn't related to screen printing, it uses a heated metal plate that has the required design on it and then it presses down on a coloured foil which is then imprinted onto the bag. The plates are more expensive than a screen setup though (about $60 dollars) so it's a trade off either way. I just suggested it as it is tough to find a screen printing ink that adheres to plastic bags whereas hot stamping could be used for plastic, paper, etc. One thing to be aware of is that if the plastic bag is thin and your hot stamping machine is too hot it could melt the two sides of the bag together so if this is the case it's best to slide in a piece of cardboard.
Pete
thank you!
it seems to be like hot embossing or folio, as it is known...it is also used to print sinthetic leather covers for business diaries, for example, isn't it?
this is a good time to start looking for alternatives to plastic bags. Store here are starting to charge .05 or .10 cents for plastic bags. We have had several calls a week for either cotton or non-woven tote bags. Plastic is really unenvironmentally friendly. Many retailers are into offering tote bags for sale.
printing on plastic type bags 
FireFly Printers 
Re: printing on plastic type bags 
i'm so full of questions....and i certainly appreciate your help
Re: printing on plastic type bags 
