[jonchamberlin]

I'm going into production of a product and would like to do so well-informed, as I speak with manufacturers and printers. I have a few questions.

I'm printing a UV ink on a plastic inflatable. The area that is being printed upon is roughly 12in by 10in and has a slight convex bend of 1.25cm or nearly a half inch. This surface is also being thermoformed. There is some flex to the product when inflated. I prefer to print after the product is completely assembled - right after air proof tests when the product is still inflated.

Here are my questions.

1. Given the curvature of 1.25cm over 12inx10in and flexible nature of the product when inflated, is it out of the question to screen print? What if it was only 1cm?

My feeling is that I could in theory, but it would be too easy to smear the print and won't be worth the trouble. I could also screen print before thermoforming, but that brings up more issues.

2. Given the size, shape and ink, how viable is pad printing? Is it the next obvious choice? If it is the obvious choice, how common is it to pad print in this size? Does it require some specialty that only a few printer practice in?

Thank you for your answers.

 

[printsfordays]

Though I have never printed on anything with a curvature I know that many curved objects are screen printed.

Take for example pint glasses with a screen print on them. Maybe your project can be done using a rig or method similar to that?

Is the product you want to print on something that can be flattened before it is inflated?

 

[jonchamberlin]

Thank you for the response.

Nowhere near perfectly flat. When deflated there is other material that would get in the way.

It's only perfectly flat before thermoforming.