The Inkcups.com site has an amazing new upgrade!!!!! Live Chat! Featured on each of our web pages, the live chat button sits on the right hand side of the screen. It is available Monday through Friday 9am – 5pm EST. Visitors have the option to talk to a live expert and get advice instantly! When you see those ICN colors just click to start your chat! Inkcups Now believes in continued innovation for their products and the same can be said about the way in which the company operates. Anything that can be done to bridge the gap between company and customer relationships is a win-win for everybody.

Question about our pad printing equipment or about a particular ink series? We will have a solution for you. The live chat function serves as an excellent medium for communication between Inkcups Now and visitors to the website. We are very excited to have this chat technology be apart of our webpage! We are continually striving to provide the industry’s best customer service from technical experts. Our chat service is not outsourced, you will be chatting with REAL Inkcups Now employees from our headquarters location.

Try out the Chat today! Just visit: Inkcups.com and click on the green and blue chat icon.

2011 was another monumental year for Inkcups Now! We grew as a company, introduced new products and updates to the market, expanded our presence in the garment tag printing (aka Inkcup Print) market. We have compiled a list of what we accomplished in the past year:

1. WE TURNED 10!
Inkcups Now celebrated its 10th year as a company! Starting out selling ink cups out of his basement, Ben Adner (President and founder) quickly turned this small company into a market leader in 10 short years! Even receiving the honor of being named entrepreneur of the year!

2. INKCUPS NOW EXPANDS THEIR FACILITY
In early 2011 Inkcups Now decided that we needed more space! We were expanding our inventory and simply could not house it all in a single place. We moved our entire ink, thinner and auxiliary line to a state of the art facility. We now have a larger inventory and faster than ever turnaround!

3. INCREASED WORK FORCE
Throughout the year Inkcups Now has obtained new employees in all departments of the company. We expanded our production department, our corporate sector and our sales department. We also have more international sales representatives in Central and South America.

4. INTRODUCED THE ICN-2200PS
The ICN-2200PS revolutionized 2 color pad printing. The reason why this machine is so effective in printing 2 colors is the fact that the parts do not move, only the pads, ensuring flawless 2nd color registration. The ICN-2200PS is also much faster than typical 2 color pad printing machines. The 2200PS is the most advanced 2 color pad printer on the market.

5. INTRODUCED THE ICN-B150
The ICN-B150, also known as the big brother to the ICN-B100, was an excellent addition to the ICN line of pad printers. This pad printer is a bench top model that now allows users to place in smaller work cells, yet can accommodate images up to 150mm in diameter. A great addition to any print shop!

6. INTRODUCED THE ICN-2200PSx
The ICN-2200PS was a great achievement for Inkcups Now and the printing industry as a whole. However, we managed to increase the speed of the machine by giving it an independent cup drive. The 2200PSx managed to increase the overall speed of the machine by 40%. This is now the fastest pad printer on the market today.

7. CREATED A ROTARY MODULE FOR THE MIMAKI UJF-3042
We built the first and only proprietary head lift system and rotary module for the Mimaki UJF-3042. The head lift system raises the print head to allow it to print on items up to 5 inches in height instead of the standard 2 inches. The rotary module gives the machine the ability to print on cylindrical objects, 360 degrees around.

8. NEW PLATE MATERIALS
We introduced new plate materials to the market for pad printing. Our premium orange laser plates are perfect for garment tag printing. Our gold plate material is great for doctoring because it has such a smooth glossy finish.

9. NEW TOUGHCUP
We redeveloped our ToughCup coating for the VersaCup Inkcup to be as tough as ever! The new coating even resists ink. The ink can literally sit over 48hours and harden inside the cup, no matter what the ink can be removed with just a single paper towel. A lot of companies have tried to introduce “green” products this year, Inkcups Now, however was the only one to truly succeed because there is no need to use chemicals and there is nothing to throw away.

10. SILICONE INK
Inkcups Now had begun selling a silicone ink that will adhere to any silicone material. The ink is available for pad printing and screen printing. The silicone ink can withstand extreme temperatures and will not crack or peel when bent.

What’s to come????
We plan on having another stellar year! We are going to continue to grow as a company. We are going to introduce a whole line of new machines, modifications to old machines, and continue to provide the best customer service in the industry.

What do you most want to see from Inkcups Now in 2012?

Here at Inkcups Now (ICN), we are always working to make the lives of our customers easier. One less thing to worry about is always a great thing! We have created two artwork sizing templates to ensure your image will fit within the diameter of the ink cup. One template is designed for use with 90mm ink cups, the other is for larger 150mm ink cups. Each cup is for use within a standard pad printing machine.

Simply open the attached file in adobe illustrator or any other artwork programs to use the template. If the image does not seem to fit, contact an ICN technician, they are always happy to help!

Recommended Ink cups to use in this Project:
ICN VersaCup (available in 90mm or 150mm in size)
Updated ToughCup coating is also available:
Ink resistant coating! No more chemicals to clean your cup.
For more information about Ink cups from Inkcups Now, visit: Inkcups.com/Inkcups

Download the 90mm Sizing Image:
EPS Download

PDF Download

Download the 150mm Sizing Image:
EPS Download

PDF Download

Inkcups Now is a company of many services, one of which is creating a custom part fixture for pad printing. Our engineers can create a fixture based upon a customer’s specifications or, as in this instance, create one from molding the part. ICN’s custom molds are intended to fit your part flawlessly in order to prevent it from moving while printing.

Not only does Inkcups Now create mold style fixtures, our engineers can also create metal or acrylic fixtures that are 100% unique to your parts specifications. Fixtures are also available for screen printing and inkjet printing along with pad printing. Fixtures are a great way to ensure flawless print registration on each part consistently. Fixtures allow for faster loading and unloading of parts and potentially maximize the amount of parts per fixture.

The Cobalt1000 fiber laser is an excellent piece of machinery. It is capable of etching very fine detailed images on hard materials such as steel. This versatile laser etcher can easily accommodate custom machine fixtures, similar to the one shown in the video. In this video a custom name plate fixture is placed into the laser engraving machine. The text on each individual plate is fully customizable. A full fixture is capable of etching 20 name plates in only a minute and a half (that’s about 1000 an hour!)

Laser used in this project: Type: YAG Fiber Laser w/fixture Brand: Cobalt 1000 More info: Cobalt 1000 page

In the past, Inkcups Now had printed on guitar picks with the PromoJET solvent inkjet printer. The results were great, however there was room for improvement. The solvent ink worked well on most plastics, on delrin (a common guitar pick plastic) however, the solvent ink would bead up and did not adhere well. On all other plastics the image quality was great.

We have printed these guitar picks with UV curable ink instead of solvent ink. The major difference is the adhesion to all plastic materials (including delrin.) This UV inkjet ink also has a white ink. White ink creates a base for the colored ink, allowing the colors to really stand out. The ink is a UV LED ink, meaning the ink is cured by low temperature light. The low temperature ensures no heat damage to the product.

Printer used in this project:
Type: UV LED Inkjet Printer
Brand: Mimaki
Model: UJF-3042
Standard applications: Promotional products, Pens, etc…
More info: Mimaki UJF-3042 Inkjet Printer page

“Can I Etch Laser Plates with my CO2 Laser?” – This is a very common question we get from pad printing companies. Indeed, if a company already has a robust laser engraver, it may be able to enjoy the benefits of fully digitized pad printing plate-making – simply by purchasing the laser plate material and getting some instruction.

The short answer is as follows: you are likely to get the best results with laser plates if the wattage of your CO2 laser engraver is between 10Watt and 20Watt, and no more than 30Watt.

The longer answer is this:

1. If your laser has more than 30Watt, you may still get excellent results with the Acculaze plate material, which is designed to handle fine-line graphics only (does not work for bold fonts or open etch areas). To etch Acculaze with a 30+Watt laser engraver, use the lowest power setting and make 2 passes.
2. For the Imperial and Laser Orange plate material (both of which can handle any type of graphics) you do need the laser wattage to be no more than 30Watts; 10Watt – 20Watt is usually best. With a more powerful laser, the beam diameter (spot size) of the laser is too large to achieve fine etch and sharp prints.
3. The other major factor that comes into play is your CO2 laser’s software: it will determine how well you can manipulate your graphic files.
4. Test your laser! We offer laser plate samples and etching guides.
5. Consult with Inkcups Now specialist to determine if investing in one of our specialized laser engravers and plate-makers is the right solution for you.

Printing on dominoes is a great application for the Mimaki UJF-3042 inkjet printer. The smooth surface texture would normally present a challenge to other inkjet printers because of adhesion quality, however for the superior Mimaki inkjet printer this task is not a problem.

With a little pretreatment, the Mimaki UJF-3042 was able to print these high resolution images on these dominoes. To really make these images pop, try adding a layer of white behind the color.

Printer used in this project:
Type: UV LED Inkjet Printer
Brand: Mimaki
Model: UJF-3042
Standard applications: Promotional products, Pens, etc…
More info: Mimaki UJF-3042 Inkjet Printer page

Here at Inkcups Now. we love it when we get the opportunity to print on new applications. The results are typically mixed, however with this Mimaki inkjet printer we haven’t yet found a bad application! Recently we attempted printing on bottle caps with the Mimaki UJF 3042 inkjet. The results were nothing short of fantastic!

The large format inkjet printer can hold over a hundred bottle caps at once, and thanks to its very sophisticated software we were able to print 4 different images at once. No more printing 1 image at a time! Some caps were printed with a layer of white under the color image, thanks to the staggered print head, the machine could accomplish this task simultaneously. Needless to say that we were very pleased with the results and are very happy with the Mimaki UJF 3042 inkjet printer.

Printer used in this project:
Type: UV LED Inkjet Printer
Brand: Mimaki
Model: UJF-3042
Standard applications: Promotional products, Pens, etc…
More info: Mimaki UJF-3042 Inkjet Printer page

The PowerJet compact inkjet printer creates excellent, high quality prints on everything it prints on! For this application, printing on sugar wafers, the compact inkjet printer was equipped with edible ink. Edible ink is safe to consume and just as adhesive as the standard PowerJet ink.

Whether you print on smooth uniform surfaces or uneven surfaces, the PowerJet inkjet printer is able to print high resolution images on any surface. Not only are these sugar wafers tasty but they also look great! This a a fun way to promote a business or to just have a little fun.

Printer used in this project:
Type: Edible Inkjet Printer
Brand: PowerJet
Model: Edible Inkjet Printer
Standard applications: Cookies, Cakes, Marshmallows, Loli-pops, candies, etc…
More info: The PowerJet Edible Inkjet Printer page