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?

Inkcups Now strives to provide consumers all over with the highest quality inks available. We take pride in our lineup of pad and screen printing inks. Maintaining that standard, Inkcups Now introduces our new line of silicone inks.

Silicone is typically a difficult material for conventional inks to adhere to. The only way to print on silicone is with a silicone based ink. The SI Series silicone ink ensures excellent adhesion to all silicone products. Whether it is a remote control or a wristband, the silicone ink will adhere. The SI Series ink can be applied by either screen printing or pad printing.

The addition of the silicone ink is just another example of Inkcups Now’s ability to meet and exceed customer needs.

Inkcups Now’s Si Series silicone ink comes in a wide variety of colors and can be color matched to any pantone color.

Contact Inkcups Now for additional information!

Ink used in this project:
Type: SI Series
Brand: Sapphire Pad & Screen Printing Ink
More info: SI Series Silicone Ink page

Technorati tags: Silicone Inks, Print on Silicone, Pad and screen printing ink” target=”_blank”>Pad Shuttle, Apparel Labels

Are you struggling with keeping opened pad or screen printing ink and hardener fresh?
We have a convenient solution: the VersaCover! Don’t miss our commercial to air at the Super Bowl. Here is a sneak preview, just for you:

The VersaCover hermetically seals nearly all ink and hardener cans available on the market.
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This crystal clear imprint on this piece of glass (small version of a basketball backboard) was created using the Mimaki UJF-605CII Flatbed Inkjet Printer.

This inkjet printed glass was done in two parts; printing the colored logo first, then overprinting with white in order to make the artwork more opaque. We also printed the solid white stripe as an example of how the lines would look.

Since the impact of the basketball would eventually wear out an imprint we decided to print on the back on the board were the glass gives the impression that the print is on the front.

Before printing, Paul our Mimaki expert, started off by wiping the glass backboard down with our Glass Activator (Specially developed in our ICN Laboratory…) to get extra adhesion to the glass.

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Everyone in the pad printing and screen printing industry could do with some useful ink tips now and then to freshen up the memory and maybe learn something new! That’s why we want to bring up some common ink issues and how to go about solving them.

• Add a touch of blue to make your white ink brighter

We happen to get calls from customers sometimes asking about how to brighten white screen printing or pad printing ink. To do so you can actually just add a touch of blue color to it. More specifically, #32 from any of our ink series would be the best option.

• How to handle misprints

Removing misprints from plastics is also a issue for some people. The best way to handle it is to use our Ink-Away Remover to clean the substrate and then overprint the shadow before removing the object from the nesting fixture. However, if the ink attacks the plastic it may be impossible to re-claim the item.

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The PromoJET is known for being an extremely versatile printer, capable of printing on objects of different sizes and shapes. But let’s not forget that a small flat objects such as luggage tags is another great application for the PromoJET Inkjet Printer.

They came out looking very shiny and the resolution of the artwork in really outstanding. See for yourself by clicking on the picture to see a larger image!

Greg simply followed 3 easy steps to go from plain white tags to colorful personalized luggage tags.

• First thing he needed to do was to wipe down the tags with alcohol to get all those sticky fingerprints off!
• Secondly, he pre-treated them using a heat gun which is a pretty common procedure in order to get the best ink adhesion possible.
• Lastly, all he did was placing the luggage tags on the printer table and off it goes!

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Have you ever experienced problems while pad printing such as repeated misprints or voided prints? If so, your initial reaction was most likely that it was caused by the ink. However, many times it is due to the fact that the printing pad needs replacing. If your pad looks anything like those on the picture, it’s about time you get a new one!

By the way, for a limited time, we have a Buy 5 Pads Get 1 Free offer for you. Search our pad selection and call in for more details at 978-646-8981.

Common Issues Caused by Old Pad

• • All silicone pads have oil in them to pick up and transfer ink properly. If the pad dries out you may experience voids in the prints.
• • If the image is burnt into the pad that means it has dried out. This can be caused by using a high ratio of hardeners or thinners in your ink - hardeners and some thinners are aggressive to the silicone surface. This is normal and doesn’t necessarily mean that there is something wrong with your ink mix – but you will have to change your pad more often. (The life of the pad also depends on what substrates you print on, for instance, softer plastic materials is gentler to print on then hard metal objects.)
• • Pads can also get saturated with thinners, leading to poor ink pick-up. If the saturation happens, the pad will dry out quicker than it should.
• • When the pad durometer changes (due to dryness) softer pads get softer and harder pads get harder, which will also affect the outcome of the artwork.

We’ve seen a lot pads and done a lot of pad printing here at Inkcups. Our conclusion is: if you are continuing to use a deteriorated pad instead of getting a new one, you are wasting much more than you are saving because of all the misprints and aggravation.

How to Take Care of Your Printing Pad

Even the best pads won’t last forever. However, you can prolong their life by regular maintenance.
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Hi! A few tips on using Sapphire inks for screen print process:

• When using Sapphire inks for screen printing, you need a slower thinner than that you use for pad printing and you need it in lesser quantities. You want to add 3-5% of thinner to start and then see if you need more. For instance blue colors will most likely be fine but some red colors will require more thinner. High density colors will always require more thinner.

• Use S3 screen thinner, it will prevent your screen from “locking.”

• To increase ink opacity use the widest mesh appropriate for your artwork.
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Does this image not look laser engraved? Yet it is printed, with all its fine lines. Not only the ink looks great, you can save money with it!
Click on the image to view it closer.
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