Benefits of Digital White Ink Printing vs. Screen Printing

Digital white ink printing offers significant benefits over traditional screen printing, especially when it comes to efficiency and design complexity. This modern method enables faster turnaround times on short to medium production runs, streamlining the production process by eliminating the time-consuming tasks of creating, prepping, and stripping multiple screens.

Furthermore, digital printing excels at reproducing intricate designs and photographic images with greater detail, smoother gradients, and consistent color across the entire batch. digital printing and white ink technology provides a flexible, highly productive solution for today’s custom and variable-data projects.

While screen printing remains a classic choice for smaller, solid-color jobs, recent advancements in digital printing and white UV ink technology have given way to an option that rivals and surpasses the quality achieved via screen printing. In this blog post, we will explore the various decoration methods available for reusable bags, addressing common challenges like achieving high-opacity white prints on dark substrates.

Bright White Screen Printing Considerations

The pursuit of a bright white print customarily drives people to use screen printing. By utilizing stencils, silkscreens, and rubber squeegees, screen printers transfer images onto flat surfaces with precision and use multiple ink colors making it an ideal choice for decorating dark fabrics. However, screen printing comes with its own limitations:

Drying Time: Screen printing is limited as a process in the number of colors it can print simultaneously, necessitating multiple drying cycles between each color, which can lead to potential shrinkage of the substrate.

Machine Size: Though screen printers do come in smaller sizes that are great for individual use or small batches, the equipment quickly ramps up in size as your print runs get larger. Personal screen printers can fit on a tabletop, but an industrial machine can take up most of a room.

Equipment Cost: Consequently, the cost of screen printers can vary significantly. Basic manual screen printers are available for under $1,000, while more sophisticated options, such as automatic screen printers and digital screen printers, can reach prices in the six-figure range.

For all of its flexibility, screen printing still does have its drawbacks. While screen printing remains a popular choice, it’s essential to weigh the trade-offs and explore alternative solutions for more intricate and multi-color designs.

UV Digital Printing White Ink Printing Considerations

Industrial UV flatbed printers offer an exceptional way to decorate products like reusable bags. By using UV industrial printers, you can achieve prints that other comparable methods simply cannot. For high-quality, bright, photorealistic prints look no further than UV digital white ink printing.

UV Printer Types: The four most popular UV printer types are cylindrical, roll to roll, flatbed and conveyorized.

Equipment Cost and ROI: Prices of UV printers are an investment but are justified with the superior quality and additional benefits presented, such as instant cure.

Pre-Treatment and Additional Steps: Typically, drinkware printed on cylindrical inkjet printers requires pre-treatment to withstand wash testing. However, with applications such as reusable polyester totes, clear concert bags or soft coolers, adhesion is promoted with specially formulated UV inks.  Pre-treatment is usually dependent on the substrate and usage.

UV Digital Flatbed Printers

UV digital printers come in different forms, and some are designed to print large volumes of specialized products at exceptionally high levels of quality.

XJET 800 UV Flatbed Inkjet Printer:

The XJET 800 UV Flatbed Inkjet Printer is a high-speed industrial system built around an automation-ready conveyor belt that enables continuous, high-volume production for around-the-clock printing. Designed for industrial applications and packaging, this workhorse printer can be easily integrated with robotic arms for self-sufficient loading and unloading, accommodating parts up to 10 inches tall across its 31.5-inch by 24.4-inch print area.

XJET 800-T Tall UV Inkjet Printer:

The XJET 800-T Tall UV Inkjet Printer is the latest model in the conveyorized flatbed line, built for industrial applications requiring high-volume and continuous 24/7 operation. Its “Tall” capability provides an extended drop height to handle products up to 18.1 inches, making it ideal for decorating oversized items like popcorn tins, large coolers, and various industrial parts.

XJET Switch:

The XJET Switch joins the XJET line of industrial flatbed printers as the first printer with a distinct application in mind. Decorate bags, totes, and various hard goods with the XJET Switch with quality untouched in comparative methods such as screen printing. Achieve bright white on dark fabrics, switch between applications and substrates easily, and enjoy all the additional benefits of digital printing.

X5-T Flatbed UV Digital Printer:

The X5-T Flatbed UV Digital Printer is a high-speed, heavy-duty solution designed for industrial and promotional full-color, direct-to-object printing. Leveraging a large vacuum table and extended part height up to 19.7 inches, the X5-T efficiently prints high-volume output on flat and tall hard goods like coolers, sporting equipment, and even edible items with the optional EdiJET (Candymark) capability.

X5-T High Throw:

The X5-T High Throw Flatbed Inkjet Printer redefines industrial UV printing with unique high throw technology that allows for flawless decoration on up to 25% curved or uneven surfaces. Equipped with a 19.7-inch drop table, this machine efficiently handles oversized products, applying high-quality graphics to tall items such as coolers, handled drinkware, and various sports equipment.

UV White Ink

XFlexx is a durable UV flexible ink series perfect for decorating reusable bags and totes. This flexible ink was created to enable printing on flexible items without cracking or distorting the image, flexing as needed. XFlexx is available in Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, White, Varnish and Vivid White.

Vivid White is ideal for printing white over dark bags and enhancing color vibrancy. Due to its opaque nature, Vivid White ensures color matching is consistent across all products. As UV ink is instantly cured during the printing process there is no need for additional steps or additional machinery.

Typically, white uv ink contains larger and heavier pigment particles. To achieve the best print quality with white uv inks, it’s crucial to select a machine equipped with a recirculating system specifically designed for white uv ink usage.

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You can achieve bright white prints on dark substrates thanks to white UV ink like XFlexx’s Vivid White. Contact us to get started.