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Seemingly every day, fresh and trendy drinkware items grace the shelves of our stores. Given the strong connection between personalization and self-expression, it’s hardly a surprise that individuals are swiftly seeking methods to personalize each novel addition to their collection of drinkware.
Enter the sensation of powder coated drinkware. For those unfamiliar with this term, powder coating entails applying a safeguarding and aesthetically pleasing finish, available in a diverse array of colors, to the external surface of metal drinkware. The popularity of powder coating stems from its dual function: fortifying the metal while rendering it resistant to various weather conditions. Noteworthy is the enhanced durability of powder coated pieces, setting them apart from their stainless-steel counterparts.
Within the drinkware industry, other types of metal vessels, like aluminum and stainless steel, also hold strong. These materials are frequently favored for their capacity to maintain the temperature of beverages, whether it’s keeping them refreshingly cold or piping hot over long durations.
Now enter the difficult decision on how to best decorate the drinkware. Among the array of techniques available, two have gained substantial popularity for personalizing metal drinkware: laser engraving and digital UV printing. In the subsequent discussion, we will thoroughly explore the pros, cons, and results of each of these competing methods.
Laser engraving involves the utilization of a concentrated light beam to meticulously inscribe artwork onto a metal surface. This method exhibits exceptional performance on both powder-coated surfaces and various metals like stainless steel and aluminum. Notably, the resultant etching boasts remarkable quality, rendering it a viable long-term branding solution.
Alongside a laser engraving machine, one needs both a cooling system as well as ventilation. The cooling systems prevents excess heat build up, while the ventilation unit protects both the operator and the laser engraver. During the engraving process the laser beam heats the material to the point of vaporization which results in smoke, soot and debris. This needs to be removed from the air as it is both harmful for inhalation as well as for the machine.
Laser engraving skillfully produces sharp, well-defined designs on drinkware surfaces, ensuring high contrast and visual appeal. These engravings exhibit an impressive durability, lasting the entire lifespan of the vessel itself. Notably, the laser engraving process eliminates the need for additional consumables like inks due to its inherent nature.
Despite these advantages, it’s intriguing to note that certain laser engraving machines come with a price tag comparable to that of digital UV printers. UV printers are generally perceived as more expensive, but this isn’t always the case. This raises the question as to why the alternative method isn’t more widely explored. Given the potential health risks associated with inhaling harmful particles, along with the visually striking yet somewhat restricted aesthetic appeal, those involved in drinkware decoration should look closer at UV cylindrical printers, which stand as a noteworthy and formidable competitor.
Digitally decorating drinkware with a UV printing machine uses the printer itself, UV inks, and primer. During the printing process ink is instantly cured onto the vessel with UV light, allowing the operator to print full-color, high-quality prints directly onto the vessel. With UV digital printing you can decorate many substrates of drinkware, including glass, plastics, metals and more. One of the most notable features of UV digital printing is the ability to simulate laser engraving with digital printing with print innovation like tone-on-tone and contour print without any of the harmful particles.
Digital UV printing can recreate everything from single color logos to photorealistic images. Print the entire length of a straight walled or taped cylinder and stun customers with visual effects such as lustre effect or mirror print.
Lustre Effect Drinkware
Lustre Effect: through the use of software technology, print stunning metallic effect colors directly onto aluminum, stainless, and various other metal vessels. With over 300 metallic shades to choose from, and access to embellishments to create gradations, watermarks, and patterns, your customers will completely overlook anything simply etched moving forward.
Mirror Print: Enjoy digital artwork from both the inside and outside of your cup. For plastic and glass drinkware, use a layer or white ink between two layers of color to create a mirror image.
Contour Print: Give glass drinkware a textured 3D feel by adding additional layers of ink to the exterior to recreate depth.
Tone-on-Tone: Simulate embossing by using print innovation, tone-on-tone. To achieve this effect skip over the white ink and instead, print with just varnish or a low opacity color to enhance the actual color of the substrate.
Inkcups has a line of cylindrical inkjet printers to accommodate a wide range of needs and speeds. Starting at the compact Helix ONE, fit for first time drinkware decorators and others like apparel decorators branching out all the way to the Revolution that has in-line pre-treatment and can print upwards of 600 cups per hour.
All of the Inkcups UV cylindrical printers can bring you stunning print techniques like mirror print, tone-on-tone, contour print, Lustre Effect, full coverage, photorealistic quality, and more.
This benchtop cylindrical printer is perfect for those looking to get started digitally decorating drinkware.
The Helix® remains a customer favorite due to its easy of use and high-quality output.
The Helix®+ offers all of the functionality of the Helix®, but with the added advantage of the ability to grow with operations as production increases.
Twice the output, all the quality features of the Helix®.
Our high-speed, full-color UV printer that can accommodate 600 parts for hours is the Revolution®. Perfect for plastic cups such as stadium cups, the Revolution® is ready for automation integration.
When it comes down to choosing a single-color etched piece of drinkware next to a full-color, high resolution digitally printed image, it almost seems like a no-brainer as to which will be picked every time. For that reason, and more consider basking in the benefits of digitally decorating. Contact us today to get started.
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