Inkjet Pen Printer: How UV Digital Printing Works on Pens

Pens are the ultimate promotional giveaway. What better way to promote your brand than with a full color, personalized pen?  Print customized pens with your logo to create a continual reminder of your brand.  UV digital printing adds the ability to produce detailed, full-color graphics directly on the pen while supporting short runs, customization, and faster artwork changes.

For decorators producing multiple designs or smaller quantities, the combination of digital artwork, multi-product fixtures, and instant UV curing can provide a flexible alternative to conventional printing methods.

How Pen Printing Works

Flatbed UV printers such as the Inkcups X5-T use a custom fixture to hold pens in position while printheads jet ink onto their surfaces and UV LED light cures the ink almost instantly. Printing pens with a UV flatbed printer generally follows these steps:

1. Load the pens into a custom fixture. Because pens are cylindrical rather than flat, a tooling fixture holds multiple pens securely in place and maintains consistent positioning during printing.
2. Send the digital artwork to the printer. The desired logo, graphic, or other artwork is transferred digitally to the printer, eliminating the need for printing plates or screens.
3. Print directly onto the pens. The printhead moves back and forth across the fixture, jetting ink directly onto the surface of each pen to reproduce the artwork.
4. Cure the ink with UV LED light. The UV ink cures during the printing process, so the decorated pens do not require a separate drying step.
5. Unload the finished pens. Once printing is complete, the fixture moves out of the machine and the cured pens can be removed for packaging or distribution.

Full-Color Pen Printing: The X5-T Application Process

This video features the X5-T UV flatbed printer printing full color on pens, using the process outlined above. This high-performance digital printer is ideal for continuous printing on pens, notebooks and other promotional products as well as industrial products and more.

Here, one row of 22 pens is printed at a time (although this machine can print many more at a time). The X5-T prints CMYK plus two highly opaque UV LED-curable white inks, with an optional varnish for additional visual impact. Each print head holds 2 colors of ink. Black and magenta ink are stored in one, while yellow and cyan are in other.

The S1 ink series was chosen for this application as it offers excellent adhesion to plastics.  The artwork is transferred digitally from data stored in the inkjet pen printer. Once this inkjet pen printer works its magic, the fixture will travel out of the machine and be ready for unloading. Your pens will be instantly cured and ready to give-away.

Find the Right Printer for Custom Pen Decoration

If you’re looking to print detailed, full-color graphics directly onto pens and other promotional products, Inkcups’ X5-T High Throw Flatbed Inkjet Printer is built for direct-to-object decoration on a wide range of rigid items. It delivers high-quality, full-color results without the screens or plates required by traditional printing methods.

Learn more about the X5-T High Throw Flatbed Inkjet Printer