Rob first : In the "old days of yore" in terms of digital printing , the inks were heavily solvent based to print on the less han optimal substrates , what with light solvent inks and really good media clogging is no longer an issue ..in fact the rolands even when switched off , but plugged in go thru a sort of print head cleaning every so often , this ensures even less problems. They use quality heads ..Epsons. These days only long term maintenance is is what you need (like a laser).
short term , the only thing you have to do is empty a drain bottle and wipe the head surrounds if ink builds up - print speeds are good ..tho at 1440 x 1440 you can do about 4-6 m2 an hr..but even for real fine detial work , 720 x 720 is more than sufficient.
A lot of other problems have been ironed out , like banding etc.
These are extremely versatile machines , we have printed on various papers , all manner of vinyl not just white , material , canvas , one way window film , mesh , flag material, stiff carboard (you can get up to 1mm thick into the machine) rowmark lights , flexibrass , banner , 1mm styrene , polycarb, iron on garmet stuff, holographic foils , reflective and glow in the dark stuff and so on.
I think your decision not to get into it was wise..
As to doming , I have a semi industrial line , we dome in a dehumidified room and use a 2 part urethane which cures to various degrees of flexibility (we have various shore hardnesses) to handleble state in 30 mins sans UV and packable states in 3-6 hrs - we have banks of shelves with lights to gently provide a heated environment and use builders plastic as dust curtains.
I use 2 automated dispensers - google cammda for systems from simple to complex.
I dont like uv systems cos you cant build high domes and its expensive and oddly enough , most arent uv resistant and yellow.
At any rate I have a few dispensers , they work off shop air and are somewhat programmeable as to shot size and with 3 of my ladies doming , we can do 10 000 items a day.
The 2 part urethanes are about $17 per litre and one cc covers a sq inch , so it covers 1000 sq inches , cost about 2c per sq inch vs up to 20x more for other systems.
The enemy of just about any doming system apart from SOME uvs is water - bone dry environment guarantees success.
You can now add glitters , pearls and other tints to domes for some subtle to glitzy effects and you can dome heat transfer garmet stuff you can print and cut on the Roland and heat press em to the garment after.
Occasionally when we want rock hard domes we use 2 part epoxys , but rock hard domes have issues of their own , like going milky , shattering , scratching , delaminating off the substrate , so domes with a bit of give are generally best.
Rodney Gold, Toker Bros trophies, Cape Town , South Africa :
Roland 2300 rotary . 3 x ISEL's ..1m x 500mm CnC .
Tekcel 1200x2400 router , 900 x 600 60w Shenui laser , 1200 x 800 80w Reci tube Shenhui Laser
6 x longtai lasers 400x600 60w , 1 x longtai 20w fiber
2x Gravo manual engravers , Roland 540 large format printer/cutter. CLTT setup
1600mm hot and cold laminator , 3x Dopag resin dispensers , sandblasting setup, acid etcher
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Originally Posted by Rodne Gold
I think im losing it
