Printing onto Plexi..

Feb 05, 2006 5 Replies

Anyone know how this is acomplished?



I'm guessing perhaps its special dedicated hardware, but was hoping perhaps there is some form of transfer like system?



As an example, i've just bought this item:

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And it is simply a piece of printed plexi in front of a compact fluro light source. I'm interested in creating my own, or at the VERY least, perhaps interchangeable pieces of plexi to change the image. From inspecting the piece I have, it appears it is printed directly onto the surface, but I'm not sure how this happens .. Anyone got any ideas?



Thanks in advance!


Get a picture printed out onto an adhesive backed thin vinyl sheet. This should be able to be done at a signmaker.

You could probably achieve something that looks similar by printing onto a transparency and putting it behind clear plexi.

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For large runs probably screen or offset printed.

for small runs laser printed as a mirror image onto "trasfer paper" and ironed onto the plastic, or printed direct to the plastic (which would be something heat resistant) using a suitable laser printer (straight path and adjustable for stock thickness)

Another option would be to print to transprency film and to bond that to the front of the plastic.

Bye. Jasen

...

looks like a commercial job, offset printing machine with special ink.

you could probably get something fairly similar by printing onto an OHP transparency sheet and bonding that to a thicker piece of plastic.

Yet another option would be some sort of photographic process.

If you can examine it under 20-200x magnification that may give some clues. the halftones unsed for mechanical printing are different to the dithering patterns used for digital printing, and the random grain of photographic prints.

Bye. Jasen

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See my post in response to your other thread.

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