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Vacuum formable ink for UV-curable flatbed printers to mold three-dimensional signage
Three years ago the way you made digital 3-dimensional signage was to use an Oce Arizona T220 solvent ink printer with Sign-Tronic inks. Merely to be trained in this ink and printer cost more than two HP Designjet printers.
Today (in 2009, and since 2007), that solvent ink technology is no longer exhibited at trade shows. Today you get the same and possibly better results from FlexForm UV-cured ink offered by Gandinnovations.
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Hexion Specialty Chemicals has also exhibited a thermo-formable UV ink. Mimaki exhibited thermo-formed vacuum pressed UV inks but they can only create images one or two centimeters in 3-dimensional format. The Gandinnovations Jeti UV printers can do double or triple that. Unfortunately Hexion ink company was sold off by its owner. And even more unfortunately, Gandinnovations is most politely described in transition. There is no accurate information on the status of the company, on what is being continued and what changes will be implemented.
The process is not really extruding the image, it is heat-forming it with a vacuum press.
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Gandinnovations FlexForm UV cured flatbed sample at ISA 2007. |
FLAAR sees tremendous potential in this and would like to develop some possible projects for this new ink chemistry shortly. This is exactly the kind of research that we can do with corporate sponsorship. But clearly Hexion is not able to sponsor anything since they don't exist any more, and Gandinnovations is unlikely to sponsor any or many outside projects. So we are working on diverse other programs in the meantime.
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Nicholas Hellmuth with the sample of Gandinnovations FlexForm 3D thermoforming |
Samples of Gandinnovations FlexForm heat forming 3D |
Most recently updated June 17, 2009.
First posted July 23, 2007.
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Most of our updates for 2008-2009 onward are in FLAAR Reports in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. It is more efficient for us to make new information available in PDF format. So if the web page itself is not updated, check out www.wide-format-printers.NET to see if the printer, RIP, or other subject is covered in an update in a PDF download. And if you prefer to speak with Nicholas Hellmuth in person, you can bring him to your company anywhere in the world as a consultant.
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