TheMagicTouch’s new stainless steel hipflask
Promotional items come in all shapes and sizes that can be printed via various direct-to-object technologies. Rebecca Gibbs examines the kinds of applications that are now possible, and what it takes to produce them.
Remember when it was still a novelty to personalise something? When you used to pick up your developed photos and there would be an advert offering to put your best shot on a mug, a t-shirt or a calendar?
‘The photo gift business which we pioneered in the early 90’s with Boots and Kodak did an immense amount for our business, because it made people aware that they could have one of something as opposed to lots of something – short run really has come into fruition,’ says Jim Nicol, managing director of TheMagicTouch (TMT), which supplies transfer papers, equipment and various transfer solutions for all aspects of personalisation.
‘The days when people used to screen print 20,000 t-shirts for the next tour of the Eagles or Iron Maiden are gone,’ Mr Nicol continues, ‘whereas I’d say that 90% of everybody that has ever printed using our transfer process is creating business, products and items that simply would not have been made without the arrival of digital technology. The internet has also opened many new personalisation opportunities – ten years ago many of these customers did not exist; and now we are involved in a global multi-billion dollar business!
‘We’ve got solutions that will fit everybody’s budget,’ says Mr Nicol, citing the example of customers that spend £500 on a printer and mug press – and can recoup the outlay simply by selling less than 100 mugs.
‘Even if you bought our high end entry level package, you can’t spend £5000, and suddenly you’re competing in many different markets with products that grow in popularity year on year,’ he confirms.
In demand
What are the favoured products today? ‘Mugs are still very popular,’ Mr Nicol says, along with T-shirts, cushions, notebooks, coasters, mouse mats and accessories for phones and iPads within the photo gift market. However the B2B products and indeed workwear market has seen dramatic growth over the past few years. TMT offers an OKI white toner printer for printing onto dark items which opens the market beyond the traditional white product and also promotes printing onto non-traditional substrates such as metal and wood. The company has recently guided customers to personalising IKEA stools and tables with children’s names and birthdates, and a new personalised stainless steel hipflask introduced for Christmas is already in high demand. ‘The reason we haven’t fully launched it so far is that every time the guys here have shown it to customers they’ve bought it,’ chuckles Mr Nichol.
‘The personalisation business is all about innovation with new ideas; different applications, and showing people products that really do sell. What TMT does is give companies a bit of ammunition to step up their sales and marketing – if you’re going to pitch to a client, take the product with you,’ he advises. ‘Use your data, and if a football-loving client suffers a home defeat, send them a mug with a subtle message that gets their attention. All costing less than a Cappuccino or a beer! – something as simple as that gets you talking to your customer. Using this method of sending personalised sample products is a great way to connect with customers.’ It’s what personalisation is all about.
Versatility meets creativity
Axzyra has worked with its Korean partners since 2015 to build a range of five Apache flatbed printers that use inkjet and UV curing to print onto an array of materials and surfaces, including plastics, slate and glass. The Apache range is designed to offer ease of entry to owning a UV flatbed printer, with various speed, bed sizes and budgets all catered for.
Managing director and founder Steve Woods is especially proud of the machines’ ability to produce embossing effects and textured print, which is used in a vast array of commercial project work.
Textured printing on a metal panel by the Axzyra Apache
‘We’ve got a Solid Acrylic ink that can go down as a base, and each time it passes over it’s 0.2mm so it can build up – in fact, we’ve actually printed small objects, so we use it like a 3D printer as well,’ he explains.
There have been over 20 Apache machine installations in the UK, says Mr Woods. ‘In the promotional market we’ve customers decorating pens and rulers but also some of the more exciting stuff – like printing onto glass, acrylic and phone cases.
‘We’ve also got a rotary attachment to allow printing onto cylinders and bottles,’ he continues. ‘Wood and slate is always a favourite, as the Apache can emboss as well. The High Speed EVO models of the Apache are integrated with the latest Ricoh printhead technology so we’ve got a lot of flexibility coupled with high speed and quality.’
Axzyra’s new high speed 6090 EVO printer has an inline spot varnishing lamp as standard. ‘People want to have a machine that can do so many different things, whether it’s Braille, printing photographic quality onto metal or embossing a piece of packaging – that’s where the market is going,’ believes Mr Woods. Being digital as well as versatile, there’s no mess: ‘You can run these machines an office or small workshop environment,’ he maintains.
‘We often get Apache enquiries that lead to us printing samples for very diverse applications. Our buzzword is taking your business to new markets.’
Shedding new light
At Dyefor, ‘Pretty much everything we sell is personalised and we’re working hard to increase our product offering, month by month,’ says Barry Mills, head of print at the Lincolnshire company which sells a range of accessories and gifts. ‘We research various product categories to find unique gifts that fit within our brand. We then test different printing techniques and personalisation methods to see how we can make our items special. Combining finishing methods allows us to make something different from what’s currently available.’
The nine-strong team’s latest venture is selling candles that will be personalised using the Kebab option on a Mk1 version of Mimaki’s UJF-3042 flatbed LED UV printer, which employs rotary rollers to print directly onto cylindrical objects with diameters from 10-110mm.
Mimaki’s Kebab option for printing onto cylindrical objects
‘When we researched personalised candles, people were mostly personalising them with laser etching or laser engraving, or vinyl – we thought, if we could digitally print onto them, this would allow us to create a more unique product,’ explains Mr Mills.
Dyefor will use the Mimaki to print directly onto the glass candleholder. ‘We currently have glass containers in black, white or grey, for example, and then we’re going to personalise those with the customer’s message or text,’ says Mr Mills. ‘Because of the Kebab option we can digitally print in full colour onto the glass itself’.
The company installed the device almost five months ago and has now received the delivery of the candles that will allow it to focus on getting its new products online in time for Christmas.
Value for money
Mutoh’s ValueJet LED UV six-colour (CMYK + white and varnish) object printer range, which now includes the A2 size VJ-626UF, recently shown at InPrint, have been developed for specific applications such as one-off designs of products and their prototypes, personalised gifts, interior decoration, and speciality industrial items.
The A3+ VJ-426UF flatbed six-colour model that can direct print onto objects up to 70mm is used by DecTek in South Wales to offer a direct-to-print service for the trade. ‘They supply the product and we print directly to that product for them; we’ve probably got around seven thousand customers who utilise us for various things,’ says Mike Beese, DecTek’s managing director.
The company manufactures digitally printed and polyurethane resin coated products for branding, marketing and advertising. ‘We produce industrial labels and industrial signs,’ adds Mr Beese. ‘We also print into promotional products such as [computer] mice, poker chips, and highlighter pens.
IPS Graphics’ Mutoh VJ-626UF printing onto poker chips
Introduced to Mutoh products by reseller Colourgen, Mr Beese viewed the machine in Holland and installed it two years ago. ‘It’s been very successful,’ he reports. It’s the simplicity of the machine – the maintenance and the functionality. It’s given us new contracts and a whole new product range.’
Another 626 ValueJet user, also courtesy of Colourgen, is IPS Graphics, a bespoke industrial printing company producing labels, nameplates, membrane switch panels and industrial graphics. ‘We use it mainly for printing onto polyester and polycarbonate films,’ says sales director Tim Smith. ‘We thought we needed to dip our toe into the digital world because things are getting more and more price competitive. Obviously there will always be a place for screen printing, but for a lot of multi-colour work, digital printing has come on leaps and bounds with the ink technology to enable us to print like-for-like colours onto polycarbonate and polyester films.
‘We must have had it now for around eight months,’ he recalls. ‘We’ve been very happy with it, to the extent that we may have cause to buy a second.’
Broadening horizons
Atlantic Tech Service (ATS) is the UK distributor for the European built Azon DTS, DTG and UV printer range. The Azon Matix UV can print onto acrylic, glass, canvas, plastic, wood, metal and stone, and is designed to handle heavy materials up to 100kg for indoor, outdoor and industrial applications. Available to print on media sizes up to 700mm x 1900mm; 700mm x 2500mm; and 1200mm x 3300mm, it can print onto surfaces up to 200mm in height.
Atlantic Tech Service’s Azon Matrix flatbed printer
The Matrix UV and the smaller Azon Razor Hale UV printers offer bi-directional and uni-directional print at 2880dpi. Both printers are available with the optional multifunctional Azon Rotax rotary adapter which provides for printing onto cylindrical objects with heights up 279mm.
‘The Matrix and Razor are unique because they are currently the only printers that can print on items that are 200mm in depth,’ says Keith Pratt, director of ATS. ‘The large powerful flatbed vacuum bed makes these very accurate printing machines. You can print on any item, whether it’s a candle, a bottle, a tile. The Matrix and the Razor are even ADA Compliant for printing Braille signs by European standards.’
Atlantic exhibited at The Print Show for the first time this year, where its products ‘went down a storm – we had a great deal of interest,’ recalls Mr Pratt. ‘We’re in the final throes of securing some of those orders.
Blank space
Not all flatbed printers are geared up to customising a wide variety of objects, and this is where Digital Blanks can help. The company posits itself as a one-stop shop for jigs and blank products specifically designed for digital printing.
Digital Blanks’ Mimaki jig for customising Spectrum Max pens
‘We work closely with Mimaki, Roland and Mutoh, but we can do [customised] jigs for any flatbed UV printer,’ explains Conor Alden, senior marketing executive. Digital Blanks supplies the jig with the cavities in it and the product. ‘We also provide a print layout file, which means when the customer codes that into the machine, it’s ready to go – they just have to drop the artwork onto the print area we give them. Once that’s done they press a button and then it’s done in five minutes.’
The company’s Contour Digital Ballpen and Spectrum Max Ballpen are made specifically with a flat barrel to increase their print area. ‘You can only get those from us because we have them made specifically,’ says Mr Alden. ‘USBs are also popular, and also our phone cases and power banks. All our products on the website are suitable for UV printing, apart from a few categories which we specify.
Whether it’s testing the market with a small budget and a small run, producing a prototype or expanding to print on more than just paper, the direct-to-object business has a lot to offer those with the imagination to think in three dimensions.
