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Two years ago Inkcups presented the Revolution® high-speed digital cylindrical printer . Today we present the Revolution® as a cylindrical printer for stadium cups, just as the engineers envisioned it. Stadium cups offer a fun option for advertising and sustainability when it comes to reusable cups. You can find stadium cups at sporting events, concerts, travel destinations that allow to-go alcoholic beverages, as well as events of all different natures.
The entire premise of the stadium cup is that people will want to reuse the cup at home. Repeatedly seeing the logo, event information, or design will help customers recall your brand easier. Individuals keep and use stadium cups longer than other promotional products. The Revolution® high-speed digital cylindrical printer is the perfect machine to print stadium cups.
The Revolution® is a high-speed cylindrical inkjet printer that offers users unparalleled speed and quality on 360° full color graphics. Utilizing the Revolution® for stadium cups is a turn-key package. No further modifications need be made when printing on stadium cups.
The Revolution® features a single print station for color, servo driven angle adjustment, automatic load and unload functions, and an automatic pre-treatment system all within the machine. We will further explore each of these aspects later in the article.
For the best adhesion on stadium cups printing with the Revolution® high-speed digital cylinder printer we suggest using the S1 UV Inkjet Ink line. The S1 line of inks comes in Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, White, and Varnish to produce a full spectrum of vibrant colors. This ink line is free of any harmful chemicals or harmful naturally occurring substances, officially Prop. 65 compliant.
The S1 line also includes Vivid White UV curable ink which is the whitest ink available on the UV inkjet ink market. Vivid White UV Curable Ink allows for a bold contrast when printing white over dark substrates due to its heavy opacity.
As always our in house ink mixologists are happy to test multiple inks on your stadium cup of choice to ensure optimal adhesion and abrasion resistance.
Pre-treatment is a process which transforms a stadium cup’s surface from a surface that ink cannot stick to, to a surface that ink will stick to. There are a wide range of pre-treatment options dependent on the application and adhesion requirement of the customer.
The Revolution® can host one of three different “in-line”(built into the machine) pre-treatments; Plasma, or Corona. The Plasma and Corona pre-treatment systems both use an electrical discharge to treat the cup surface. In both instances you’re using the same principle, plasma (energy discharge) changes the surface tension on the cups to a dyne (surface energy measurement) level that’s acceptable for our inks to crosslink (bond) to the surface of the substrate (cup).
Not all stadium cups are made of the same plastic. Inkcups’ in-house application experts are happy to identify which type of plastic your stadium cup is made of to recommend the best fit pre-treatment for your substrate.
The process that takes place within the Revolution® is straightforward and eliminates excess machinery and steps. Stadium cups are loaded onto the vacuum mandrels, deionized, pre-treated, printed, and unloaded. The Revolution® has eliminated the need for pre-treatment to be a separate unit therefor increasing productivity and saving valuable time.
The Revolution® has all the bells and whistles already included in it for optimal ease and convenience to the operator. It has a whooping 12 stations for continuous printing, automatic load and unload capabilities, and a pre-treatment system included in the unit.
Stadium cups can either be automatically loaded to the vacuum mandrels from an adjustable indexing conveyor or manually loaded by an operator. Stadium cups are automatically unloaded to an exiting conveyor after cycling through the machine.
The Revolution® high-speed digital cylinder printer is ideal for run sizes between 300-500 full color, high quality images.
Increase productivity by taking advantage of a production queue software we offer, that will guide the Revolution® to automatically change artwork designs between different print runs. This software allows an operator to manage multiple machines rather than focus their entire energy on one.
Stand out from the competition by printing on both the body and the lip of a stadium cup thanks to the Revolution®.
The Revolution® prints using a highly accurate dot placement and printing CMYK all at the same time. By printing all colors at the same time, rather than one print station for each color, you are guaranteed the highest print quality and color reproduction.
The Revolution® high-speed digital cylinder printer utilizes helical printing which can print up to 220mm lengths mm tall on a part length of 76 to 305 mm, with a diameter of 63.5 to 111 mm in one single motion. This far surpasses past technologizes of single pass printing which requires a second pass, referred to as stitching which leaves a line in its wake.
With the Revolution® make use of every single inch of space on the stadium cup by printing from the bottom to the rim.
Printing your stadium cups on a Revolution® offers 360- degree seamless graphics with a maximum resolution of 1,200 dpi.
When the Helix or the Double Helix can no longer keep up with your production demands it is time to upgrade your business to the Revolution® for cylindrical printing needs. The Revolution® will allow significantly higher output, if paired with a conveyor system- less manpower, and result in increased revenue.
Stadium cups are a reusable item, so chances are your logo will be floating around someone’s house for years to come. Pretreatment ensures that stadium cups will withstand drops and countless trips through the dishwasher. However, what do you do if your printed stadium cup clash with your best kitchenware? Here are ways you can encourage customers to reuse your stadium cup outside the traditional way:
And so many more! They make perfect glasses to bring to the beach to drink out of, or even to make sandcastles.
The Revolution® high-speed digital cylinder printer was designed with high quantity output stadium cups as the ideal application. As with all our products the Revolution® is backed by the company’s InkcupCare Warranty and service coverage.
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