What Makes a UV Flatbed Printer Stand Out?

A UV flatbed printer is designed for printing on flat and slightly curved surfaces, but its capabilities extend far beyond that. With UV flatbed technology, a digital image with UV ink is instantly cured with UV light, ensuring crisp, high quality images on a variety of different substrates. Inkcups UV flatbed printers come in a range of different bed sizes, conveyorized options, part heights, features, and output speeds. With high throw technology, one of the Inkcups flatbed printers, the X5-T, can print on a wider range of applications, making it one of the most versatile printing solutions available.

Key Features of a UV Flatbed Printer

High Throw Capabilities

A high throw UV flatbed printer allows for an extended ink height distance between the printhead and the substrate. This feature—also known as high-drop or extended-through printing—enables precise and vibrant prints on irregular or elevated surfaces, delivering unmatched flexibility.

CMYKW+ Varnish

Stand out with vibrant CMYKW prints and take your designs to the next level with the addition of Varnish. Incorporating varnish unlocks new creative possibilities—spot varnish, for example, enhances specific areas of a design, adding depth, drawing attention to colors, or creating striking visual effects that truly make your prints shine.

Application Thickness

Some UV flatbed printers, like the X5-T, can accommodate taller products such as coolers, sporting equipment, and more. This makes them ideal for businesses looking to expand their printing capabilities beyond traditional flat substrates.

The Namesake – The Flatbed

A flatbed printer without the flatbed just wouldn’t work. To promote the best print possible, the large tables that either product or tooling can rest on is typically equipped with vacuum suction to ensure a precise degree of parallelism to the imaging heads.

Wide Range of Applications for UV Flatbed Printers

Stress Balls

With proper tooling, UV flatbed printers excel at printing full color images onto an entire bed of stress balls at a time. The tooling for the stress balls shown in the photo can hold 91 stress balls in place at once for uniform registration.

Read: Squeeze Away Stress with Larger Logos on Stress Balls

Mugs

While cylindrical inkjet printers are often recalled first for printing on drinkware, mugs are the exception. With handled drinkware look to a UV flatbed printer such as the X5-T to decorate big and bold logos on the face of the mug.

How to Print on Handled Mugs

Hot/Cold Gel Packs

Perfect for aches and bumps, gel packs, whether you heat them or chill them, offer instant relief for a wide range of ailments, but how to brand them? With UV digital technology, flatbed printers are an excellent option for making sure you brand sticks to this useful application.

Sporting Equipment

Print on soccer balls, basketballs, footballs, and more with tall uv flatbed printers such as the X5-T. With this additional height clearance, brand sporting equipment for games to come.

Read What Type of UV Printer for Sporting Goods

Padfolios

Flatbed printers like the X5-T are incredibly versatile when it comes to printing on flat substrates. Digitally decorate padfolios and notebooks to differentiate your business. With the return to the office on the rise, padfolios make for a great company wide swag gift that will be put to use daily.

Face Masks & Face Coverings

Face masks are not likely to disappear anytime soon, with mask mandates in place for public transportation, health care facilities, as well as various health care tangents. Face masks and face coverings differ as face masks are PPE, typically required for healthcare worker’s daily use. Face coverings on the other hand refer to a wide variety of different disposable and reusable face coverings and can be used over a face mask for additional protection.

UV print on face mask and face coverings with logos or full color graphics. Personalize face masks for events where social distancing is not possible like trade shows, concerts, sporting events and more.

Read the Blog Post- UV Printing on Face Masks

Bags

Reusable bags are an important part of our planet’s future not to mention, they are much more sturdy than plastic or paper bags. Print full-color, high opaque graphics on even dark bags. In combination with the XFLEXX flexible UV ink, our UV flatbed printers can print on polyester bags. Learn more about this direct to bag digital printing method in our podcast.

Listen to: New Trend- Digital Printing on Tote Bags

Books

Easily print full-color images onto notebooks, notepads, padfolios, and photo albums. Quickly and easily customize the image to your specifications. Ideal for promotional products and personalization. UV flatbed printing is a go-to method for printing on large format, coffee table books.

Canvas

Give a photograph the feel of a painting by printing on canvas. Quickly re-create famous art prints or print whatever you’d like. With UV flatbed printers such as the X5-T, easily print canvases as large as the print bed, up to 43.3″ x 24″.

Learn More: Mastering Canvas Printing with UV Flatbed Technology

Pens

UV flatbed printers can create the ultimate promotional giveaway. What better way to promote your brand than with a full color, highly detailed pen. Give them something that will really stand out.

Read: Inkcups Pen Flatbed Printer

Promotional Product Giveaways

A wide variety of products can be printed with UV flatbed printers such as the X5-T. Small items that can be used in everyday life are ideal for full-color giveaways, making bottle openers, key chains, and more popular items to further promote your brand.

Read: Application Spotlight- Bottle Openers

Additional Reading on UV Flatbed Printers

Hooked and looking to learn more? We have a wealth of knowledge on the Inkcups Blog. Here one can find a wide range of information on different flatbed applications, ranging from products Inkcups has printed live at trade shows, to applications that customers have sent in samples for.

UV Printing on Plastics This blog post explores the applications and advantages of UV printing on plastics, highlighting its durability, vibrant colors, and versatility. It discusses various industries where UV printing on plastics is prevalent, such as automotive, medical, and consumer goods, showcasing specific examples and emphasizing the technology’s potential for enhancing product aesthetics and durability.
UV Inkjet Printer – The Ultimate Guide This page serves as an extensive resource, delving into the intricacies of UV printing. It initially defines UV printing, dissecting essential elements such as print heads, ink storage systems, and print beds. Moving forward, it elaborates on the advantages, UV inkjet consumables, and critical factors like tooling. Additionally, it showcases various applications and concludes by providing detailed insights into each of Inkcups’ digital printing machines.

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