Thermography printing for a small invitation company

[571]

Hello everyone!

I'm just beginning to delve into the vast world of printing! wow! I am a small company that designs and prints custom invitations. I am looking into doing some thermography printing and have been doing a lot of research on the subject but I am still unsure of what direction to take.

I don't have high volumes, so a simple setup will work fine for my business. I have priced tabletop and handfed thermographers and am seriously considering purchasing one from either Sunraise or Thermotype because of the simplicity and price points.

I have a couple questions that I could not find an answer to through my research.

1- Is there a particular type of printing I need to do before running the papers through the thermographer so that the powders stick properly? All my resources just refer to a "wet printing" and I'm not clear about the specifics of that.

2- I have been recommended to outsource this work, which I am not entirely opposed to. However, I like the idea of doing these jobs quickly in-house and I am unclear as to how the outsourcing would work. It is very important to me that the cardstocks I use in a project are the same throughout, so in the case of outsourcing, would I send my papers to the company for printing? And would I be able to completely dictate the design? I noticed some threads on this site recommending places like BCT and BCE, which seem fine, but I have no experience with them so I have no idea what to expect.

I would appreciate any thoughts, suggestions, ideas in what type of printing process to do before the thermography process, what type of model might work well for my small business, and if it's even worth it to do in-house.

I'm clueless right now! Thanks for any help!

 

[nhprinter]

Hi,

Wet printing means that the ink stilll has to be wet when you feed it into the thermographer. In case you didn't know....the way raised printing works is when the printed piece is fed into the maching a powder is dropped onto it. Then a vacuum sucks off all of the powder that doesn't stick to the ink. The powder is then melted by the heat of the machine as it sits on top of the ink. That is what gives you the "raised" effect.

We don't do raised printing anymore, but when we did we had a conveyor that went from the delivery of the press into the thermographer so there was no chance of drying before the powder was applied. If we ran a job on another press that had to be raised we found for best results that you don't want to run more than 30 or 40 pieces before you feed them into the thermographer if you want the look to be consistent.

I've never used one of the "table-top" models so I'm not sure how hot or messy they get, but if you have a small operation you might want to check on that. Maybe call someone that has one.

As far as outsourcing the work...that's what we do now. We send the file and the stock to another printer in our area along with a sample if we have one. It's totally painless and a LOT more convenient than having that darn thermographer on our floor.

Good luck,
Dave

Just a side note. We now run a lot of the business cards that we use to raise on our Cannon 7000. Because of the toner sitting on the paper a lot of our customers actually like the look better.

 

[571]

Tips on Outsourcing

Tips on Outsourcing

Thanks for the tips. The more research I do the more convinced I am that this is the way I need to go until I'm a little bigger and more established. When you send out work, you mentioned you send your stock to the printer and I see most places will specify what type of file they require. Do you have any tips when outsourcing, what to look for in a good provider, or how much markup you charge to the end client? Thanks for any info!

 

[nhprinter]

I'm a Production Manager so I don't deal with pricing so I can't help you with that, but as far as finding a provider I would say just get some samples of their work. In our area there are only a couple that do raised printing so it wasn't a hard decision, but they do a nice job.

What I look for in a raised print job is how sharp the type is after it's raised. Some operators leave too much powder on the ink on fine type and it blurs the look. Make sure your provider is knowledgeable. There are different powders for fine and heavy coverage.

Dave

 

[postnetnc133]

We use our local BCE and if we need a stock they dont carry they are very cool with us supplying the stock. Turn around is pretty quick too.

 

[ImpressMe]

Hello everyone!

I'm just beginning to delve into the vast world of printing! wow! I am a small company that designs and prints custom invitations. I am looking into doing some thermography printing and have been doing a lot of research on the subject but I am still unsure of what direction to take.

I don't have high volumes, so a simple setup will work fine for my business. I have priced tabletop and handfed thermographers and am seriously considering purchasing one from either Sunraise or Thermotype because of the simplicity and price points.

I have a couple questions that I could not find an answer to through my research.

1- Is there a particular type of printing I need to do before running the papers through the thermographer so that the powders stick properly? All my resources just refer to a "wet printing" and I'm not clear about the specifics of that.

2- I have been recommended to outsource this work, which I am not entirely opposed to. However, I like the idea of doing these jobs quickly in-house and I am unclear as to how the outsourcing would work. It is very important to me that the cardstocks I use in a project are the same throughout, so in the case of outsourcing, would I send my papers to the company for printing? And would I be able to completely dictate the design? I noticed some threads on this site recommending places like BCT and BCE, which seem fine, but I have no experience with them so I have no idea what to expect.

I would appreciate any thoughts, suggestions, ideas in what type of printing process to do before the thermography process, what type of model might work well for my small business, and if it's even worth it to do in-house.

I'm clueless right now! Thanks for any help!

I realized you posted this message some time ago, however I have only recently become a member and find myself in this same situation and wondered if you would share your findings? I print social stationery and I outsourced thermography or engraving. My source has opted out of this field so I am looking for another print source or bring it in house.

 

[ImpressMe]

In search of a Thermography and Engrving printer for Social Stationery in NH

In search of a Thermography and Engrving printer for Social Stationery in NH

I realized you posted this message some time ago, however I have only recently become a member and find myself in this same situation and wondered if you would share your findings? I print social stationery and I outsourced thermography or engraving. My source has opted out of this field so I am looking for another print source or bring it in house.

 

[Verdant]

There are two ways to go about this that I know of (Disclainer: I'm still new to the whole area as well, but thermography is something we've outsourced a lot of in the past and are bringing it in house).
First, you need something to print your image/text and have ink still wet to go through the thermographer.
An old ABDick duplicator will work fine, and can be found fairly cheap. If you choose this method however, you'll also need a platemaker. This method is the best if you plan on using a lot of spot colors and need nice crisp lines.
The other method would be to look at a digital duplicator like a Riso or Standard. They use ink instead of toner which can be raised like any other press. These don't require any plates, and are great for quick jobs. The drawback with this method is that if you do a lot of spot colors you need to buy additional cartridges which can become costly. Also, they only run about 600 dpi right now, so if you have a lot of script text it can become jagged. Most people won't notice, especially after applying thermography, but it depends on your needs.
As for the actual thermography unit, the table top ones will work, but I believe are only hand fed, which will slow you down depending on your quantities. You can pick up used floor models fairly easily if you look around.
An important thing to take into consideration with thermography is the design itself, and how the powder reacts. Smaller linework such as type would use a finer grain powder to get a nice smooth raise, but if that design also has a large area getting thermographed than it will probably bubble. There are several different grain sizes, the trick is to find the one that works best for each job.

 

[sallak]

thanks all for the help
thinking about thermography too
any one have ideas about prices?

 

[dantheprintman]

I can be a good source for your thermography. We have the largest commercial Therm tunnel in the U.S.
Thanks

Dan

 

[dantheprintman]

I can help you out. We have the largest commercial therm tunnel in the U.S.

 

[Jdn177]

@DanthePrintman, and anyone else in this thread...
You said you have the largest commercial therm tunnel in the U.S, where might that be?
What are the names of some of the companies people have used to have their products printed?