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UV-LED printers are wide format printers that use UV curable inks that can print on many, many surfaces. For that reason, they are quickly becoming the printer of choice for sign shops, specialty graphics shops and print providers worldwide. UV inks allow fre a great diversity of printing media and thus can be sued to create an almost infinite number of applications.
Maybe items like smartphone cases, or pens or luggage tags come to mind what you think of UV-LED printers, but I’m here to tell you there is more. much more!
In a recent article about what can be created with UV inks, Flaar-Reports.org wrote a nice article that you should read: Creative materials you can print using UV-curable inks where they describe in much detail many, many items that can be made with uv devices. As stated at the beginning of their article:
“First and before getting into all the media and substrates you can print with UV-curable inks, we should consider the fact that UV-curable ink printing offers a variety of advantages and benefits:
With all these advantages over other types of inks, even if they more costly than the rest of the inks; many people choose to print with UV-curable inks.” (Images in the slider at the top of this blog are from this article)
From wine labels to 4 x 8 ft signage, UV inks are making a splash these days.
MUTOH makes the widest range of UV-LED devices for the print market. Here are a few examples.
Print directly to create custom promotional items, awards, mugs, signage and much more. The ValueJet 626UF offers up to six color capability, including white and varnish ink and Smart Printing technologies such as Intelligent Interweave print technique.
This is a great choice and if you add the option rotary unit to it, you can even print cylindrical items such as candles, bottles and more.
Need a little bigger printer but not yet ready for a true flatbed? The MUTOH ValueJet 1638UH may be your answer. It’s considered a hybrid device since it can print roll-to-roll or rigid media.
Print on material up to a half inch thick and save valuable floor space with its dual function and multiple application design. The CMYK plus white and varnish ink options are ideal for printing packaging prototypes, POP displays and indoor signage.
The all new performanceJet is a true UV-LED Flatbed that is 4 ft x 8ft and can handle many projects. It‘s standard staggered four print head design – 
Field upgradable to six heads when adding white and varnish inks, provides high print speeds and the dual UV lamps on both sides of the carriage provide exceptional cure times allowing for higher production capacity. Print media up to 4” thick and use the CMYK x2 or CMYKx2 plus white & varnish to create stunning applications with outstanding durability and color gamut.
Join me at PRINT 18 in Chicago! See all our wide format printers and learn. Yep we will be there to teach not sell. Listen to a podcast of why you should visit us!
See you there!
By Randy Anderson, Product Marketing Manager-MUTOH AMERICA INC
There is almost no area that dye sublimation doesn’t have some application for, and one of my favorites is all over tee shirt printing.
Nothing makes all over printing easier than tacky paper.
I get my paper and tacky paper from Beaver Paper http://beaverpaper.com/, Rob Rapasi and the gang over there keep me in the papers I needed and provide me with textile for direct print as well.
So tacky paper is just that, it has, typically a heat activated adhesive, that makes the paper ‘stick’ to the fabric during sublimation.
This works well for doing all over work on pre-sewn garments because if you use non sticky paper, when you do the second side pressing the first side will visually lighten up.
With tacky paper the paper remains on the first side so that that side does not lighten up when pressing the second side.
So I lay out both sides so that I can fold the paper into a ‘sandwich’ to put the shirt in.
So print out with your favorite dye sub printer – I chose the ValueJet 1638WX – https://mutoh.com/products/valuejet-1638wx/
Fold print in half
You can line up both images if your paper is translucent enough
I like to press my shirts for about 5 seconds to flatten them out.
Roll the top layer up, place the shirt, roll the top layer down over the shirt.
Press side one, flip, press side two.
Peel shirt from tacky paper, enjoy your new all-over shirt.
Tacky paper works well for all-over garments, but does fantastic with piece parts as well, that will be sewn into garments.
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I found this really cool and free art generator that I thought I’d pass along. https://deepdreamgenerator.com/
If you want to be the new Rembrandt, then this is the chance you’ve been waiting for.
You simply upload an image, choose a “dream” and then let the program generate the new art. There are many, many choices and of course this is really abstract art, but I have to say, I tried a few images and it does a really great job. Here are some of mine from original to “art”.
You should give it a try! After all it’s free!
Want to know even more about the future markets in wide format printing? Listen to this great interview by Digital Output Magazine.
We all get pretty busy on our wide format printing shops. Lot’s of jobs coming in, lots of things to manage and lots of interruptions. Here’s a nice podcast and article on how you can be more productive and maximize you time. Of course, you’ll save lots of time with a great wide format printer that works all the time! Check out MUTOH AMERICA‘s line of wide format printers.
In addition, we also offer lots of training & education on numerous topics: design software, color management, printer maintenance and more. Be sure to set aside some time to attend one of our live sessions held throughout the USA.
Enjoy these great tips!
Do you feel stressed and flustered by an overwhelming to-do list? Do you often feel distracted by what seems like a million things demanding your attention? Despite being busy all the time, do you feel like you’re getting nowhere? If so, you’re not alone. We all have the same 24 hours in the day. To get the most out of your time — doing more of what truly counts in less time — try these 7 simple tips to be more productive.
Ways to Listen:
“What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.” – Dwight Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States
In this episode of BioTrust Radio, Shawn and Tim talk about the difference between being busy and productive, and with a big assist from David Miller and his super article on getting more done in less time, they’ll reveal a list of strategies to help you be more productive — at work, at home, and in life.
Here are some of the key takeaways from the show:
We’ll discuss what it means to be more productive, take a deep dive into these 7 productivity hacks, and much, much more…Enjoy!
Enjoy the show? Please leave a 5-star review on iTunes or Stitcher.
Don’t miss an episode of BioTrust Radio! Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher.
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Have a comment or question on this episode? Comment below.
And remember… you’re just one decision away from better health and a better body!
Resources from This Episode:
MandalaGaba is an ad-free website where anyone can make, save, share and collaborate to create mandalas and tesselations. Anyone with a mouse or a touch screen can make a piece of beautiful art at this relaxing website. Save what you created, share it, or have others add to your creation.
MandalaGaba is a site “for people who have any kind of interests in drawing, addictive online thingies, mandalas, digital art, single page no bull*** websites, doodling, time wasting and procrastination”.
You can spend a lot of time at this site, playing with the shapes, colors, lines, and other tools to create a mandala or tesselation. I created the mandala above in a short time.
When you visit the site, you see a page with a solid background color. There may be lines on the solid background.
Moving your mouse or finger on the screen will draw lines that make shapes and patterns. You can start anywhere on the screen and move your mouse in any direction, including circular motions. Moving your mouse or touch screen in any direction without lifting the cursor or finger from the page creates different types of lines and patterns.
On the left are the tools, boxes where you select line options, geometric shapes and patterns, line thickness, undo, and more. There’s a suggested color palette to go with the background color, or you can choose other colors.
Each time you visit the site, a unique URL is generated. You can save your creations, share them, or give someone the unique URL and they can add to the page. Then you add to the page, and so on, collaborating in creating of a little work of art.
It’s a fun and relaxing website. I recommend visiting their gallery, where they showcase the some of the best creations. Writing about it is harder and takes longer than making things on the site, so head over there and create something. 🙂
I Just Can’t Leave my Business!I know for a fact that some of you have said just that! “I just can’t leave the shop for training! I’d lose too much money closing for a day or two! We’re a small business and just can’t close!” I’d like to show you that not only can you give up a day or two for training, but doing so could increase sales and production making you more profitable! I’d also like to show you how you can get at least some education without even leaving your business!
Don’t get me wrong. I know you are busy because I am too! Even so, I spend time on both important and not so important things. If I limit the not so important, then I have more time for other ventures. That said, take a close look at your shop workflow. If you could improve it by just 10 or 20 percent, wouldn’t that give you more time for business. You see, by not taking a little time to attend a training & education class, you just can;t find even more time for other things! We simply have to “make” time for training.
Consider for a moment that a customer brings you a bitmap that is about 5×7 inches and only 100 ppi in resolution. They want you to blow it up to 10 feet long for a child care facility. What would you tell them? “Do you have a better file?” ” Do you have a larger file?” or would you just say “I can’t help without a better file.” Well, you could be saying; “No problem, I can have that done by tomorrow!” Why? Because of something you would learn in a training class!
MUTOH seminars cover this type of issue and many others that slow down workflow and production. Not only do we show you how to solve image enlargement issues, we also show you how to match colors from monitor to printer, how to trace low resolution images and even how to find fonts from a photograph. All time saving solutions that will help workflow and actually allow you more time for other important things…like family!
MUTOH AMERICA has developed many training opportunities for every user of wide format devices. Nope, you do not have to be a MUTOH customer. You see we believe in training & education for anyone, because we believe that everyone should have the opportunity to streamline their business and spend more time on important things.
Our classes are available nationwide and you can find the locations using this link: https://www.thinkmutoh.com/events .
We offer training & education on FlexiSIGN, Color Management, Vehicle Wraps, and soon on many other topics like dye sublimation and textile printing. Not only do we offer live training events, we also have online courses, some for free that you can use to begin your learning. So while we strongly recommend live classes where you can interact with industry experts, you can if needed, take a few online course as well. Explore a few topics at http://www.thinkmutoh.com. Just access the online courses or try one of the professional courses.
I’m Mark Rugen, Director of Product Marketing & Education, and I’d like to extend my personal invitation to you to one of our many forms of learning here at MUTOH AMERICA. We want to be you learning partner and help you grow your business and have more time for the really important things in your life!
MUTOH AMERICA had a great show at the recent NBM trade show in Long beach, CA. The booth was packed with people for all three days and they did a great job teaching the crowd tips and tricks in vehicle wrapping. The wrap was done by Wrap Nation. All printing was done on the MUTOH ValueJet 1638x wide format printer, the “wrapper choice” as its come to be know in the industry.
In addition to the show booth, MUTOH’s Mark Rugen, Dir. Product Marketing & Education presented two 1-hour seminars for NBM. “7-Tips Every Sign Shop MUST Know to Solve Image Problems!” had over 200 registered and over 60 attending. The seminar demonstrated several free and commercial software programs for getting designs done faster.
In this seminar we demonstrated 7 tips and programs that will accelerate everyday workflow by handling the following issues:
Attendees will walked away armed with tips that will change their workflow forever! If you didn’t attend, you can still get a copy of the presentation by going to the whitepapers menu and downloading your personal copy.
The second presentation was attended by over 60 as well and had nearly 200 registrations. Attendees learned how to put together a system of hardware and software that will allow them to create and produce craft & specialty type items that will sell like crazy. This seminar showed them all the items needed to get started but also give them some idea of the various products they can create, what they sell for and how to get a return on your investment in just a few short months. We showed all attendees how to get into this lucrative business with minimal investment and maximum returns. If you are just starting into business or just want to add another profit center to your existing one, then download a copy of the whitepaper.
Overall, this was a great show for both the exhibitors as well as the attendees. WRAPSCON, the wraps convention was held in conjunction with this show and was a huge success as well. Hope to see you in Long beach next year, we will be there with some surprises!
