What Printer model for making iphone skins?

Question

Hello, I'm interested in designing my own skins for products like iphone and xbox etc..and selling them. I want to know what kind of printers they use to make the skins so they look professionally done.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

As you're reaøøy talking about printing on plastic ot's NOT a home job.

You first need a source of blown blank plastics and they are usually screen printed at manufacture, so that a top coating can go over the image to protect it.

Ask a local printing cmpany if it's something they can help you with,

Answer 2

I do not know about your skins, but I printed my own laptop skin on my Epson CX7400. I purchased Office Depot Laptop skin paper (like a plastic/rubber repositionable), designed my own graphics on my computer and printed it onto the Laptop skin. So far it has not come off or scratched. I suppose if it is a cell phone skin, it will be subject to alot more wear and tear, than my laptop skin., but mine is waterproof and scratch resistant.

The thing about the Epson C (printer) and CX (print/copy/scan) printers is that they use pigment ink, rather than dye ink. The pigment ink is waterproof on plain paper and about the only thing I have had any trouble printing on, is the clear-slippery things, like window clings. Everything else I have printed on has been fine. I printed my own bumper stickers on repositionable photo paper. I went through the winter (rain/snow) with this on my car. It did not ever loose it's color, but the paper did eventually get wet and tear while I was driving down the road. I have printed onto printable fabric, iron-on t-shirt transfers and printable balloon kits and have not had any trouble.

I can not positively say that this will work for your situation, since I do not know what type of printing media you will be using, but hopefully some of my examples above will give you an idea.

If you do go with a Epson printer, there are a few things I want everyone to know. These tips will save you time and money:

1. Leave the printer on:

It is recommended that you leave your printer turned on. The printer is Energy Star compliant. Every time you turn your printer off and then back on, it recharges the ink cartridges and actually uses ink. This is true for all printers. If you print often you should not have any problems with your printheads. If you do not print very often, it is recommended that you perform a nozzle check weekly to keep the printheads from drying out and becoming clogged. If this does happen, all you need to do is a printhead cleaning. This maintenance operation varies from printer to printer and will be explained in your user’s manual.

2. When you run out of ink, you will have to manually tell the printer that you want to change the ink cartridge:

This is due to a safety feature that is on all Epson printers. It is very easy for children to open the lid of the printer. If your child opens the lid and the printhead carriage begins cycling (moving back and forth), your child’s fingers can easily get hurt. Therefore you need to tell the printer you want to change the cartridge. This information is in your user’s manual as well.

3. If you run out of a color, you cannot use the printer until it is replaced:

The reason for this is yet another safety feature for your printer. There are actually two reasons for this feature. First, if you are allowed to print with an empty ink cartridge, when you finally do replace the ink cartridge, your printhead maybe clogged. This is due to the fact that there is an ink reservoir in the printhead. If there is not any ink to keep the reservoir moist, it will dry out and become clogged. I use this illustration; it is the difference between new glue and dried glue. The glue will flow freely when it is liquid, but when it dries out it is set and hard. Now imagine this example in your printhead. Secondly, some printers allow you to print if a ink cartridge is empty. They do this by combining the remaining colors to produce the desired color. The only problem with this theory is that you will not get accurate, true colors, especially if you are printing photos. How are you going to accurately make yellow with cyan and magenta?