Wide Format Set Up Advice Sought

[froggy]

We are looking to decorate, amongst other things, fabrics. Primarily cushion covers and some smaller fabric items. We are looking to print and sublimate fabrics in house. We have an Epson 9800 which is using pigment inks at the moment, but we will convert that to sublimation inks. Not 100% sure which type of press we should buy but am looking at https://aadkins.com/product-category/size/120-x-170cm/ rather than a calender press. The idea behind the Adkins over a calender is that it is more versatile and can also press hard substrates, we also envisage in printing fabric templates with the designs set to fit the particular product. We also have lasers and already cut large amounts of acrylic so thought about decorating our own blanks with the adkins.

Is the adkins press suitable for the work we envisage putting through it? What machinery would you also look at to compliment this setup? ( We have sewing machines clicker presses etc)

[pisquee]

You will get better results, and a more efficient work flow with a rotary/calendar press - you can still print pieces through it, not just on the roll - stick it in, and it rolls through, while you put the next one beside it - it's a lot less stop/start and more continuous.
If you can get a bulk feed for the 9800 it should be fine running sublimation inks - we're still using Epson 9600s.
If you want to hard substrates as well, then get a decent flat bed (PressMech) for the sizes of products you'll want to do.

[froggy]

You will get better results, and a more efficient work flow with a rotary/calendar press - you can still print pieces through it, not just on the roll - stick it in, and it rolls through, while you put the next one beside it - it's a lot less stop/start and more continuous.
If you can get a bulk feed for the 9800 it should be fine running sublimation inks - we're still using Epson 9600s.
If you want to hard substrates as well, then get a decent flat bed (PressMech) for the sizes of products you'll want to do.

Thanks for that inf. Will a calender handle thicker flexible material such as 3-6mm thick foam backed polyester?

[pisquee]

Yes - some will auto adjust their tension, others you need to get a spanner out