Machine to print "all the way around"

[Justin]

Got a mailshot with this machine detailed earlier today. Looks very interesting but throws up one question for me.......How can you print all the way around an item with no seam/gap as the paper has to meet somewhere!

http://www.sun-fly-sublimation.com/subl ... press.html

[Andrew]

An oven would be a lot easier than that as there's absolutely no adjustment. You will always see a join of sorts so the design needs to be carefully planned to make this easier. We had a go of this this mugs with the join under the handle area and it looked good. Bit of a pain getting the wrap to hold tight enough. If you cut the printed paper so it's edge to edge print and just overlap slightly then this give the full print. With that machine I reckon there will be 2 large seams.

[AdamB]

Interesting

Sunfly do have some very nice items - or perhaps that's a good reflection of a bright and well laid out website that promtes their products.

[JSR]

Calling that a mug press, with no gaps in the blankets for the mug handle, is a bit odd. It looks like it's only for items without handles (the tumblers they mention further down the page).

If the heat blanket is in two halves, surely you'd need to be extremely accurate on your substrate's size tolerances. A slight variation, or slightly thicker wall, will prevent the two halves from meeting. A slightly thinner wall to the mug and the top blanket won't be touching the mug. Or is the intention to adjusted the press for every single item you press?

Is that why the photos don't show ceramic items?

[Justin]

Yeah, it's aimed at the beakers, water bottles etc. I print bottles and sometimes print all round which is why I found this interesting. I print for 3 mins, turn 180 degrees and print again....only benefit I can see with this machine is that I wouldn't need to turn the bottle....but I'd get seams rather than the one I get right now1