Can plastic water bottles be printed on using heat press, if not how?

[monkyanger]

Hopefully I have psoted this in the right section.

I have the opportunity to sell individual drinking water bottles (the plastic type, similar but not necessarily the same as the one in the attached picture) I can possibly sell as many as 500-1000 or more.

Does anyone know how this can be done, at present I have a mug printing set up but have no idea if it can be used on a lower temperature setting to print on bottles.

Thanks for your help.

[socialgiraffe]

The short answer is no.

The item will melt as the plastic of these items is a really low grade.

This sort of item is screen printed and when I used to be involved the bottles had to be flamed before printing otherwise the ink would scratch off.

You could try something like TMT Hard Surface which I think prints on plastic, but I would not hold out much hope.

S>

[GoldRapt]

How did you flame them please Simon?

[WorthDoingRight]

How did you flame them please Simon?

Perhaps he got them to post a tip on a forum and waited for all the lurkers to appear and flame them! :rolleyes:

[socialgiraffe]

You get a flame and put it to the plastic

Bascially there is something in the plastic that resists most screen inks. However, purchase one of those little gas welders that use the cannisters, and then run the flame up and down the bottle three or four times from a distance of about 4 inches before printing. This melts the plastic enough so that the ink welds into the plastic when it is printed instead of sitting on top.

Once printed and air cooled you should find that the ink will not scratch off.

Not sure on the exact ink we used, but Julie from Spectrum Screen Inks sell excellent inks and I would say it came from them.

Flaming in general works for a whole host of items. As another example I was once told that no one in the UK can print the silicon wrist bands you see everywhere. Apparently the ink rubs off after 24 hours. Not so, again, ink from Spectrum Screen Inks sell an ink that works once the item is flamed. I am not sure on the exact ink but if you are interested I can find out from Julie. Could also give you a contact of someone who orders loads of these and also the prices they currently pay. And would love to see someone get in there and get one over my ex business partner scum..... (Have I gone off topic )

[WorthDoingRight]

(Have I gone off topic )

No more so than I did :rolleyes:

[socialgiraffe]

By the way. Was just reading something on Sawgrass website and came across this little gem of info.....

Can I sublimate plastics?
You cannot sublimate onto just any piece of plastic. Many polymers cannot withstand the amount of heat needed to achieve sublimation. Even if they could stand the heat, the added pressure and press time will deform them. Many of them melt and shrink. (Fibreglass Reinforced Plastic (FRP) is the plastic of choice.

[logobear]

in these numbers, this is a job to outsource to a screenprinter who specializes in this area

[Ian M]

What Simon says is correct as I printed plastic bottles many years ago when I was a screen printer. One of things that was difficult to get right first time was air had to be fed into the thinner walled bottles to keep shape to get a full coverage of the print. We used an ink which if I remember was made by Sericol which we had to flame after printing. We had a slow conveyor belt that had the flames either side from Calor Gas bottles which the printed bottles would go between. We also used to print large plastic tubs too the same way but, we didn't need the air supply for them because the walls so much thicker.

[GoldRapt]

That's interesting too Ian as I always thought they were pad printed.