Spring Fair NEC - Anyone going as well?

[pisquee]

We've ordered ... so will find out what we can do with in a couple of weeks when it comes

[UK Printed Mugs]

Yes you can swap black and white whenever you like. This was a question I asked David (the main guy) who said no cleaning etc was needed, just take out and swap over.
Pisquee - Did you order bundle and which size out of interest?

[pisquee]

A4 bundle - the small/cheapest option for white - which for the products we're currently planning is enough.

[socialgiraffe]

This looks pretty good and at that price I may as well order a unit and give it a whirl anyway. However there are a few things that are bugging me....

Firstly, do they have a black toner available that does the same?
Is it as simple as printing, wrapping and cooking (twice) to make it dishwasher safe?
Did anyone actually see a mug being produced?
What is the feel like once the mug is finished?
Do they have any info on times or temps etc?

It seems weird that they selected the Spring Fair to showcase this so I am a wee bit cautious, look how many people got burnt with the Sun Angel farce...

[pisquee]

The times/temps vary depending on what you're printing to - it's not like sublimation where we're printing to a polymer coating, as you can print into anything you can get into a press, but for a mug he said 3 minutes (the temp of the press was higher though, can't remember what)

They weren't doing mugs on the stand due to the cooling times and curing needed, but were demonstrating fabrics successfully as they were a more instant process (quicker cooling period)

Spring Fair is an odd choice, especially at the back of the cards/art prints section - not a hall I would have explored if I hadn't had the heads up from this forum that they were there, but now I am wishing there was more of a presence at this show from print companies - there's plenty of equipment suppliers in the jewellery halls, and plenty of designers exhibiting and scouting the show to have a good market - biggest trade show of its type in UK and one of biggest in Europe, with lots of intenational buyers too, if none of your competition are there, it could be a clever business move... their stand was certainly busy, so people were coming to them - word of mouth obviously getting people there and I can't see it just being from this forum! Spotted at least one other NOTHS seler interested there too.

From talking to them, it seems that the process mainly relys on the transfer paper, that the white toner is just a white toner, and they all stick to the surface you're printing with or without the white, or put the black in and print black .... For us though, I'd have been happy and sold on a mono printer that only prints white, so if we can do black and colours then it's a bonus

Mugs, bottles, jars all looked and felt nice and pro - apart from they were all printed crooked, so I guess Bread and Jam supplied them with seconds stock, or their QC isn't very good/high

[GoonerGary]

These are the papers they are using on the ghost site if you want to do some further research.

http://www.forever-ots.com/

Here's confirmation the shot glass was made with ghost.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEyR59_OAgz ... whitetoner

[socialgiraffe]

Did they say how long the curing part takes?

[pisquee]

couple of mins in microwave, not sure of equivilence in oven/press

[socialgiraffe]

So in theory, if this does what it says and is as good do you think it will replace sublimation?

If you can use any blanks then the mugs are considerably cheaper, particularly the black mugs, the paper is more expensive, but then the ink/toner is probably cheaper as well. My rough estimate says that this could bring the cost of a printed mug down to 70-80p ish

Judging by the samples you saw, could you see yourself purchasing your mugs without the raja coating?

[pisquee]

We like the colour quality that sublimation gives us - 7 colour Epson pro wide format compared to a 4 colour laser printer isn't the same in any sense. We're looking at this mainly for expanding our personalised range for NOTHS, and opening up new products we can't do with sublimation, rather than replacing sublimation.