2008/5/20 Paul Symansky <
symansky@...>:
>
> Simone,
>
> Can you explain the rubber roll process a little more? Is it a type of
> flexography? It sounds to me like it uses rubber or silicone dies to stamp
> the labels directly to the wire. I was beginning to lean in this direction
> after thinking about it. My plan was to lay out the design in ACAD, then
> have a rubber stamp manufacturer create the die. Additionally, I've found a
> few permanent stamping inks that supposedly mark non-porous materials like
> glass, metals and plastics really well. \
>
Actually all the roll process are based upon metal engraved rolls.
You can find a technical data sheet of such rolls at
http://www.rsd-technik.de/data_sheets/Data_sheet_wheels.pdfThere are two basic way of roll print: direct print and offset print.
Direct print uses engraved metal rolls; can achieve very high speed
(up to 1500 m/min). Roller printer are expensive (almost as inkjet),
as they have multiple print head, ink refrigeration, automatic density
controll. Roller head are quite complex as they are rotating at the
same speed of the cable to be printed by a motor.
Offset print use a porous rubber roller. A metal roller (always
engraved) is transferring the ink from a container to the rubber
roller. On the rubber roller there is the formation of the "image" to
be transferred to the wire/cable.
Quality is superior, apparatus cheaper and very low speed (up to 80 m/min).
We were using such a sistem for marking a green line on very thin wire
(28 AWG if I remember), were we did not have secondary extruders for
making a bi color insulation.
If you really need inkjet printing, I think that you can find some old
used industrial printer somewhere at bargain price (have sold some old
units at about 1000 euro two years ago).
Ciao,
Simone