Is it cost-effective to choose UV printing as your business?

A wide variety of substrates can be printed with UV printers.
It seems that those of us in the personalization business are always looking for the "next BIG thing” in our industry. Years ago, lasers were the “next BIG thing,” then inkjet sublimation made a huge impact on the industry. So what’s next? What magical innovation will come along that, once again, will revolutionize the personalization industry? Could it be UV printers? Truth is, it just might be, and here's why.
So what exactly is a UV printer? Well, let's start with the UV part, as in ultraviolet light. UV light is an invisible (to the eye) form of light found in many light sources, including the sun. UV light has some useful characteristics, in particular the ability to cure many photosensitive materials. In the case of UV printing, a UV light source is used to cure (harden and solidify) the inks laid down by the printer.
UV inkjet printing is different from conventional solvent inkjet printing. Instead of having solvents in the ink that evaporate into the air and absorb into the substrate, UV inks are exposed to UV lights that are built into the printer which quickly cure the ink to turn it from a liquid to a solid. This technology has several advantages, including eliminating environmental and workplace health issues, the ability to print on a wide variety of substrates, high print speeds and a wide range of printing applications ranging from outdoor signage to golf balls.

So why should we be so excited about this developing technology? Truth is, a year or two ago, few people in our industry were very excited about this at all. With price tags in the $20,000-$80,000 range, there weren't many people who could seriously consider a UV printer as an option in the first place. But as time has passed, the prices have dropped and more competition has come into the market, making both a much wider variety of printers and print options available as well as price points—even to the point that $20,000 can now buy a lot of printer.
Today, the problem isn't so much price as much as it is confusion and misinformation about what a UV printer can and cannot do, and how much market there is to support one.
For instance, I occasionally print a plaque using my UV printer. The cost is almost negligible and the markup can be substantial, but how many plaques are appropriate for this technology? Remember, sublimation can also be used to create full-color plaques. The same is true with a hundred other products including everything from metal plates to plastic toys. In short, as with most personalization processes, there are things that are best done with a UV printer and things that are best done with other methods. UV printing isn’t a replacement for other processes, but an alternative to do most jobs and the only way to do a few.
More info:
Website: www.skyimagepaper.com
Company Name: Fei Yue Digital Technology Co.,LTD
E-mail: sales@feiyuepaper.com
Tel: 86-025-86628894
Whatsapp: +86 18252072197
Address: Central Road 323, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China