idea for printing frontplate with Epson 950 ?

Hi all,
The Epson 950 cost 350€ and can print on CDs and on other flat support up to 2.5mm thick.
Who have an idea or experience of material ( plastic ) rugged enough to be printed and flexible enough to make a flat keypad ?
It will be a pretty solution for protoypes !
MDamdam

Hello

I have Epson 950 back home and you need to know two things:

- when you print to cd-s you need special coated cd-s or labeled
- you can't print on plastic becouse ink doesn't stik on it

in other details is Photo 950 worthy of that money

Regards

mona

Yes,
it will be amasing to fing a plastic with the same coating...

Hello

i have experimented with fix sprays but the results are disapointing...

the only way is to buy some BubbleJet printer which have option to put special coating head.... but there you have problem with resolutin which is only 600 DPI....

Anybody have some other options..

Regards

mona

Mona,
I have a different question: can you print on copper clad board ? I am thinking if this printer can be used for home made PCBs.


JJ

Making "good" front panels is not that hard.

My technique is to print on Overhead Transparency Film, using
FrontPlatten designer (or similar).

If you need LED light holes, use a black circle with a hole in the
middle (the black helps stop light bleeding through).

After printing in Reverse (remember, you want the ink side
to be protected from the user), mask off any holes you want
to remain clear with double sided tape.

Now spray the ink side with "Plasticoat". It's a quick drying non-reactive
plastic spray. DONT do one thick coat. Do 6-7 coats (with the spray can)
over a 1 hour period.

Let it dry for 6 hours.

Now do 6-7 coats with your background color in normal spray on enamel.
Water based paint is even better, but it is very hard to find water based paint (acrylic) in spray cans.

Be careful to keep the coats as light as possible. If any of the paint stays wet for more than a minute, the solvents will attack the plastic you have
printed on turning it white. I do 6-7 coats over a 4 hours period. Colors that work well are off-white and gun metal grey.

Remember, you want contrasting colours.

After 24-hours drying, do a final coat with plasticoat and then you can
do whatever you want with it. Spray it with adhesive and stick it on a
box or use conductive tape to make a touch pad.

TDC

Epson 950 is Epson photo 960 in US. I got one from epson online outlet for $199. It is neat that I feed a sheet of 8 inch wide 2mm thick glass through and print a beautiful photo on it. You need to coat a receptor layer first.
check these links:

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