Help with Inkjet questions!

[Daniel Edney]

Hi there,


Firstly i would like to say thank you for any one that can help me get my head around the issues I’m currently having!!


My background lies in the building of furniture so I’m relatively new to printing.


Im currently developing the beginnings of an idea for me to eventually hand in as my final year project at art college. To put it simply i want to make a small montage of colour photos but they will be printed on to a flat concrete surface.


There is a company that I managed to find in France that do the exact same thing as i’m trying to do!! I have explained my situation but they are extremely ambivelent to letting me in on how they execute the task of printing on to the medium of concrete.


so far what i know is that -

• they use fine art ink jet printing and that printing a plate (plate is the word they used) 50x70 cm takes around 10 minutes for a perfect quality
• inks are uv drying quality
• they say that the inks are to thick to be absorbed in to the concrete and that they dry as an ultra thin layer of ink.

This is all that they have told me unfortunately.


My question to you guys is, surely this is not as easy as just putting a slab of concrete through a printer which I’m sure you can’t do! (right?) Is the image transferred on to some sort of paper then heat pressed on to the concrete?


Any information would be awesome! Id love to get some thoughts and opinions on this matter.


Thank you so much for taking the time to read my message!


Regards


Daniel

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Yes, that technology exists, you can print basically on any type of surface today, but at a particular cost which goes beyond the typical printing onto paper. It is a matter of the target you want to print onto - wood, concrete, metal plates, glass, truck covers, banners or posters etc , that media needs to fit into the printer, and the ink needs to adhere to the surface, that's typically solvent inks, reactive inks which cure under UV light, or with an agent in the ink or on the surface.

Are you looking for something like that to be done with your image/drawing/artwork ? Specialized companies for digital printing should be available for your job in your country

 

[The Hat]

+1..

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

You should edit the title to reflect your questions. You need to let people know what your question is about so the right people will see it.

 

[mikling]

They likely use something like what is offered here.
http://www.directcolorsystems.com/

If you are really really really handy, you might be able to the same.