Subject:
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Re: Official New Service Announcement From The BrickEngraver--LONG
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.market.buy-sell-trade
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Date:
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Mon, 25 Aug 2008 20:18:02 GMT
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Viewed:
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13304 times
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In lugnet.market.buy-sell-trade, Jonathan Lopes wrote:
> In lugnet.market.buy-sell-trade, Tommy Armstrong wrote:
>
> > If you can photograph it, you can get it printed directly onto a LEGO piece in 4
> > color 2400 dpi printing.
>
> > There are limitations to this method in that it has to be printed onto a white
> > part. But for exmaple I can print the whole brick red and just have the white
> > showing through.
>
>
> > Comments welcome.
>
> Thanks, Tommy. So, it is a 4c process but needs to be printed on white elements
> only? Is that correct?
>
> If so, is there a 5c process available where the 5th color could be white and
> the 4c printing would print over it?
>
> Another question: Why couldn't the 4c printing be done on another color brick?
> Is it just a matter of the reproduction being wonky due to show-thru of the
> brick color?
>
> I look forward to your reply.
>
> Best,
> Jonathan
They do indeed have a 5 color process that prints white also, but it uses UV
light to cure the white "basecoat" and then prints to the white and uses a uv
cure for that also. With that process they can achieve higher film builds since
UV will cure film from top to bottom instantly. Regular ink dries by evaporation
of solvent. I saw one at the factory and it was pretty kewl, but was over
$100,000.
A bit out of my range--lol. This machine was at the limit of my credit at the
bank. It can print on items up to 5" high and on slightly curved surfaces.
Resolution is outstanding so for example could print a logo, email address,
name, and phone number on a 1x6 brick.Minifig cards could now be possible,
although of course way more than a printed card one--but bricks could be almost
reasonable to hand out as a calling card for special customers/contacts. How
many people would throw away a printed brick? And do away with the roladex--just
stack them on top of each other--lol
The ink simply does not have the hiding capacity to cover in one coat at the
thickness of the film printed to achieve coverage. Much like painting a wall in
your house. If you are going to paint with any clear color such as yellow--you
need to paint the wall with white first.
Color reproduction can be tweaked, but of course takes some time. Many times
though acceptable right from the .eps file or .jpg file. For a photograph pretty
much need to do the same thing as if manually printing in darkroom and do a
test, make modifications, another test,etc. Once settings done, you are good to
go.
So at least for me, printing on colored bricks will have to be done by engraving
and filling with paint. It is my intention, and I did not test this out, to
match colors of bricks for background so would blend with bricks and you would
print the entire brick except for the text, logo, picture with the matching
color. Of course the sides and back and top would still be white.
But I think there are plenty of possibilities to keep me busy even being limited
to white only. And I am confident that you AFOL's will come up with a plethora
of things that I have never thought about. This is really new tech and really
does, I believe open up wide possibilities for all kinds of things. The machine
of course was not designed with LEGO in mind, but things like golfballs, pens,
lighters, tin cans, boxes--one step 4 color is new concept for these items.
Tommy
www.brickengraver.com
now also in future
www.brickprinter.com
For example could do a plate with a little white border around it, background
green, and graphics or letters whatever color.
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