How to Print On Plastic Cups?

Placing a firm or organization’s logo on printed plastic cups is an excellent way to spread the word about it. It may also be used to identify the contents of party cups.

Plastic printed cups may be recycled and are cost-effective when purchased in large quantities. They are the most popular method of ingesting liquids. But most people don’t have the tools to do plastic cup printing at home because they don’t have the right equipment.

Here, we’ll show you just how to print on plastic cups or plastic cup printing and all the plastic cup printing machines you’ll need to carry it out. So let us look at this how to print in plastic cups.

Can You DIY Printed Plastic Cups?

Yes, you can. Printed plastic cups may be recycled and are cost-effective for big purchases because of their environmental friendliness.

Your clients can show off their brand with large numbers of custom print plastic cups. The most frequently used event supply is plastic printed cups.

Methods for Plastic Cup Printing

Method 1: Creating Designs Using Spray Paint

Printed Plastic Cups 1. To begin, outline your design using a pen on a sheet of contact paper.

Printed Plastic Cups 2. Use an X-Acto knife to cut out the pattern.

Printed Plastic Cups 3. Attach the plastic cup to the contact paper.

Printed Plastic Cups 4. You may use masking tape to protect areas you don’t wish to paint.

Printed Plastic Cups 5. Spray the pattern with plastic-friendly spray paint, then let it dry completely.

Printed Plastic Cups 6. Allow up to 24 hours for the paint to cure before touching it again. And then the plastic cup production became.

Use paints made of plastic. Valspar® Plastic Spray Paint, Krylon Fusion for Plastic®, and Rust-Oleum Specialty Paint for Plastic Spray are a few options. Your object must be prepped if you want to use standard spray paint.

Method 2 – Print On Plastic

Printed Plastic Cups 1. Load a single plastic sheet into your printer tray with the rough side down and turn on your printer.

Printed Plastic Cups 2. For at-home printing, there is a glossy side and a cloudier side to the plastic sheets.

Printed Plastic Cups 3. The ink is held in place by a rough surface, which prevents it from spreading.

Printed Plastic Cups 4. To print the text or picture of your choice, tell your computer to do so. And then the plastic cup production became.

Method 3 – Create Your Own Personalized Mugs

Printed Plastic Cups 1. Wipe your mugs or plates completely dry before storing them.

Printed Plastic Cups 2. Use the Sharpie Oil Paint Markers to decorate your cups in whatever pattern or style you like. Permit drying.

Printed Plastic Cups 3. Set the oven temperature to 350 degrees.

Printed Plastic Cups 4. Heat the mugs for 30 minutes.

Printed Plastic Cups 5. Drink from the cups and clean up as normal. And then the plastic cup production became.

How to Print Logo On Plastic Cups

Plastic Cup Printing 1. Create a logo for the plastic printed cups you wish to put on them. You can create the design by hand, computer, or a combination of the two.

Plastic Cup Printing 2. Use a scan resolution of 600 to 1200 dots per inch (dpi) if you’re doing your design work by hand (a higher number is better).

Plastic Cup Printing 3. In a vector graphics application, convert these pictures into vector graphics.

Plastic Cup Printing 4. Use software that creates vector graphics for the highest quality design using a computer application. Vector graphics may be created using Adobe Illustrator. It’s impossible to lose quality in a vector design, no matter how big it becomes.

Plastic Cup Printing 5. Choose a plastic cup printing company for your artwork. You’ll find a long list of organizations in the area devoted to outside resources.

Plastic Cup Printing 6. Choose the kind of plastic and the number of cups you like. Submit your artwork to the firm by filling out an order form. In some cases, you may email your designs to the company. In others, you can attach them to the application on the website; and in still others, you must send them.

Plastic Cup Printing 7. Work with the printing business to apply the design.

Plastic Cup Printing 8. Wait for your printed plastic cups to come in the mail once you approve the design. However, you can always DIY the process if you plan to sell it or do plastic cup production in bulk. This way, you will get the lowest price possible.

What Do You Need When Plastic Cup Printing?

Tools For Pad Printing Process

Pad printing combines solvent-based pad printing ink with solvent, hardener, and other chemicals. Printing on a particular substrate necessitates using a specific ink. There are seven different pad printing inks available from Inkcups for plastic cup printing.

Using a pad printing machine, an ink cup is filled with ink and put on the pad. The pad printing machine uses an etched plate or cliché as a stamp, which transfers the artwork from the pad to the product.

Companies that need to produce 1-to-6-color images often use this method. Plastic molding industries, in particular, love this.

Do You Need Pre-Treatment Products?

For the vast majority of solvent-sensitive items, no prior treatment is required. That’s because the solvent in ink will modify the product’s surface tension, allowing the pad printing ink to cling to it.

PP, Nylon, HDPE, and other hard polymers that are not solvent sensitive will need to be pre-treated. Chemical pre-treatment is sufficient in certain situations.

In most cases, a chemical pre-treatment is applied to the product as a wipe. Flame and corona are two more methods of pre-treatment for plastic. Be careful to let your supplier know whether you’re familiar with solvent-sensitive or non-solvent-sensitive polymers.

Drying The Ink

A post-cure ensures that the link between the substance and the ink is strong enough for printing. Pad printed plastic products may need curing, which may be accomplished in various ways, including heat or air. Consult with an ink specialist to ensure you’re following the correct procedure.

Tools For UV Printing Process

UV printing on plastic has the same issues. This is a direct-to-substrate UV printing or UV inkjet printing technology. The artwork is made in a design program like Photoshop or Illustrator, and then it is sent to the printer to be printed.

An inkjet printer uses cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink to produce a computer-generated picture of the product in tiny droplets. The UV/LED light standard on all printers is used to cure the inkjet ink.

Remember that this occurs inside a single machine and is not a separate procedure. You’ll also need UV ink to print on plastic using this method. You can also choose to use uv dtf printing technology. Pattern transfer is achieved through an intermediate medium (film).

Pre-Treatment Products

Most printed plastic cups need an inkjet primer for UV printing. It’s up to you to go any farther with pre-treatment. With drinkware, you may use a flame, corona, or plasma pre-treatment step in addition to your primer wipe if the product is a high-quality present that will be cleaned often.

As a promotional item, a priming wipe will be sufficient for the intended purpose. When playing with flat objects, the rules of the game are altered. There may be no need for more than a priming wipe on most inkjet-printed flat products.

Some polymers may not need any pre-treatment because of the particular UV ink utilized. Designed to stick to this popular plastic without the need for pre-treatment. 

Drying The Ink

You don’t need a separate curing machine because the final cure happens inside the machine.

In the end, the strategy you choose will be determined by your intended goal. For both methods, you may need to use a pre-treatment method to get the surface ready for the ink.

While post-curing is already included in UV inkjet printing, pad printing may need additional drying time (either air or heat). Send your product to the machine provider to check which approach is practical before making a final decision. Due to the wide variety of plastics, one procedure may not always be as effective as the other.

Famous Plastic Cup Printing Machine

OS-767-1C Plastic Cup Printing Machine

With a DC motor-controlled linear walking beam technology, the OS-767-1C precise automated UV plastic printing machine enables perfect color-to-color print registration at up to 70 bottles per minute. If you use the optional automated bowl feeder, you can put round or oval bottles in it, and it will turn them and send them through the UV-cured screen printing process.

This one-color UV silk screen printing machine is ideal for printing on various bottle shapes, including round, oval, and square, as well as plastic cup printing. For example, there are a variety of different types of plastic bottles and tubes that may be used in manufacturing all of the above items and more.

Features:

• One-color UV automated screen printing equipment.
• At high print rates, up to 4200 bottles may be printed per hour.
• One-to-one color registration accuracy.
• Bottles of all shapes and sizes may be printed with your logo.
• Mechanically propelled bottle transfer with high stability.
• Omron PLC and touch screen control.
• Energy consumption is reduced due to the use of an intelligent UV system.
• Dust blowing and bottle surface flame treatment are integrated into one machine.

3 Color Cylindrical Printing Machine

It is an automated UV bottle screen printing machine in three colors, and Up to 70 bottles per minute may be printed. Round and oval containers may have printed on them. Indexing the mechanical walking beam. Energy-saving UV system with advanced technology controlled by Omron PLC and a touch screen. Anti-static blowing and flame treatment are both done at the same time.

Features:

• Printing equipment for automated UV three-color screen printing on bottles.
• At high print rates, up to 4200 bottles may be printed per hour.
• One-to-one color registration accuracy.
• Bottles of all shapes and sizes may be printed with your logo.
• Mechanically propelled bottle transfer with high stability.
• Omron PLC and touch screen control.
• Energy consumption is reduced due to the use of an intelligent UV system.
• Dust blowing and bottle surface flame treatment are integrated into one machine.

OS-400S Plastic Printing Machine

Designed for cylindrical products without registration lugs, the OS-400S is a circular screen printing machine capable of printing several colors. It reads the printed dot using an optical sensor to achieve color registration.

When it comes to printing on bottles, this machine has servo-driven printing and motor-driven up and down strokes, which a PLC with a touch panel controls.

The OS-400S can print a maximum diameter of 110mm and a maximum print area of L350xH220mm with a maximum print resolution of 0.1mm. Printing may be done on almost any plastic or metal container, including sports water bottles, stainless steel bottles, plastic bottles, oil filters, soft tubes, and cups, for example.

Features:

• Pneumatically controlled shock absorber.
• Microprocessor-controlled PCB.
• Height-adjustable vertical lift for parts.
• Rodless cylinders or motor-controlled print strokes are possible.
• X/Y/R axis ware-mounting table positioning.
• Bearings on a hardened shaft with a linear ball bearing.
• Squeegee tilt, skew, and height are all adjustable.
• Tilting and angling of the screen frame are possible.
• A regulator and bottle inflation system that work together in unison.
• With a pressure gauge, the squeegee pressure may be controlled.

What If You Want Custom Print Plastic Cups?

You may either accomplish this on your own or submit your design to a printing service. The steps that follow are often the same. After the curing and finishing processes, the printed plastic cup will be ready for use after passing through a circular automated printing machine.

Why Are Printed Plastic Cups So Popular?

You may use custom print plastic cups to promote your brand to visitors who visit your bakery, café, or coffee shop. These goods aid in the long-term promotion of your brand even after the consumer has left your store. People who nearby see your logo, which helps to raise awareness of your company and leaves a positive impression.

Are Plastic Printed Cups Permanent?

A plastic printing machine guarantees that it will always be there. This is how you can permanently imprint your handwriting on a printed plastic cup without the need for a printing machine:

Printed Plastic Cups 1. Write on plastic with permanent markers and let it dry.

Printed Plastic Cups 2. You can combine this with other colors if you want.

Printed Plastic Cups 3. Never use a board marker because it will be wiped out easily.

Final Thoughts

Provide your clients a fresh approach to promoting their companies during conventions, trade exhibitions, and other major events. Your clients can show off their brand with large numbers of custom print plastic cups. The most frequently used event supply is printed plastic cups. Make it a memorable event for your customers by branding it with your company’s name.

Faster order fulfillment is possible with our plastic cup printing machine. ONCE Tech is dedicated to giving our clients the best printed plastic cup quality and accuracy that the screen printing business has to offer. That is all about how to print on plastic cups.