I found this machine, really nice. It's thermal wax transfer! Just like the old-school days where I rub the traces onto the copper. This whole machine will print and stamp it, to any surface:
Why would I want to print gold paint onto a book cover?
Isn't this a subject for Bar Sport?
...R
It's an idea I had. Instead of printing 'happy birthday" in gold on leather wallet, just print a PCB pattern to a copper board instead.
I was just wondering if anyone else ever seen anything like this (from the obvious toner transfer method).
Maybe if you post a link to the machine details we might have a better idea of its capabilities.
How much is it?
...R
Yes, the devil is in the details. Company is Japaneese, and I have to call for quote. For me, anything I can not see price click & buy is too expensive. I should charge them to speak to me over the phone.
Anyway, I did some research already. It is based off the same thermal technology that prints shipping labels. Shippers use this because the wax transfer is durable to sunlight, water, oils, heat, cold, etc... It is also lower maintance and cost -vs- laser and has many less moving parts.
One problem is the resolution, they are normally 203 DPI. Higher resolution heads go up to 600 dpi (so far I have found).
The wax ribbon is the printing media. No ink jet heads to clog or specific ink or pigment sye or any of that problem. Can use black wax, uv wax, color wax, metallic wax, chemical resist wax, - and the list is too long to summarize - but seems like they have everything.
A lot my research comes from Zebra Eltron and Datamax printers, which are the big leaders in shipping wax label printers. There are other types too - photo booth printers also use thermal wax transfer technology.