One of the difficulties of printing your own decals is creating white lettering/logos.
So for those of you with experience using 3D printers, is it possible to 3D print a thin layer of the plastic on blank decal paper?
just wondering
Paul
I’ve never had anything made and only have a basic understanding of the process…but I’d imagine that there would be some significant translucency issues. I have the feeling that there’s decent crossover between the white materials and being translucent at very thin layers.
I’d also be concerned about cracking when the printed layer flexes.
This all presumes that the material can even adhere to the decal paper.
Good question, since that’s basically what the old ALPS printers did-- they melted a thin layer of plastic “ink” off of a ribbon onto the decal stock. Not precisely the same technology, but a similar idea.
Which- sort of- begets a question: Why did ALPS printers stop being made? and… Are there any present alternatives that would be capable of printing white decals? It seems that many of us “hunger for” white decals of our own, but unless we play with dry transfer letters or “cut and apply” individual letter decals from alphabet sheets, we are out of luck. Cedarwoodron
The general consensus is that the ALPS printers just didn’t have enough market share to be sufficiently profitable for their manufacturer, plus the support costs were a burden.
ALPS printers are fairly fragile things and were frequently damaged in transit. Then, once you had one, you had to be careful to avoid damaging the print head.
From a consumer standpoint, aside from printing decals, they were expensive to operate. And even when they were in production, ribbons were never as plentiful as inkjet supplies. Ribbons can still be found, but they’re not being made for much longer.
There’s a vocal market for whom the ALPS printer made sense, but it isn’t big enough for the manufacturers who want to sell things in the millions.
I really doubt it.
Printing reproduces text or images on a medium such as paper. The paterns may be physical as used in a traditional printing press or digital as used in computer printers.
3D printing is actually very different. It makes three-dimensional objects from a digital model, building up sucessive layers of materials in different shapes. 3D modeling is also called “rapid prototyping” which is probably a better name for it.
To my knowledge, Alps MD series printers are still being made & serviced; I’m trying to save up for one, in the $700 range.
There’s a seller on Ebay that specializes in them, from China, and another Hong Kong in for ink cartridges and parts.
http://www.alps-printer.com/index.php
Hope this helps…
So…how does a manufacturer like Bachmann or Athearn white letter their steam locomotive products in the manufacturing process? Is there a possibility of a home- made analogue to that process? Just trying to think about other angles…Cedarwoodron
I know Bowser does one of two different things…
One is a pad printing process and the other is a mask for painting.
I toured Roundhouse back when they were a independent company, They pad printed.
Decal makers like MicroScale use printing presses. Smaller companys use Alps printers. I believe at least one company ceased operations because their Alps broke.
On Kadee’s website they offer custom ALPS decal printing but you still have to order like 10 sheets or more.
Actually, ALPS hasn’t manufactured the MD-series printers since 2010. The folks at alps-printer.com are refurbishing and rebuilding older printers. Any MD-series printer you’d get from them would be a refurbished device made from the reusable parts of several other printers of the same model. Given the age of some of the ALPS printers floating around out there (I bought mine over ten years ago), this is not a bad thing.
I haven’t seen the quality of their work, so I won’t comment on it either way.