Ask TCL About Transfer Sheet Printers
What are ways to produce custom transfer sheets on your own premises?
A ChocolateLife member asks:
Some Resources to Explore
Do your own due diligence.
Screen Printers
Chances are high that a company that is printing stock and/or custom transfer sheets is using a complete system like the one from the company linked below. (This may not be the only company – it’s just one I found in past research on this topic.)
While it may be possible to purchase a simple machine from Systematic Automation that operates completely manually, there are a whole host of positioning and registration issues that need to be sorted out, especially if you want to produce transfer sheets in more than a single color.
Another thing to consider is the production of the actual screens. This probably involves investing in a darkroom setup to produce the stencils that get applied to the screens.
There’s a reason for the MOQs when ordering custom transfer sheets.
Ink-Jet Printers
For short-run applications, it may make sense – from an investment perspective – to first take a look at ink-jet printers capable of printing with edible inks on specially prepared acetate sheets.
TechGuru
Icinginks
Although not a transfer sheet (technically this is a DTF or direct-to-food) printer, and with the primary applications printing directly on iced cookies, the Eddie printer from Primera can print on white chocolate “toppers” making it suitable for some applications.
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One possible disadvantage of the Eddie system is that instead of using separate ink cartridges for each color, all three colors (CMY) are in one cartridge. If a design uses up a lot of one color over the others you could find that you need to replace a cartridge while there’s still a lot of ink of some colors.
Another thing to consider is the lack of a separate black ink reservoir.
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