How It Works
This is a completely dry and fume-free process without the need of ventilation, heavy equipment or expensive dies.
From start to finish, the Gerber Edge production system fits on your counter top, and prints and cuts industrial labels and decals on demand.
Thermal Transfer printing (see animation above by clicking the "next" button) uses thin film coated with a resin, resin/wax, or wax based carrier that is saturated with color pigment.
This film and ink combination, called a ribbon or foil, is brought into contact with a substrate such as vinyl or polyester via a thermal print head. The pigment is then fused into the material where required in either a dot pattern or solid color. It is a dry process and produces no out-gassing or odor.
Thermal ribbons come in a roll and therefore it is easy to calculate usage. If you are using 50 ft. of vinyl to print your black and red labels, one might assume that you will also use 50 ft. of black and red foil.
However, with the Gerber Edge, the onboard software actually instructs the printer to save foil by lifting the print head when there isn't any color to be printed. Therefore your costs may be less than you calculate.
The Gerber production technology fits into contemporary businesses because it allows you to produce professional labels and markings right now, on demand!
Call us today for free consultation about how your business can grow and bring in more profits with a
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When compared to traditional screen printing, offset, or flexo printing production, there are no time consuming "make-ready" or "clean up" processes to add expense or delays to your job.
"Make ready," as we refer to it includes making film, screens, and/or plates for the press. And it also includes mixing specific ink colors, inking up the press, and running press proofs. Since the first three items are virtually non-existent in the digital thermal transfer process, most of the cost boils down to the cost of materials, and operator labor.
Wet vs. Dry Process: Ink is wet, messy, stinks, and requires chemicals, time, and sometimes recovery processes to clean up. In comparison, the thermal transfer process is dry, safe, there is no odor, recovery process, or clean up.
Dies and special finishing processes play a big part in the cost and turn around time of a job. Traditional dies are like cookie cutters... they stamp out the same pattern over and over. Usually this is the outside shape of the label, but it can include inside shapes such as you would find on a keyboard overlay or control panel. Dies can cost from $50 for a simple steel rule flat die to $3,000+ for a more complex rotary die for a flexo press. Many times the die costs are amortized or "hidden" in the price per piece.
Cutting Digitally: This is as easy as loading the printed material in the cutter and lining up one "bulls eye" on the job. The software knows exactly where to tell the cutter to cut. You can even flip the material over and back-slit across the liner, or create groups or assemblies of labels for production lines.
Cutting your labels digitally (on your desktop) gives you the ability to finish the job as quickly as you printed it. Remember, there are no dies or delays associated with cutting your labels. And the shapes or sizes can be modified in an instant, with the click of a mouse. The results are instant and many times can be run unattended.
Digital Art & Speed: When you have digital art, which is the way most art is prepared these days, there is virtually no set up time required to run a job on the Gerber system. And once a job is saved it can be recalled in an instant and modified if necessary.
Thermal Printing offers so many benefits, it is hard to mention or explain them all:
- Exceptional outdoor durability without lamination in most applications
- High abrasion resistance
- Prints on the widest range of substrates
- Outstanding color range and expanded application capabilities via seven specialized foil series, including spot, process, white metallic's, and other specialty foils
- Shop-friendly: low maintenance, no odor, no ventilation, no drying, no mess. small footprint
- Increased productivity on labor intense jobs
- Create opportunities with by producing products that can't be easily produced any other way.
