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Permalink Reply by Gary Hollinshead on 
Permalink Reply by Stewart Bell on Hi Stewart
I have printed onto glass many times as decorative glasswork is actually my main business
I have printed inks and acid . The ink is as normal printing ink and the acid is a glass etch paste which is the consistancy of ink. There was a company in Dublin which printed full time onto glass . Appleby or Applegate or something - I can't remember. I think they may have shut quite a while ago. The main business they did was for printed mirrors with design. For instance - Guinness would order a few thousand Guinness is good for you mirrors . They would print clear glass with screens and then silver it over . So pub mirrors was a big thing for them. All of those cheap pub mirrors are done like this. On the otherhand what I was doing by hand was one off quality pub mirrors with gold leaf and hand painted etc - like a powers whiskey mirror for example. Most glass that is printed on now is done in bulk and printed with a type of ground glass which is the put through a toughening plant and the design is annealed onto the glass permanently. Shower doors for instance. People would normally now put a design onto glass by wide format printing onto clear and stick it on. Door panels etc is not a runner as they are all different sizes/ shapes so we do them by hand - usually sandblasted on - not painted. I have been decorating glass for 25 years or so and am one of the few people in Ireland who specialise in this area. I have come to the conclusion that due to the nature of glass that in gereral use here where theres a small population , printing onto glass is just not that viable for commercial practicalities. The competition comes from the east etc and prices are hard to beat. You may have some niche market ideas which could be exciting
and I would love to discuss with you (discuss not steal!!!) LOL
Cheers Gary
Permalink Reply by Marc Childers on Permalink Reply by Gary Hollinshead on We routinely direct print to glass for a couple of our clients. They use is for Graphic/Display applications, mostly high end office interior artwork.
Permalink Reply by Marc Childers on Hi Marc
Do you use screen or digital printer?
Marc Childers said:We routinely direct print to glass for a couple of our clients. They use is for Graphic/Display applications, mostly high end office interior artwork.
Permalink Reply by Andy Arkin on Permalink Reply by Marc Childers on Mark,
How well does the digital UV ink adhere to the glass? Are you pretreating the glass with anything? Is the glass purchased with a pretreatment? Any post treatment to improve ink adhesion?
Permalink Reply by Stewart Bell on Permalink Reply by Anne Cleary on Hi Marc
Could you tell me a little more about your printing on glass. I am interested in this for a public art project. Thanks, Anne
Marc Childers said:
We routinely direct print to glass for a couple of our clients. They use is for Graphic/Display applications, mostly high end office interior artwork.
Permalink Reply by andy-zhang on Hi all:
Now i know a company that specialize in producing UV flatbed printer, these machines all can print the picture on the glass directly, however, its adhesive force is not strong, so the glass has better to be coated by varnish for better effects.
My skype: andyzhang0415 & MSN: dennispaul@live.cn
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