Beyond Paper: Opportunities in Specialty Printing

The technology that Enduring Images supplies for ceramic printing takes off-the-shelf commercial laser printers and changes the internal settings that are designed to print conventional organic toners. Due to their inorganic ceramic pigments, the way the printer moves the material around has to be adjusted for it to be optimized. It prints a ceramic decal that can then be dipped in water, applied to a substrate, and fired in a kiln. “There are a lot of dye-sub printers out there that make beautiful tile, but it scratches easily, fades in the sunlight, those sorts of things,” Manwiller says. “So, it’s great for giftware or marketing and promotional items, but for commercial end uses where the typical ceramic durability is demanded, you can’t use dye-sub.”