Schaeffer (Now FPE too) Digital UV printing

Anyone in EU tried this new service from Schaeffer?  Its not offered yet in the U.S. from Front Panel Express but they appear to be working on it.  I think this may be a great option for panels that have very intricate logo's and or legends or panels with custom paint where silkscreen is too expensive for a single panel.    If anyone has done it, do you have pics?

https://www.schaeffer-ag.de/en/graphics/printing/
Now offered in U.S. from Front Panel Express
https://www.frontpanelexpress.com/graphics/digital_printing/

Regards,
Jeff

That looks very interesting. I could not find the print specificatins they referred to.

Cheers

ian

Neither could I.  But in the overview of the service they say you can use the FPD file and request
what you what to be printed.    It would be wonderful if they could use an Illustrator, Corel Draw or InkScape design file.  Then all kinds of creative things can be done. 

I'm keeping my eye on this one hear in the states as I have 2 EZ1073 panels that need to be done. 

Yeah, it's a bit annoying that it isn't possible to incorporate this into the FPD software using a standard file type like PNG.

Good feature though - it'd be interesting to see some prices.

One difficulty I keep running into when using FPD is fonts.  Frank at NRG has worked on this issue going from Corel Draw to plt.  The big issue seems to be single stroke fonts.  Graphics programs like Illustrator don't deal with these.    So to get a graphics file with fonts to be imported into the FPD as a plt file is tricky and time consuming.  The option to go digital printing looks like a great way to go.  If FP express can only use the existing FPD file then this will be a limiting factor as we'd still need to go through the process of converting outlines to single stroke fonts and converting to plt for import to FPE.    Digital printing on the other hand "should" be compatible with standard graphics file formats and fonts. 

I had a set of custom API 312 mic preamp panels digitally painted at my local trophy engraver.  Not sure what system he had.  The detail is very good but the overall quality was just ok.  He could only do small panels so a full 19" rack panel would be tricky for a one shot printing. 

I have high hopes for Schaeffer/Front Panel Express digital UV printing service as their CNC/engraving/in-fill is outstanding! 

Regards,
Jeff

Hi all

I place an order at Schaeffer using the the print method.
It's for my home made moving fader front panel, retrofit in my Studer 289, so not so many funny print, 3 colours, label and fader scale line. By memory the print accuracy is 300dpi, and thy can take any file you send, with extra charge if they need conversion.
At my side I send my print as pdf and svg, without extra charge. I don't know which on they use, but I think they prefer vectorized not bitmap.
I keep you inform with the result, hopefully by the end of the week

Zam

Front Panel Express (U.S.) is now offering the UV Digital print service!  You need to download the new 5.01 version of FPD.  Who wants to be the first guinea pig here in U.S?  Ok, it  might be me!  I have my 2 EZ1073 panels painted and my Illustrator design file ready for PDF conversion so I'm going to give it a try.  I've been using my EZ1073's for months with no legends on them.  I just have a printed reference on paper near it so I can get to the proper knob (which as long as you know which knob is which, the rest is done by ear anyway). 

If anyone else beats me to getting their graphics worked out with FPE please keep us all updated on the process.  I've already tried and my PDF import crashes FPD.  I think its because my PDF contained "non-printed" objects.  The PDF was a simple printed check for size and location.  I'll convert it again with printing elements only and see if that works.  I assume since they've been successfully doing this with Schaeffer and the same program in Europe, the issue I'm having is me.

Zam, did you get your panels back?  If so,  post em up so we can see them!!

Regards,
Jeff

Hey there!

Sorry to barge in I got myself a UV printed front panel for a prototype from Schaeffer some weeks ago, just to see how it works out. The whole background is printed in a grey-ish tone - see for yourselves

Best regards,
Mathias

Nice!

this is what I retained for my (2012 by now, must get back to work on that) 16CH line level mixer. laser cut single metal sheet front panel (all switches and fader slots laser cut too!) with UV laser cured labels. the only way to get single units at a viable cost in my opinion. good this ia broadly available now.

Michael

buckethead said:

Hey there!

Sorry to barge in I got myself a UV printed front panel for a prototype from Schaeffer some weeks ago, just to see how it works out. The whole background is printed in a grey-ish tone - see for yourselves

Best regards,
Mathias

Click to expand...

That looks great! What software did you use to design it?  How did you ensure it was to the correct scale? Are all the legends and background colours in the one file? That would mean no separate cost for each bit of legend engraved on the panel but just one cost for all of it.

Cheers

Ian

ruffrecords said:

That looks great! What software did you use to design it?  How did you ensure it was to the correct scale? Are all the legends and background colours in the one file? That would mean no separate cost for each bit of legend engraved on the panel but just one cost for all of it.

Click to expand...

Thanks guys!

I used Inkscape to design the whole UV printing layer scaled 1:1, exported to PDF as a vector graphic (see attachement - it's the original file I used for the front panel graphics) and then imported it into FPD, where the holes etc. where happening. No more scaling was needed because the PDF already had the original size of the front panel.

In my case the additional costs for printing were 15€ and they were as high as they would get, you won't pay for additional details so you really can go crazy with the design

Best regards,
Mathias

..how is scratch resistance? (yes, I know it's a parameter hard to quantitize)

Jakob E.

For now it's resistant enough for fingernails, we'll see how the finish keeps up after some time, hard to say right now. Of course something like a screw driver messes it up in no time. The paint is a little fragile around sharp edges, like holes, or the edges of the panel itself - I tore some paint off with plain masking tape.

Altogether the whole print is a little blurry and grainy, though I delivered vectorised data. Reminds me of an old inkjet printer

Best regards
Mathias

This is a great step forward. I am going to have to try it.

Cheers

Ian

Looks good Buckethead.  Is the surface of your plate rough or smooth? 

I made my digital print file in Adobe Illustrator then printed it to PDF.  I was hoping the digital printing method would be as sharp as silkscreen.  Buckethead, how does it compare to silkscreen?  Your panel looks good to me.

Regards,
Jeff

Hey Jeff, the surface is smooth, feels like anodized aluminium. The raw surface is uncolored anodized aluminium, then there's a layer of white UV "primer" and the last layer is the colored UV print (as seen in the PDF I attached earlier). I tried to take a makro shot, so you can see the texture of the print a little bit better. If you look close at the print, you see that it is blurry and not as sharp as silkscreened or offset labeling, but from "normal" distance it looks perfect. There's a lot of potential in this printing method.

I will try some simpler labeling in the future - like black anodized alu with simple white UV print - we'll see how that'll work out

Best regards,
Mathias

Mathias,

What resolution was your  art in PDF?  The Schaeffer site states a minimum of 300 DPI but recommend at least 600 DPI if logo's or "graphics" are included.  I would expect the higher DPI would also apply to text. 

Also, for some reason I'm only able to import 1 graphic file then that import button goes grey.  According the FPE you can import any number of graphic files into a single design.  Not sure why I can't do that.

Regards,
Jeff

Hey Jeff, my complete artwork is vectors only, no rasterization, so dpi shouldn't be an issue here. There's one of those UV printers at the company I work, it's used for labeling medical devices at customer request (sadly I can't use it for personal stuff) and the results look very similar to the Schaeffer print, so I guess that's where that technology is right now.

Btw. I tried adding more graphic objects in FPD just now, works without a problem at my end. You got the newest version (5.01)?

Best regards,
Mathias

deveng said:

One difficulty I keep running into when using FPD is fonts.  Frank at NRG has worked on this issue going from Corel Draw to plt.  The big issue seems to be single stroke fonts.

Click to expand...

Several years ago I did a test panel with cam-expert. For single stoke fonts I used the emachineshop free CAD software just for text and then exported it to dxf IIRC. Then I imported it into inkscape where I did most of the work. However, if you want to change the text you have to go back into exmachineshop, export, import and reposition each fragment of text. The whole process is somewhat absurd but if you get the text nailed down, it's not terribly painful and the end product was very professional looking.

I did something similar using Microsoft Word. I used a fancy font to make a sort of logo from several characters and a symbol and then printed it to a prn file. Then I manually edited the prn file by removing the small bits at the beginning and end so that it was eps. Then I imported that into inkscape. Meaning you can take high quality MS Word text and engrave it onto a panel. But IIRC it did take some trial and error to figure out how to export/import in a way that did not cause polylines to become splined / segmented.

One very important tip about inkscape however. You must copy and paste everything into one (1) layer before exporting to dxf. If you have mutliple layers of stuff, the export will only partially work. You must crush everything down into one layer, export to dxf and confirm it's right with Draftsight.

Using the above methods you can create arbitrarily complex engravings that are 100% vector (which is the only way to go IMO).

Mathias,

Finally got my Illustrator design to successfully import via graphics import tool.  Problem was I was trying to print the Illustrator file to pdf (using the CutePDF print option).  Somehow CutePDF was corrupting the file.  I found Illustrator has the option to "save as" PDF.  Bingo!  That worked perfectly.  Second problem was the Illustrator page size has a minimum of 2".  So I made sure my Illustrator design origin was at 0,0 lower left and the extra page was up top.  That way when I import graphics to FPD I make sure the graphic origin is lower left and move to 0,0.  Lines up perfect now. 

Illustrator is vector based and I assume that a file saved as PDF, the PDF will be vector as well.    I do have the 5.01 version.  If I create a new design, I can add more than one graphic.  But with a already saved design I find the import graphic tool is greyed out.  Not sure why. 

Squarewave,

For some of my earlier designs, I used AutoCad to create complex stuff and exported to dxf then import to FPD.  Finding the right printer for output dxf from AutoCad was a pain but once I got it, the file imported into FPD ok.  The single stroke fonts inmported from my older version of AutoCad did not have really smooth curves in FPD.  Using  Illustrator, the curves are almost perfect.  I also experimented with InkScape when trying to solve the PDF issue.  I ended up using only Illustrator but InkScape looks to be a great program and its free!  Thanks for the tip on layers with InkScape.  I'm sure someone here will run into that issue.

I'll be finalizing my FPD  EZ1073 design today and will send my file and painted panels to FPE soon.  I'm a bit nervous about the first time with UV digital print.  The cost to get these painted with the Dark Sea Grey was not cheap.  Measure twice, cut once!

Regards,
Jeff