Inkjet printing on record blanks?

[professorb]

I have access to a flatbed inkjet at my day job and am thinking about trying to print on uncut side of a one-sided 12" record. Anyone have any experience with this? Tips or advice?

[piaptk]

I silkscreen b-sides, but have never used a printer on them. Its especially cool when you print the image inverted on clear polycabronate so the image shows up correctly on the cut side.

[professorb]

I’ll have to give that a try!

[okpanda]

before or after cutting? if it is before cutting, i would think that it would interfere with a clean cut - after cutting and i would be concerned about ink filling in grooves. are you planning on the printed side being playable?

[professorb]

I was thinking one-sided records and printing on the opposite side.

[Tim w]

Do you have a printer that will advance the record under the printhead ? I would also be concerned about any kind of moisture washing away the image.

[professorb]

It's a 5ft x 10ft vanguard flat bed. The material is placed on the bed and held in place with a vacuum while the print head travels back and forth above the material. I could probably print 32 at a time if I lined them up right.

[piaptk]

Ive embossed on poly over Stazon stamp ink or sharpie with no discernable difference.

In theory, i would think that if a diamond is tough enough to cut through plastic, it should be able cut through a very thin layer of ink. The audio would be held below the surface layer anyway.

[symatic]

i'm tihnking the same - if it can cut through plastic, can't it cut through ink/different textures?

[okpanda]

i wouldn't be concerned about cutting through it, just gunking up the stylus in the process.

[okpanda]

oh in terms of printing on the blank side though - i vaguely recall hearing about some kind of clear coating you can spray onto a surface to make it printable with regular ink. let me see if i can find out what it was.

also, do you know the maximum media thickness that can be fed through your printer? a 2mm blank might be too much, ie paper is not usually that thick.

[okpanda]

this is what i was thinking of but it appears to have been discontinued:
https://www.goldenpaints.com/technicalinfo/technicalinfo_digigrnd

there might be similar products though.