Printing a design onto a large stainless steel sheet

Flipper

Hi, I saw a cool idea for a wall feature in a show apartment recently and wanted to replicate it for my own place. I work in the stainless steel industry so that part is easy for me... It's the printing I want to know about. I will mount two 1mm thick sheets of polished stainless steel on my wall (approx 1200mm x 1200mm and I want to "print" (should read transfer I suppose) two images onto them. Can anyone suggest a few ways to do this? I want to images to mean something to me so one idea I had was to use the two character images from this poster of my favourite movie. I can cover over the extra detail on their suits in photoshop and as the sheets are square, I wouldn't use the full length of their body.

Thanks in advance for all your suggestions.

By the way, here's a picture of the idea I saw in the show apartment.

briscotti

Hello!
A couple of things came to mind when I read your post.
The most obvious answer in my opinion is Screenprinting, however this might end up costing you a fair bit if you are to do it commercially as regardless of the amount of times you want the image printed, there is the same amount of work involved in preparing the screen.

Another, probably cheaper option is one i've seen a lot on etsy recently which is vinyl cuts, giving you what is essentially a decal.
There are tonnes of examples to give you an idea but you won't be able to achieve the halftone pattern as in your picture.


Screenprint will allow you get it exactly as it is pictured but at a price!
Hope i've helped in someway.... Perhaps you could consider having a couple more printed to try recoup your costs by selling them on etsy.com, however I imagine shipping costs would make this an unviable option.. maybe at a couple of fairs around Dublin? I dunno! Just throwing it out there...
Good luck! Let us know how you get on!

ztoical

briscotti wrote: »

Perhaps you could consider having a couple more printed to try recoup your costs by selling them on etsy.com, however I imagine shipping costs would make this an unviable option.. maybe at a couple of fairs around Dublin? I dunno! Just throwing it out there...
Good luck! Let us know how you get on!

The image they want to use is from a film [and a pretty recent one] so there would be copyright issue if the OP tried to sell copies.

narkymarky

Flipper,

Not sure where you're located but check out your local digital printers. For a run of this size, and with you supplying the stainless steel, what you need is a printer with a flatbed uv machine or possibly a large bed dye sublimination press. A screenprinter may be able to help you out with the uv side of things.
We've printed using both methods onto aluminium - I'm not sure how the steel would work, but if you're in a position to supply a couple of offcuts then anyone with the right equipment should be happy to run a few samples for approval.
The other option is to have the image printed onto a clear self adhesive vinyl and mounted onto the stainless steel. You'll get some light reflection off the unprinted areas but a satin steel should reduce this to some degree. Again with you able to supply a small offcut a printer should happily run you a sample vinyl - after all if it works, theres maybe a new product for them and you could supply the steel!

Let me know how it works out - would be interested in knowing how the steel works out.

Mark

janifor

I also think its not a easy process to print on Metal. I am amaze about how they done metal printing. i found some videos on youtube for understanding the process but useless. is there anyone know the process. then please reply.

I also suggest you the if you like print you poster on a full size stickers and past it on metal.