How To Print Promotional Items

What technology do I need?Pad printed promotional items

If you are looking to start a new business or expand your existing offerings, it is worthwhile looking at the opportunities offered by printing or decorating promotional items. The market for promotional items and corporate gifts is very big and still a growing industry despite various economic ups and downs. Expenditure on advertising products remain an important part of a company's overall marketing budget and become even more crucial during difficult times, since companies realise the value of an advertising medium that is kept and used by the recipient, thereby continually exposing the user to the advertising message. Overall promotional items and corporate gifts are much more cost effective to the advertiser than products like leaflets and adverts in newspapers that are invariably not retained.

Whilst there is no shortage of businesses that supply promotional items, these businesses generally do not print the products they sell in-house and can therefore not offer much flexibility in terms of quantities or turnaround times to their customers. They have to rely on subcontractors, hoping that they will not be let down and with only a small handful of true trade printers, turnaround times can be problematic.

The true benefit of getting involved in the promotional printing business is definitely not just being a "me-too" company, but investing in quality equipment to take control of the whole production process and offering customers the kind of service that will keep them coming back for more. If you are reading this web page, then you are probably wondering how to get into this industry, what kind of equipment should you consider for the products you want to focus on and how much capital investment will be needed to get you started.

Suggested print technology:

Hot Foil Printing

Kwikprint hot foil printing systemsThis dry, ink free transfer print process can be used on paper, card, wood, plastic, and real or synthetic leather. The products must be flat and a printing plate or traditional printing type will be needed to personalise the item. (See more here)

Pad Printing

GTO Pad printing equipmentThis is perhaps the most versatile printing process available today. A very wide variety of product shapes and substrates can be accomodated, such as metal, glass, ceramic, plastic and woodto name a few. (See more here)

Screen Printing

Vastex screen printing equipmentThis is one of the oldest and most widely used printing systems. Many flat items are screen printed, but it is the market for personalised clothing that benefits most from the modern, highly efficient and easy to learn equipment we offer. (See more here)

Heat Transfer

Heat transfer systemWhen you need to print a full colour image onto a very small number of garments, look no further than heat transfer printing. The process uses no inks and is so flexible that it is possible to print one product in full, vibrant colour! (See more here)

Engraving

Certain products that are made from hard plastic or metal such as pens, keyfobs, trophies, jewellry, or signage products are best personalised using either a computerised engraver or a laser engraving system. (See more here)

Sublimation

Sublimation printingSublimation is a very clever form of digital printing. The process produces full colour, photographic quality images that can be applied using a heat transfer press to a wide range of white and light pastel coloured products. (See more here)

What equipment can Dalesway supply?

We have tried to provide an insight into the most commonly used systems for personalising promotional merchandise. By exploring our site, we hope that you will find clear and concise information about the range of great products that we supply and support and we are happy to point you in the right direction where we don't offer a product directly. If your business idea is simply that, an idea at this moment, spend some time looking at the printing technology Dalesway offers to businesses all over the world. We have been doing this since 1995 and our track record is both proven and reliable. Moreover, we honestly believe our products are among the best available, and that they represent exceptional value for money.

We specialise in the following systems, but would be more than happy to provide recommendations to other quality machine suppliers here in the United Kingdom: