If you are considering buying a printer to use for printing images and text onto printable edible icing sheets or wafer papers (edible Printers) it is important that you read the following article fully and bear the contents in mind prior to purchasing.
Definition of an Edible Printer.
The package that you buy will be an off the shelf, standard printer that will be supplied with cartridges containing edible inks, that is, inks that have been produced from materials and ingredients that are suitable for human consumption.
Other than the inks used, there is absolutely no difference to a printer model being used for desktop printing with branded cartridges, when compared to an edible printer setup. The only instance where a printer could be modified is when using with a continuous ink supply system.
There are no printers manufactured anywhere in the world specifically for edible printing other than custom builds using common components produced by printer manufacturers i.e Epson, Canon, HP and Brother. It is a common industry practice to develop and build a machine for a specific purpose, for example, dye sublimation, edible or specialised solvent printing, by creating a frame and drives but to use printer manufacturers parts such as the print head.
Bearing this in mind, what we and other companies similar to ourselves do is to select specific Epson, Canon and Brother printers which are capable of and suitable for use with our edible ink and edible printable media. We will have tried and tested the printer in application to ensure perfect and repeatable results, along with good service life.
Use of an Edible Printer.
It is important that it be understood that an edible printer must be used regularly. Failure to understand and use regularly will result in blocked print heads and which can cause other issues.
Ideally, the printer will be used as an every-day printer for text, letters, homework, and images etc and that printing onto edible media will just be another printing function of what should be a multi-purpose printer. The finish on a photograph using edible ink and a good quality photo paper will produce surprising results, lab-quality photographs.
An advantage in using edible ink, so we are told, is that it will; resist fade and could be considered as archival. We have tested this over the past few months by comparing images produced from edible inks and compatible ink cartridges and the edible ink image prints faded substantially less than the compatible cartridge image prints.
As already stated, the only difference in an edible printer when compared to a non-edible printer of the same model are the type of inks used. Given that edible inks are archival quality and that they produce clear sharp printing, why would you not use the printer for all of your printing tasks?
Incorrect Use of an Edible Printer.
The incorrect use of an edible printer would be to only print occasionally, weekly, monthly or quarterly to print onto printable edible media for cakes. This will result in a print head blockage which can result in a print head failure and in some instances can result in a locked out printer owing to excessive head cleaning through the printer’s head cleaning utility.
Should a head blockage occur through lack of use, please telephone us and we can assist by supplying cleaning cartridges that contain edible grade cleaning fluid to break down the dried ink particles causing the blockage. Alternatively and model dependent, we can advise how to remove the print head and rinse, dry and re-install.
The thing not to do with any head blockage is to perform head clean after head clean using the printer’s head cleaning utility. This will cause issues, instead, Call 0845 3096375!
Support.
We offer extensive support to our customers from specification through to set-up to usage and maintenance tasks. Support can be obtained via Telephone, Email, Website interface, Skype and in some cases through remote access.
Telephone Number: Landline Friendly 0845 3096375 – Mobile Friendly 0345 3096375
Email: support@edibleinks.uk (we use a catch-all email so anything @ will get to us)
Website Interface: edibleinks.uk or printingbuddy.uk
Skype and Remote access: On Request – telephone 0845 3096375 / 0345 3096375
For all purchases, we offer a 30-day support service (from the date of purchase) for all customers who purchase a printer from us. This helps to get you set up and going on to confidently printing your edible images on all of our printable media types. The idea is to extend knowledge on the correct paper settings, which paper tray to use with which media/papers for printers with a front and back paper feed. Tips and tricks on how to get the best results can be passed on along with the chance for you to ask any questions that you have may have.
A new feature of our support is the introduction of “5 Shilling Courses” These are short training courses that we do on a one to one basis via remote computer access. These courses help our customers to better understand edible printing, the use of the porinter and how to manipulate software to get the best results.
We always try to be courteous and polite in our dealings with customers and we would ask for the same in return. Like most people, if we are verbally attacked, we will try to reason through the verbals and again like most people, we will lose patience and respond like for like if pushed. We are here to help, not to be abused!
Issues/Problems.
Our main findings on the issues when using an edible printer is a user’s lack of use of the printer. Most users that we have spoken too following an issue have said that “they do not use the printer very often” and that they “only use the printer for cake orders that they have”, maybe 1 a month or 1 every 3 months.
Under-use is a very big problem and one that needs understanding and acting on in terms of how to use the printer. The printers must be used as often as possible with regular use as a normal everyday printer for, documents, images, homework, and photographs. At the very least print something once a week.