CD-Lab Introduces the House Disc

I was out to dinner a while back with my wife and we were dining at our local dive and we ordered the "house wine". I didn't have to swirl it,  smell it, taste it  or even look at the bottle.  It was simple and actually very acceptable. It occurred to me that maybe a long standing tradition at the company needed to change.

Since our inception we have been media snobs, I admit it. If it wasn't made by Taiyo Yuden or MAM-A we simply didn't want to deal with it. We were very aware that our competitors had entered the "junk" disc market but we chose to stay on the high ground. The problem with the low end market is knowing who really made the discs, what standards did they use, did they pay the royalty, etc. Most of these discs come out of Asia and that is not where you are going to get honest answers or find the attention to detail that we felt was critical. Enter India.

The factory we have chosen runs an extremely tight ship. We have researched and tested extensively. They pass muster and we're willing to put our name on it. The discs record well across a variety of burners and the print surfaces are good. We will have a fairly simple lineup with CD and DVD offered with either Silver Gloss, White Inkjet or White Thermal.

We're offering an introductory special that allows our buyers to sample as few as 100 at the price of a pallet. So check them out and let us know how they taste, er, uh, work. 

CD/DVD/BluRay Disc Printing Methods

There are a handful of methods used to print text and images on optical media. Each has its own niche depending on whether the info is basic text or elaborate art with photos and color logos. The number of discs will also have a huge impact on choosing the best method for a particular job. If you are interested in purchasing a printer you can click on any of the bolded headlines for a link to those printers on our website. Here's a brief description,and review of each of the available methods.

Paper labels printer with Laser or Inkjet systems:
Bad method, turn and run from this. Applying a paper label to a disc can cause potential vibrations due to imbalance and can cause severe data degradation. 

Thermal:
Good for basic text down to 6 pt. fonts. Very low cost per disc and is able to print to the lowest cost, lacquer surfaces. The two best known  manufacturers of these printers are Rimage Corp and CopyPro. Stand alone printers cost between $3,500.00 and $8,000.00 with automated transporters available for high volume operations. These printers are known for their durability and reliability.

Thermal Retransfer:
Excellent for color work requiring an indelible or totally durable print. Cost per disc are high. Print ribbons runs about thirty cents per disc plus about an extra dime for the special surface. This does not include the base price of the disc. These printers are made by Rimage and Teac. Stand alone printers cost approximately $8,000.00 with automation available.

Inkjet:
Excellent for color but not good in the durability column. These prints will smear or run if they get moisture on them. Costs per disc vary from under a dime to over thirty cents per disc plus the additional cost of the special surface, about a dime more. Entry level printers can be found for a couple hundred dollars while fairly robust production printers with automation exist for about 2,000.00. It would appear that there are a lot of manufacturers of these printers but the reality is they are either made by HP, Lexmark or Epson. For instance the Microboards printers are all based on HP engines.

Silk Screen:
This is not a method you will do at your office or home due to the enormous cost and difficulty in operation. Screen printing has been widely used in the mass production of discs since the inception of CD. The results are generally decent although photos and colors are not at their best here. If color matching a single color is required this is a good solution. PMS colors are routinely run on these printers.This method is expensive until the quantities reach 1K and above.

Offset:
A relative newcomer to the field, offset has become the choice of many for mass produced discs requiring high end color work. Like screen this is a very expensive and massive system to operate and won't be found in general business environments. Also, like screen, costs are high until the volume reaches about 1K.

Microboards Print Factory Pro Review

The Microboards Print Factory Pro has established itself as one of the best disc printers in its class. We consider this to be an extremely good solution to anyone who intends to print in excess of 5,000 to 10,000 discs during the course of your business. If you are printing less than that you should consider the Microboards Print Factory III, their entry level G3 AutoPrinter or the hand fed GX.

We arrived at this number of discs based upon the lower cost per disc as compared to other ink jet solutions in its price range. In round numbers an entry level CD/DVD printer will cost you as much as $.30/disc just for the ink. These systems are easy to spot on the market place as they only have one cartridge. If any of the colors run out this type of cart will need to re replaced. The next step up from this type of printer is the dual cartridge system where you have one for color and one for black. These generally average around $.20/disc although some can run as high as $.30/disc. The Microboards Print Factory Pro has four separate cartridges. If you run out of red you replace only the red. Cost per disc drops to below $.10/disc. Of course results will always vary because of color saturation and coverage but these are some pretty decent averages that we've accumulated over the years. Entry level automated systems start around $1,000 and the MB PF Pro sells for $2195.00 right now. So you can do your own math and compare to whatever you can find but at some point this system will undoubtedly pay for itself if compared to other inkjet systems using single or dual cartridges.

In addition to saving on consumables the PF Pro brings a very durable platform to the jobs. We use these in our own production lineup and have printed many tens of thousands of discs on each with excellent results. The robotic system is the simplest (and best) there is. Yes, that's a bold statement but we've seen lots of methods and this one is consistently the most reliable and durable. It utilizes a gravity fed system that is so simple it makes all these swing arms and carousels look bad. Watch the Microboards Print Factory Pro demo video from Microboards.

To summarize the Microboards Print Factory Pro is an excellent solution for anyone printing CD/DVD/BluRay of sufficient volume and with a color requirement. The cost per disc is very low, the robotics are reliable and Microboards has had a great reputation for a very long time.