#342 - What does the World Cup have to do with Direct to Shape Print, with Grant Copson, Cyan Tec

A football looks simple until you try to print on it. The curves, seams, and tricky surface finish make traditional flatbed approaches awkward at best. So we sat down with Grant Copson from Cyan Tec to unpack how RoboJet, a modular robotic inkjet printing platform, manages true direct-to-object printing with the kind of quality you actually want to put in front of customers.

We walk through the full production flow, from plasma pre-treatment (with options like corona depending on the substrate) to multi-module inkjet printing with full colour CMYK plus white ink for darker products. Grant explains why UV pinning matters during printing, how the final UV cure locks in durability, and how a six-axis robotic arm gives you the freedom to manipulate complex geometry in open space rather than forcing everything under a fixed printhead. If you are searching for practical answers on UV inkjet printing, 3D object printing, robotic automation in print, or mass customisation, this conversation gets into the details without the fluff.

We also dig into the engineering behind repeatability: bespoke moulds designed in 3D CAD, fixtures produced in-house on 3D printers, and a digital twin workflow that lets the team offline programme and test robot movements before ink ever goes into the machine. That means faster commissioning, less downtime, and a clearer path from prototype to production line. We wrap with where you can see RoboJet in action next, including live demos and upcoming events.

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Transcript

Welcome And The World Cup Hook

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Hello and welcome back to the Future Print podcast. My name is Ed, and I'm really, really delighted today to be joined by Grant Copson from Scientec. Grant, how are you? Yeah, all good thanks, Ed. Yeah. Good, good. We thought with the World Cup in full swing and millions around the world watching the football, we wanted to talk a little

What RoboJet Is Built To Do

SPEAKER_01 0:29

bit about what Scientec does in terms of printing on objects like a football. So tell us a little bit more about exactly what the Robojet does.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Yeah, so uh quite timely, really. We've uh produced the RoboJet machine to actually print onto a football as sort of part of our marketing campaign to show off the full capabilities of the robotic printing machine that, like you say, we're calling RoboJet. So it's a uh a modular platform. Um, we do have a standard offering within that modular platform that we've produced multiple machines of. It uh incorporates a robotic arm that can move the substrate around to the various stations. Um it's incorporating a pre-treatment station, um, namely plasma, but we can also use a Corona method and some others uh depending on the substrates. And then we've got the printing technology, so we've got three of our um print modules which include full colour, CMYK, and white for our different coloured substrates, and then we've got the pinning lamps that are built into the print modules to partly cure the ink on like the football, and then we take the football to a uh final cure, final UV cure station that um yeah basically sets the ink on the on the substrate. So yeah, we've used a football in this uh scenario because it's a very good object to show off the the true full capabilities of it in terms of the print quality, in terms of the uh the nature of the um the type of images that we can put onto um 3D objects and a football, you know, with the machine being capable of rotating that products 360 degrees, um, football is is a perfect example of

Why Footballs Are Hard To Print

SPEAKER_00 2:29

that.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Yeah, and tell us a little bit why is it difficult normally to print on a football and why this RoboJet is able to do it.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

Yeah, so traditional methods of of printing, you know, a lot of uh flatbed printers that are out there have got limitations in terms of how you can actually get that product under the under the print head itself. In terms of RoboJet, because we're um using a robot to manipulate the the substrate underneath print modules that in theory sit in open space, so you've got um a lot more flexibility in terms of the size, shape, um, and the complex geometry that's within the the substrate, we've we've got the ability to be able to manipulate that around with the with the robotic arm. And in terms of the uh the end-of-arm tooling that's that's mounted to the end of the six-axis robot, it's designed, like I previously said, to to rotate 360 degrees so that we can uh yeah, we can have full manipulation around that that product.

Custom Moulds And Digital Twin Setup

SPEAKER_01 3:34

Hmm. I I was I was watching a video just before we spoke of it in action, and what struck me was was the mold that you use. Can you just explain how you create those molds that fit the object?

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Yeah, so we use um 3D CAD package um that allows us to design and manufacture those type of components. So the football is effectively clicked into a bespoke tool that um allows it to be held in in a known position. Um we've got a brace then that can go over the top to um accurately locate the printing position. That's then removed, and then the robot is is started and we do the um we do the printing. So we go from the 3D CAD package onto our own 3D printers here, um, where we're able to print plastic components. Obviously, you're able to print 3D uh metal components as well, um, using different types of machinery. We've got um yeah, the plastic version of that. Um so we've been able to fully design and manufacture that tool in in-house and also do the offline programming. So using a digital twin um on the robotic manufacturer's software, we're able to design the digital twin and offline program that robot prior to putting that um software into the machine to actually do all of our um plasma printing, um, UV, and general movement of the robot. So we're able to do all of that in the virtual world, which is really advantageous for us because it means um quick deployment and we've got the ability to do those tests before we've actually got the machine inked up and ready to go, if that makes sense. So we can do now a lot more tasks in tandem. So that means that the time on the machine, when it gets inked up to when it's being able to be completed and delivered to an end customer, for example, uh, is much shorter. So that's uh that's real benefit to us.

Scaling Up With Modular Automation

SPEAKER_01 5:42

In terms of the scope of the robojet, you know, how how large can you go? You know, can a uh a business have multiple robojets working at the same time in tandem? What what what's the scale like?

SPEAKER_00 5:56

Yeah, so because of its modular approach, it's designed to be it can be manually loaded as a single machine, or we have a uh some customers in the field that automatically load it with either robotics or a Gantry system or a combination of both. So we've got two access points on the machine where one side is manually loading and the other side is automatically loading. And a customer that we've got also uses both a combination of both. So they sometimes manually load it, they sometimes automatically load it, depending on um how the factory is operating at that point in time. So that's in terms of its modularity and being able to be linked together, that's um really useful for customers that are trying to build up a production line. But for us, it's it's a number of RoboJet systems. Um, and because of Scientec's history of designing and building bespoke automated solutions as well, we have the capability here to build gantry systems, robotic loading and unloading systems for customers as well, even though they wouldn't necessarily be an off-the-shelf solution. But that's very much uh our portfolio of of work very much includes that type of thing.

Beyond Footballs: Shoes Guitars Electronics

SPEAKER_01 7:14

And and what when you watch it, it's uh it's a real uh amazing feat of engineering watching the the arm whirl around and and and be able to print on objects of all shapes. What other things are you printing on as well? You know, you've got your football. Uh, is there anything else you've been printing on?

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Yeah, so we've been looking at uh just down the same route of like the sports category, um, American footballs. Um we've also printed onto, which is pretty common knowledge now, printed onto the high performance running shoes. Um, we're looking to print on guitar bodies, um electronic components where they've got corrugated um contours within that product. So where again all the products where it's traditionally difficult to print using a flatbed, um, we're trying to use RoboJet to show off its true capabilities. Um, but obviously, in terms of the actual inkjet technology, the the big USP over some more traditional methods of printing is the fact that we can mass customize with with very little um changeover. It's pretty much all it's all software.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

Well, that's great. It's it's it it's a really cool machine, and and hopefully this will get people to check it out and and go and see

Where To See Live RoboJet Demos

SPEAKER_01 8:35

it. Well, where will you be in the next few months? What what are you up to?

SPEAKER_00 8:39

Yeah, so we've got a demonstration machine that's available to be to be viewed at our factory on request. We've got the videos out there on YouTube printing onto football, printing onto some cups, which I didn't mention there, but that's a really good application showing uh 360 printing as well. Um, we're gonna be going to the Siemens Transform event in uh Manchester, which is in in the middle of July. Um so you can register, people can register for that to come and see us, where we'll be we'll actually be printing onto hardhats, um, which again is a really good and and live application uh in the field. Um and then further further down the line, we'll be uh going to Las Vegas for Printing United, um, where we'll be showing off the hard hat printing again, plus hopefully some other components that I've I've previously mentioned. Um, and then next year we we're excited to be obviously joining FuturePrint in Munich to uh again show off the robojet, and I'm sure we'll have you know some joint ideas on how we can uh make that sort of be a standout as well. So we're really excited for that.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

Yeah, exciting time for Scientec. Well, Grant, thank you very much for giving up the time and uh hope to see you soon.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

Yeah, thanks Ed. Thanks a lot, you too. Cheers.

Final Thanks And How To Follow

SPEAKER_02 9:58

Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, you can subscribe now for more great audio content coming up. And visit futureprint.tech, related news, partner interviews, in-depth industry research, and to catch up on content from future print events. Feel free next time under Future Print podcast.