78 Pt DEZIGN CO.
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UV Rotary Printing

UV Printed Tumblers, Bottles & Glassware

Full color, direct onto the cup. No screens. No setup fees. No limits on how many colors your artwork uses.

UV rotary printing is the method behind every photo-quality, full-wrap tumbler you've seen and wondered how they pulled off. It lays CMYK + white + clear varnish directly onto the curved surface of a cup, cures it with UV light in seconds, and holds up in a commercial dishwasher.

Some decorators call this "digital printing" or "direct-to-object." The accurate name is UV rotary — UV-cured, rotary-indexed, full-color printing on cylindrical drinkware. We run it in-house, every day.

The Method

What UV Rotary Printing Actually Is

A rotary UV printer spins the cup on a precision mandrel while a print head lays down ink one pass at a time. The ink is UV-reactive — liquid on the way out of the nozzle, cured into a hardened film the instant an LED-UV lamp hits it. No kiln. No heat press. No transfer paper. The ink is on the cup, not adhered to a coating or transferred off a carrier sheet.

Because the printer is digital, every color your file uses prints in a single pass. You're not paying per screen, per color, or per Pantone. Gradients, photographs, tiny text, multi-color logos — they all go down the same way, at the same price.

That's the short version. The long version is what makes the difference between a print that peels in a month and a print that outlasts the cup.

What We Print On

Direct to the substrate. No coating required on the cup itself.

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Stainless Steel

Powder-coated and raw. YETI, RTIC, Polar Camel, Simple Modern, and the rest of the tumbler lineup.

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Glass

Clear, frosted, and colored. Pint glasses, growlers, wine bottles, beer bottles, mason jars.

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Plastic

Sports bottles, squeeze bottles, acrylic tumblers, stadium cups.

Shapes and Sizes We Handle

5.1"
Maximum diameter
14.1"
Maximum print length
360°
Full wrap or partial

Straight-walled and tapered cylinders. If your substrate is outside stainless, glassware, or plastic, ask us — we'll tell you straight if UV rotary is the right call, or point you to a method that is.

Real Work, Real Clients

UV Rotary in the Wild

Full-color, photo-quality prints straight off our rig.

Full-color UV rotary printed stainless tumbler with bomber aircraft artwork
Stainless

Full-Wrap Illustration

UV rotary · Stainless tumbler · 360° wrap

UV rotary printed glass pint with detailed multi-color artwork
Glass

Multi-Color on Glass

UV rotary · Pint glass · CMYK + white

UV rotary printed tumbler with corporate branding and gradient artwork
Corporate

Brand Program Tumblers

UV rotary · Gradient logo · Corporate run

What's in Our Ink System

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CMYK + White + Clear Varnish

Six channels, laid down in a single pass. White gives you opaque color on dark stainless, tinted glass, and colored substrates. Varnish is optional — it adds depth and a touch of gloss on top of the art.

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1200 dpi Resolution

Photo-quality on a cup is not an exaggeration — it's what the printer does. The limit is your source file, not our rig.

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LED-UV Cure

Narrow UV band, room-temperature around it. Tempered glass stays tempered. Powder coat doesn't scorch. No detempering, no thermal stress.

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Prop 65 & Food-Grade Inks

The same inks we certify on every piece that leaves our facility. No harmful chemicals, no compromises.

No screens to burn. No plates to etch. No per-color fee. Change the file, change the print — that's it.

Where UV Rotary Wins — and Where It Doesn't

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Where It Wins

  • Full-color artwork. Photos, gradients, illustrations, multi-color logos — unlimited colors in a single pass.
  • Short and mid-size runs. 50, 500, or 5,000 pieces. The per-piece price is the per-piece price — no setup fees amortizing across a big run.
  • Variable-data runs. Names, numbers, event dates, unique QR codes. Every cup can be different without slowing the line.
  • Pantone-accurate color on digitally-controlled output — no batch-to-batch drift from hand-mixed inks.
  • Commercial dishwasher durability when the substrate is prepped correctly. We prep it correctly.
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Where It's Not the Right Call

  • Very high-volume single-color art. 5,000+ pieces, one color can still run cheaper on a screen-print line. We'll tell you when that math tips.
  • Untreated low-energy plastics. Some substrates don't accept UV ink without a plasma or corona prep pass. We turn down what we can't do well.
  • Mirror-finish or heavily textured glass. Adhesion edge cases worth test-printing before you commit to a full run.
  • Edge-of-rim decoration on foodservice glassware. FDA "lip and rim" guidance applies — we'll flag it on the quote if your art lives in that zone.

When UV rotary isn't the fit, we'll point you to screen print, sublimation, or laser engraving instead.

Full method breakdown: Screen Printing vs UV Printing on Drinkware.

UV Rotary vs Screen Print vs Sublimation

Short version: three methods, three different jobs. Here's how they compare on the calls that matter most.

Comparison of UV rotary printing, screen printing, and sublimation on drinkware
Method Color Ceiling Setup Fee Fails When...
UV Rotary None (full CMYK + white) None Substrate prep is skipped
Screen Print ~5 colors (practical) $25–$50 per screen Reorders drift batch-to-batch
Sublimation Full color (into coating) None Coating scratches or UV-fades

We run all three when they're the right answer, and we rescue a lot of work from decorators that ran the wrong one.

Our Process

Same Steps on Every Job. No Shortcuts.

Substrate prep is where most failed prints start. It's also where we spend the most time — before the printer ever fires.

  1. 1

    Art Prep

    We check file resolution, color space, bleed, and placement. If Pantones need rebuilding for digital output, we rebuild them — no art fee.

  2. 2

    Substrate Prep

    Bare stainless and some glass substrates get a cleaning + adhesion-promoter pass before they see ink. Powder coat gets checked for release-agent residue from the factory. Mirror-finish and textured pieces get a test print before the run.

  3. 3

    Digital Mockup

    You see a lifelike proof on your specific product before anything runs.

  4. 4

    Print

    Single pass, CMYK + white + optional varnish, at the dpi your artwork earns.

  5. 5

    Cure

    LED-UV, seconds per piece. The film is hard before the cup leaves the printer.

  6. 6

    QC

    Adhesion test on a sample. Visual inspection on the full run. Anything that doesn't pass gets reprinted on our dime.

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Built to Outlast the Cup

Manufacturer-validated to 500+ dishwasher cycles. In our own facility, we have a UV-printed tumbler that's been run through a commercial dishwasher every day for over 18 months with zero peel, fade, or scratch-through. In the lab, we consistently test at 5B — the top tape-adhesion grade on ASTM D3359. When the substrate is prepped correctly, the print outlasts how long most people hold onto the cup.

Frequently Asked

UV Rotary Printing FAQ

How long does a UV print last on a tumbler?

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Manufacturer-validated to 500+ dishwasher cycles. In our own facility, we have a UV-printed tumbler that's been run through a commercial dishwasher every day for over 18 months with zero peel, fade, or scratch-through. In the lab, we consistently test at 5B — the top tape-adhesion grade on ASTM D3359. When the substrate is prepped correctly, the print outlasts how long most people hold onto the cup.

Is UV-printed drinkware dishwasher safe?

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Yes for residential dishwashers, and durable in commercial dishwashers when prepped correctly. Heat, detergent, and mechanical wear are all handled by the cured UV film. It's the substrate prep that determines whether a print lasts — not the ink.

What's the difference between UV rotary printing and "digital printing"?

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They're usually the same thing. "Digital printing" is a generic label some decorators use. UV rotary is the accurate term: UV-cured ink, rotary-indexed cylindrical printing. If a decorator won't name the method, ask what cures the ink and whether the cup spins.

How does UV rotary compare to UV DTF?

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UV DTF prints onto a transfer film that's then applied to the cup — it's a two-step method, and the film edges can catch and lift over time. UV rotary prints directly onto the cup in a single step. No film, no edges, no lifting.

Can you print a full photograph on a tumbler?

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Yes. 1200 dpi, CMYK + white, full wrap. The limit is your source file resolution, not our printer.

Can you match my brand's Pantone colors?

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Yes, within the CMYK gamut a digital UV system can render. We'll flag any Pantone that lives outside that gamut before the proof — some neons and deep metallics are honest edge cases on any digital system.

What's the minimum order?

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50 pieces per design. Production is typically 7–10 business days after proof approval, faster on rush.

What does UV rotary printing cost?

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Pricing varies with substrate, run size, material, and art complexity. For a real number, request a quote — we'll have it back to you within 24 hours.

What substrates can you print on?

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Stainless tumblers (powder-coated and raw), glassware, and rigid plastic — up to 5.1" diameter and 14.1" length on our current UV rotary rig. If you're unsure whether your piece fits, send dimensions and we'll tell you straight.

Can you print on curved or tapered cups?

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Yes — rotary-indexed printing spins the cup during the print pass, which is the whole reason the method exists. Straight-sided, tapered, and most compound curves work. We'll flag anything that doesn't.

What art files do you need?

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Vector preferred (AI, EPS, PDF). 300 dpi PNG or TIFF works too if it's the original source, not a JPEG pulled from the web. We'll convert and proof — if the file can't hold photographic detail at tumbler scale, you'll see that on the proof before production.

Can you re-print a failed order from another decorator?

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Yes, and we do it often. Peeling screen prints, yellowing sublimation, cracked coatings — if another decorator sent you finished pieces that didn't hold up, send us photos and the original spec. We can usually quote a replacement run on proper substrate with UV rotary and have it back in 7–10 business days.

Send Your Art. Get a Real Number.

The fastest way to know if UV rotary is right for your project is to see the print in person. Send us your art and tell us what you're printing on — we'll send back a sample or a quote, usually the same day.

(561) 348-3288 · [email protected]