Battery Wraps

[bhd147]

Does anyone know how to print on 18650 style shrink wrap? Would it be easier to try it by the roll or individually cut? I've hit google and youtube to no luck. Even asked Amazon sellers and posted product questions. I'd like something more professional looking that just paper cutouts.

Thanks!

 

[r055co]

Get clear battery wraps (insure they're thin) and get some Onion Paper (it's very thin) and print design off from your computer.

Did a quick Google and found this howto on Reddit, but again I'd use Onion Paper which you can find a ream on Amazon for a good price
https://www.reddit.com/r/batterywraps/comments/44rm03/creating_a_battery_wrap_picture_18650/

 

[r055co]

As for printing directly on the wrap itself, I really don't think you'd be able to accomplish this better than just using paper under clear wrap.

 

[bhd147]

As for printing directly on the wrap itself, I really don't think you'd be able to accomplish this better than just using paper under clear wrap.

I've recently seen all the cheezy looking superhero wraps for sell everywhere. Direct printed. Just wondered if I bought a spool of wrap if there was a printer I could run it through.

 

[bhd147]

Get clear battery wraps (insure they're thin) and get some Onion Paper (it's very thin) and print design off from your computer.

Did a quick Google and found this howto on Reddit, but again I'd use Onion Paper which you can find a ream on Amazon for a good price
https://www.reddit.com/r/batterywraps/comments/44rm03/creating_a_battery_wrap_picture_18650/

Yea, I've seen that one. Just not exactly what I'm looking for. But thanks!

 

[jwill]

You sure you don't want cheezy knock off superhero wraps or dollar bill logos or an American flag with tons of Chinese branding? A printer capable of performing this task is not cheap. Getting them custom printed is not cheap either but doable of you can find a shop willing.

 

[r055co]

I've recently seen all the cheezy looking superhero wraps for sell everywhere. Direct printed. Just wondered if I bought a spool of wrap if there was a printer I could run it through.

They get them printed before they form them into tube form, unless you know a place that can print then form the tubes you're stuck with the paper under clear. Either that or spend the ungodly amount of money for the equipment that commercial does.

 

[Blargh23]

Some heat shrink tubing is packed flat, thus custom "printable". Although you're limited to single color printing, so black&white or line art graphic would be best. Cheaper to get it single-sided printing, but you can do both, but a design that wraps all the way around might not be possible AFAIK -- they print one side and flip it over.

1" diameter will cover both 18650 and 20700/21700. 3" length for 700 , 2.75 or 2.8" for 650* (if it's an option, otherwise get 3" and trim a bit off). Avoid thick-walled and adhesive-lined tubing.

Caveat, there will typically be a minimum buy because these places market to small businesses more than end users. It'll be cost-prohibitive to get a lifetime supply all at one go. For example, this place -- order is 100 pieces for $126. (1" diameter, 3" lengths, single-sided, green-on-on-black text)

https://www.shrinkshop.com/collections/custom-cut-and-printed-thermafix-single-wall-printed

Google for more places (heat shrink printing), though most of them are "email our sales department for a quote" suppliers.

Or spend $500-$1000 for a specialty thermal printer



There are more affordable (<$150) hand-held ones for IT and telco linemen, but so far I haven't found one that handles wrap material large enough. AFAIK these can't handle regular heatshrink -- you have to buy "cartidges" of their tubing for >$60.

https://www.ebay.com/p/Dymo-XTL-300-Label-Thermal-Printer/238207046?iid=323148324130

 

[SteveS45]

I just remove the labels that are affixed to my batteries carefully and transfer them to the new wraps. If wasn't for the minor color difference you would never know.

 

[Alter]

I just printed out a couple black and white drawing pics. One of a skull and another of a guy showing the FU finger. They fit good and with clear wraps they work in all my hitters. I'm going to redo them soon and add the date to the pic so I can keep track so the new batts don't get lost in the shuffle of older batts.
This is what I found and used to measure, the print out came out great. I put a thin black frame around the pic so I had a guide to cut them out with.

These aren't my words.....
More than likely, you're going to have to adjust the size. Unfortunately, it's in inches. No problem, 'cause we know maths. An 18650 battery is 18mm wide and 65mm long. Multipling the width by 3.14 comes out to ~2.23" wide and ~2.56" long. So. When editing the size, simply plug those number in. In this image, I had entered the wrong numbers and had to correct it. Be sure to uncheck the "Lock aspect ratio" and "Relative to original picture size" boxes.
18500 1.97 inches long
with a dpi set at 300
Finally, print the image with no scaling.

 

[The Cromwell]

As for printing directly on the wrap itself, I really don't think you'd be able to accomplish this better than just using paper under clear wrap.

And as the warp shrinks a bit unevenly it distorts the writing.

 

[r055co]

And as the warp shrinks a bit unevenly it distorts the writing.

Not from the ones I've seen

Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk

 

[Blargh23]

Still poking around for how they print the shrink sleeves (aka sleeve label) like they use for things like "Tamper resistant" seals on drugs, liquor bottles, Powerade, 5-hour energy, etc. Which is likely how they make the various unlicensed superhero/Disney battery wraps. So far It looks like you're still into "email for a quote on an epic minimum order" territory for a custom one.

Example: https://www.labelvalue.com/blog/shrink-sleeve-labels (Low minimum order quantities: 2,500 sleeves)





And unlike the desktop single-color PVC one I posted earlier, the equipment is considerably larger and correspondingly more expensive.



These do come in a range of materials -- I personally prefer the sturdier PVC to PETG even if it's not as exciting looking, if I'm rewrapping I want it to be something not as flimsy as the original wrap .

 

[jwill]

There are print shops that can do it. We used to get heat shrink tubing printed for an antennae product we made. Generally had to get thousands of them at a time and they were not cheap.

Here is a place that does it. Maybe reading through their processes will uncover the next steps to figuring out how to DIY it.

https://www.shrinkshop.com/

I may be confused on what we did but do believe it was dye sublimation.