Episode 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. With England into the semi finals of the World Cup and football fever in full swing, 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.