TLDR: Looking for reccomendations on how to most time and cost efficiently print a large volume of materials in high quality color on durable material like plastic.
I work for a small business that has recently begun selling a curriculum, already printed. The curriculum consists of a large volume of high quality color designs on A4 size pages (not bound, loose). Some of the designs get cut in half to B5 or into 12 segments (to make flashcards or card games). The general idea is to print the curriculum onto durable material so that the schools we sell to are able to reuse the same curriculum each year for every class to negate the need to buy textbooks and workbooks, and to be accesible to schools lacking in technology or classroom materials.
What we do now is: we print everything on regular paper & then feed it through a lamination machine. This is highly time inefficient, so we are looking for a way to print our materials on durable material in a more time efficient manner without sacrificing quality. We are a small business so expense is also a strong consideration.
Requirements for printing:
- high quality
- color
- able to print A4 size
- able to cut prints after printing
- capable of handling high volume printing
- durable ink that will not scratch off or wash off easily
- plastic should not be thicker than say a credit card
The two main questions are:
- Is there a printer we can purchase or rent and operate ourselves that meets these requirements? If so, please provide some recommendations.
- Are there printing specialists that offer services which meet these requirements? What is a ball park of how much a service like this would cost?
I would also be happy to receive any out-of-the-box suggestions, if you see a way to meet all of these requirements in a completely different manner.
Thanks so much in advance!