The most commonly used printing process is pad printing.
Here you can read information about this printing process:
Pad printing
History
Tampon printing actually goes back to the watch industry. Up until the 1960s, Swiss watchmakers used the so-called decal process to transfer the color to the sensitive watch hands using a gelatin pad.
In 1968 Wilfried Philipp invented the tampon printing process including the tampon printing machine and later applied for a patent. The gelatin tampons were replaced by rubber ones; in conjunction with new machine designs, the triumph of this new printing process began.
Functionality
A recess is etched, washed out or lasered into a flat plate (cliché). A squeegee floods this cliché with the deepened image area with color. The excess paint is removed with the squeegee and the paint film remains in the recessed areas. The silicone pad takes the sticky ink out of the indentation and transfers it to the item to be printed. Due to the flexibility and elasticity of the silicone mass of the printing pad, the pad can adapt to the surface of the print product when dispensing ink. Thus, the best method is to print on curved and uneven surfaces. Another advantage is the sharpness of contours that can be achieved. Which can hardly be achieved in any other printing process.
Above all, the choice of pad (differences in shape, size, surface quality and hardness) and the printing power of the machine are the essential factors for a clean printed image.
Depending on the material of the print, various pre- and post-treatment processes are available (e.g. corona activation, flaming) in order to be able to guarantee the longest possible print quality.
Due to the indented print motif, pad printing is classified as a gravure printing process. The transfer of color by means of a printing pad is an indirect printing process.
We offer this printing process in our shop.