What Is Pad Printing Machinery?
A pad printer is a type of machine used for printing. Because a soft pad is pressed against the object to be printed, it can print beautifully not only on flat surfaces but also on curved surfaces. It is not limited to a single color, various colors can be used in combination. Since printing is performed using a silicon pad, the size of the printable area depends on the size of the silicon pad.
Uses of Pad Printing Machinery
Since pad printers can print on a wide variety of items, including resin products, bags other fabric products, and leather products, they are often used for printing on familiar items such as ballpoint pens and tote bags. In particular, the ability to print beautifully on uneven surfaces makes this technology indispensable for printing on ballpoint pens, mugs, and other shapes that cannot be printed with conventional printing methods. On the other hand, since the printing range depends on the size of the silicon pad used for printing, it is not suitable for printing on very large products.
Principle of Pad Printing Machinery
Pad printing is performed as follows. The silicon pad used for printing has elasticity, so it can print on curved or uneven surfaces. Also, compared to general silk printing, pad printing dries more quickly, enabling overprinting immediately after printing, and full-color printing is also possible.
- The object is placed on the printing table and its position is fine-tuned.
- Ink is poured onto the intaglio plate engraved with the print design, and the excess ink is scraped off.
- A silicone pad is pressed against the intaglio surface to transfer the ink.
- The silicone pad is pressed against the object to transfer the ink to it.
There are two types of pad printing machinery: those in which human operators make positional adjustments, etc., and those in which the machine does everything automatically. For custom-made products with a small production volume or when printing accuracy is not that high, a partially manual pad printing machinery can be sufficient. When mass production is required or high printing accuracy is needed, automatic pad printing machinery is generally used. In addition, since printing quality depends on the condition of the silicon pad, care must be taken to avoid deterioration and dust adhesion of the silicon pad.