How Pad Printing Works

Pad printers are used to make an advertisement for a company available on a variety of products. From glass and metal to fabrics and even vinyl banners, pad printing is done on nearly any surface. Without this development of technology, advertisements are limited to t-shirts and newspaper ads.

Manual versus automatic pad printers

There are two types of pad printers, automatic and manual. Both are generally fed manually. The difference is simply that a button is pushed, and the automatic machine presses the design onto whatever material is needed. Manual machines have to have certain settings and adjustments made before one can press the design onto the material.

The printing process

Pad printing is a relatively complex process. First, one etches a design into a flat plate and uses a special pad printing ink to fill that design. After the etching is filled with ink, the excess is wiped off by a blade. The ink is then picked up with a rubber pad and transferred to the product surface. Depending on the product that the ink is applied to, the plate would generally relate to the shape of the product and size of the image to prevent distortion.

Pad printing inks

The productivity time of pad printing is extremely quick. Once the ink is applied to the surface of the product, it only takes approximately 10-20 seconds for the ink to dry.

Pad printing is an excellent way to advertise any company or service to reach a wide variety of consumers.