How to Learn Pad Printing
Pad printing is self explanatory in that it is literally printing with a pad. One of the main advantages of pad printing is that it can be used to print on a three-dimensional surface. This method of printing can be used for printing on anything from apparel to electronics. Particularly useful for printing on round surfaces, pad printing has become much more sophisticated in recent decades. Modern pad printing now uses the sort of advanced technology required to satisfy both big and small business customers.
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Instructions
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Learn about the four important parts vital to the pad printing process, which are the pad, the ink, the machine, and the cliché. The latter is a printing plate, with an etched part for printing from, and different clichés can be made from different materials, including steel. A temporary cliché can be used for short print runs. The pad is used to get the image from the cliché, and is made of silicone rubber. Pads can be shaped differently and with diverse degrees of hardness. Specific ink for pad printing is made, bearing the complications in mind, of printing on some objects which aren't flat. Pad printing can work on three different types of machines, which are the open inkwell, the closed ink cup and rotary gravure.
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Understand the machines used for pad printing. Open inkwell machines are versatile, but ink can sometimes dry up too quickly in these machines. The closed ink cup method uses ink which is in a cup, and this helps to eradicate the ink problem which can affect the inkwell machine. The third method for pad printing is the rotary gravure, and this is a good method to use when printing on and all around an object.
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Study how the print pad printing process actually works through books or online tutorials. Print pad ink is solvents-based, and these solvents will begin to evaporate from the pad during the time the pad moves forward, after picking up ink, ready for printing. Moving across to its printing position, the pad then releases its ink.
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Tips & Warnings
What size of pad, or pads, you will need will depend on the size of the image you are printing. You will need to make sure that any pad you use will fit on the pad printing machine.
Make sure that you have got the right machine for your needs. Not every print pad machine will be able to do every job.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Golf ball image by Damian Gil from Fotolia.com
