Pad printing / Screen printing

Pad printing is an indirect printing process, in other words a pad is used to take an image recorded on an etched plate and transfer it onto the surface to be printed. Highly elastic pads are used to decorate very irregular shapes.

There are different types of pad:

• silicone pads - the material can be of standard quality for ordinary inks and higher quality for faster printing or smooth parts,
• highly specialised pads - for performing rotary pad printing sequences.

 

It is possible to use several hardnesses of pad depending on the results obtained on test pieces. The inks can also be different, falling into 3 main groups: solvent inks that can polymerise (dry) in ambient air, UV inks that are polymerised in UV light, and more specific inks known as thermoplastics that are supplied in solid form.

Screen printing is a printing technique that uses silk screens placed between the ink and the substrate.

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