Pad Printing Pads

Pad Printing Pads



As one of the most important elements in the pad printing process, pad printing pad plays an essential role in obtaining good final printing results. Made of special silicon rubber, the product has many advantages in excellent ink adhesion and detachment allowing for perfect image transfer onto the substrate. Meanwhile, the product has a long working lifetime for it has high strength and is resistant to solvents and inks. Moreover, it has high hardness and form stability.

Suggestions for Selection
As for the image quality, it is vital to choose the pad correctly. The main factors that the users should consider include shape, size, hardness, surface finish and material.
A. Shape
Shape plays an important role in determining how well the product achieves its rolling action. Users can take the following information into account when choosing and using the product.
1. Generally, the angle of the pad has a direct relation with the printing quality. If the item onto which the pictures would be printed has spherical surface, stress ball for instance, user should choose the flatter type product. Meanwhile, it’s very important to avoid choosing the product with perfectly flat profiles for air can be trapped during ink pickup or deposition.
2. Commonly, the distortion of image edges is caused by undersized products. Users should choose the product with correct shape that can extend the profile to cover the entire image.
3. When irregular ink pickup during the test print happens, the reason is often that the air is trapped between the pad and clichés’ surface. When the product is imprinting, users should make sure that there is rolling action.
4. Users should avoid using the apex of the product for ink deposition as much as possible. Or it would cause thin ink at that point and then light spot on the image.
5. A little pressure is necessary when picking up and printing the image. But excessive pressure would lead to distortion and poor ink transfer.

B. Size
In most cases, large printing pad would lead to less image distortion. So, to get the best quality, the product should be larger than the desired image in size by at least 20% to 30%. But as for the larger items that would be printed, there are two main factors that would limit the maximum size of the product. One is the distance between the image and machine’s body. The other is the ability of the printing machine to compress large and hard product.

C. Hardness
It is the silicon oil used for pad molding that determines the hardness of the product. The hardness is often evaluated through Shore 00 scale. The following table shows the common hardness of the product.