PAD PRINTING PROCESS & APPLICATIONS

PARAM INTERNATIONAL'S Pad printing began to take over the market shares(over hot stamping and screen printing) in printing areas where other methods showed their limits
or could not be used altogether. Pad Printing is also known as tampon printing In Europe and in many other parts of world. Pad Printing is becoming more and more important
nowadays. Nearly all known materials can be pad printed. Pad printing is an indirect gravure or an offset printing process where a 2-d image is transfered with the help of soft
silicon pad onto a 3-d product surface. There are three different types of pad printing machines available with Param International:

Param International manufactures automated Pad printing machinery and equipment which are loaded with time and money saving features. Pad Printing is used for printing on
otherwise impossible products in many industries including hardware, hand tools, medical, automotive, promotional, electrical, electronics, appliances, sports equipments, toys,
surgical, sanitary, wire and cables, hose pipes, plastic industry. The unique properties of the silicone pad enable to pick the image up from a flat surface and transfer it to variety of
surface (i.e flat, cylinderical, spherical, compound angle, textures, concave surfaces, convex surfaces). For example:

• Printing irregular shapes and surfaces, convex, concave, curbed, recessed and some discontinuous surfaces


• Printing complicated substrates at a reasonable speed


• Printing of fine detailed images, words, logos, graphics


• Offering the printer an enormous versatility of doing various jobs on one pad printer


• High quality printing on irregular surfaces thousands of different products and Pad printing is able to print shapes and surfaces of different products which are not in the
  capabilities of screen printing and hot stamping


• Allows wet-on-wet multi colour printing on many non-absorbant surfaces which reduces the production time


• It is relatively very less expensive printing system particularly for multi colour and process colour printing


• Pad Printing is having the ability to print very fine details. Its resolution is far better that of screen printing


• Pad Printing is very easy to learn as compared to other printing processes. It can be handled very easily and needs very little maintenance


• For printing different designs for different jobs our machines needs least time for the plates and inks to be exchanged


• Pad Printing needs very low space for installation than many other printing processes

TYPICAL APPLICATIONS

There are thousands of applications you can do such like:

• Electronic components such as switches, resistances, cables, connectors, IC chips, relays, etc.


• Industrial switches and Keys as found on Mobiles, Palmtops, I-pads, calculators, telephones and computer keyboards.


• Electrical Household Appliances such as press iron, dvd's, cd's, dvd players, tube chokes, electrical switches, Lcd-Led tv's, coffee pots, telephones, etc.


• Large Industrial Appliance panels such as on Mixer grinders, dishwashers, washing machines and dryers


• Toys such as twisters, dolls, cars, infant bottles, cards, rattles and night lights.


• Advertising Specialty Items like pens, lighters, key chains, clocks, watch dials, etc.


• Sporting Goals such as golf balls, cricket balls, table tennis balls, kicking tee's, hurdles, shin pads, wooden wickets, small bats, hockeys, badminton rackets, gloves, baseballs, tennis rackets, footballs


• Medical devices(surgical instruments, tweezers, forceps etc.)


• Hand tools items, hammers, pliers, spanners, wrenches, grease guns, etc


• Automotive parts (different auto black parts and painted items)


• Numeric or alphanumeric alphabets on Lakhs of items.


• Computer monitors, data cards, data cables, chargers.


• Date of price, expiry date, Identification labels and serial numbers for many applications


• Sanitary items, taps, sink pipes, kitchenware, hardwares like handles, knobs.

Today there are two different types of systems in every Pad printing Technology. One is traditional Open Inkwell System and other being the newer and much more widely accepted Sealed (closed) Cup System.

OPEN INKWELL SYSTEM (OLDER TECHNOLOGY)

Open inkwell system use a trough(ink well) for ink located behind the printing plate. A metal or plastic rod pushes a pool of ink over the plate, and a steel blade removes the ink from the plate surface, leaving ink on the eteched artwork area ready for the pad to pickup and transfer on the product. The major benefit of open inkwell technology is that the machines are flexible in application and economically provide large image capacity i.e. you can print more big image on a substrate.

PARAM INTERNATIONAL'S SEALED INK CUP SYSTEM (LATEST TECHNOLOGY)

Sealed ink cup system is with a sealed container (ink cup) which acts as ink supply and storage, flood bar and doctor blade all in one. A steel ring with a highly polished working edge provides the seal against the printing plate.For pad printing process you need

• Pad Printing machines


• Steel Plate (cliche) with designs to be printed laser etched on it.


• A Silicon Pad


• Printing Ink