Pad Printing on Soft Touch Materials

Printing on soft touch materials such as TPE (Thermoplastic elastomeric materials based on olefins) and TPU (Thermoplastic elastomeric materials based on urethane) has become increasingly popular throughout the years with the automotive and marketing industry. With this trend, Deco Tech has proudly added suitable inks for these materials.

Introduction to Pad Printing - Pad Printing 101

The pad printing process is becoming more and more important to industrial applications every year. Pad printing began to conquer market shares (over hot stamping and screen printing) in the early 1970's, especially in printing areas where other methods showed their limits or could not be used altogether. Still today, pad printing is not well known as a printing process, but we see and touch pad printed items every day.

Glossary of commonly used terms in Pad Printing

The pad printing industry is filled with an array of commonly used terms. In an attempt to explain these words and phrases, we have compiled an alphabetical listing of the commonly used terms and their definitions. If you are new to the industry or even if you are an "old timer" we believe that this glossary will be enlightening.

How to Select the Proper Pad for the Job

One of the most frequently asked questions in the early stages of learning the do's and don'ts of the pad printing process is, "How do I know what pad to use for this part?" Literally there are hundreds of sizes and shapes of pads out there to choose from - and then add the next most important variable of determining which hardness of rubber to use - and the level of confusion is only compounded further. For experienced operators this question is rather simple, but for the beginner this is not an easy task.

Ink Mixing - Visco Spatula Operating Instructions

Our Visco Spatula is a reusable stainless steel ink spatula that makes it easier for you to mix your inks to the correct viscosity level for your application. The Visco Spatula works by measuring the time duration for ink to flow down calibrated openings on the end of the spatula.

Polymer Cliché Processing Instructions for H₂OPRO

H₂OPRO orange water-wash polymer clichés are suitable for your pad printing cliché making needs.
H₂OPRO clichés are easy to process and are extremely durable. Our H₂OPRO clichés are well suited for short production runs (maximum cycles: 10,000) and are formulated to work with both open inkwell and closed ink cup pad printing machinery.

Polymer Cliché Processing Instructions for AQUAPRO

AQUAPRO green photo polymer clichés are suitable for your pad printing cliché making needs. AQUAPRO clichés are easy to process and are extremely durable. Our AQUAPRO clichés are well suited for short production runs (maximum cycles: 20,000) and are formulated to work with both open inkwell and closed ink cup pad printing machinery.

Polymer Cliché Processing Instructions for IMAGEPRO

IMAGEPRO olive green photo polymer clichés are suitable for your pad printing cliché making needs. IMAGEPRO clichés are easy to process and are extremely durable. Our IMAGEPRO clichés are well suited for medium sized production runs (maximum cycles: 20,000) and are formulated to work with both open inkwell and closed ink cup pad printing machinery.

Polymer Cliché Processing Instructions for DURAPRO

DURAPRO red photo polymer clichés are ideal for all your pad printing cliché making needs. DURAPRO clichés are easy to process and are extremely durable. Our DURAPRO clichés are well suited for medium sized production runs (maximum cycles: 100,000) and are formulated to work with both open inkwell and closed ink cup pad printing machinery.

Polymer Cliché Processing Instructions for PROTOPRO

PROTOPRO Bright Green steel backed polymer with protective film emulsion for use with magnetic plate holders. Perfectly suited material for simulating thick steel cliché print results. Uses no secondary exposure or half-tone line screen and is processed with a fixed single etch depth. This is the cliché to use for proto-type pad printing jobs where you want to create brilliant 4 color process work or want to generally mimic the results you get with a 10mm thick steel cliché.

21 Step Grey Scale Exposure Calibration for H₂OPRO

H₂OPRO polymer clichés from DECO TECH are precision made using UV sensitive photo-polymer emulsion laminated to a thin steel backing plate. This special photo-polymer emulsion makes the H₂OPRO clichés easy to process in most standard UV exposure units (a unit equipped with vacuum frame is best). Since all UV exposure units do vary in light intensity, it is necessary to determine the optimum exposure time to create the proper etch depth (usually around 25 micros) of a H₂OPRO cliché. By using the PROSERIES 21 Step Grey Scale, you can properly calibrate the exposure times required for both the first and second exposures of the cliché using the tint screen.

21 Step Grey Scale Exposure Calibration for AQUAPRO

AQUAPRO polymer clichés from DECO TECH are precision made using UV sensitive photo-polymer emulsion laminated to a thin steel backing plate. This special photo-polymer emulsion makes the AQUAPRO clichés easy to process in most standard UV exposure units (a unit equipped with vacuum frame is best). Since all UV exposure units do vary in light intensity, it is necessary to determine the optimum exposure time to create the proper etch depth (usually around 25 micros) of a AQUAPRO cliché. By using the PROSERIES 21 Step Grey Scale, you can properly calibrate the exposure times required for both the first and second exposures of the cliché using the tint screen.

21 Step Grey Scale Exposure Calibration for IMAGEPRO

IMAGEPRO polymer clichés from DECO TECH are precision made using UV sensitive photo-polymer emulsiwon laminated to a thin steel backing plate. This special photo-polymer emulsion makes the IMAGEPRO clichés easy to process in most standard UV exposure units (a unit equipped with vacuum frame is best). Since all UV exposure units do vary in light intensity, it is necessary to determine the optimum exposure time to create the proper etch depth (usually around 25 micros) of a IMAGEPRO cliché. By using the PROSERIES 21 Step Grey Scale, you can properly calibrate the exposure times required for both the first and second exposures of the cliché using the tint screen.

21 Step Grey Scale Exposure Calibration for DURAPRO

DURAPRO polymer clichés from DECO TECH are precision made using UV sensitive photo-polymer emulsion laminated to a thin steel backing plate. This special photo-polymer emulsion makes the DURAPRO clichés easy to process in most standard UV exposure units (a unit equipped with vacuum frame is best). Since all UV exposure units do vary in light intensity, it is necessary to determine the optimum exposure time to create the proper etch depth (usually around 25 micros) of a DURAPRO cliché. By using the PROSERIES 21 Step Grey Scale, you can properly calibrate the exposure times required for both the first and second exposures of the cliché using the tint screen.