Pad Printing Factors

Pad Printing and Unique Bottle Designs

The bottle decorating industry is filled with various methods of printing on a canvas whether it be sm­­ooth, rough, symmetrical, or odd-sized. Glass and plastic, for example, are made of elements that make them very malleable materials allowing them to be molded into many different forms thereby making the decorating process a tricky task to accomplish. Some other projects with a great amount of production may need to be finished by a fast-approaching deadline. Taking all these factors into account, a unique and very efficient way of printing on a cap or bottle is through pad printing.

There is a number of different equipment that is used during the pad printing process; a silicone pad, a metal plate, a tooling fixture, and an ink blade. The metal plate consists of a smooth surface that contains the artwork as a groove on this plate. Evidently, the same plate cannot be used for a different design because each plate contains its own unique artwork. The tooling required here is a very essential process; a fixture is created to hold the bottle in place during the whole procedure. The bottle needs to be placed on this fixture in a way that it won’t move so that the eventual printing will take place on the exact spot where the artwork is intended to be placed.  A pool of ink is sent onto the plate and an ink blade wipes away all the ink present and the only ink that remains is the amount deposited into the groove. The silicone pad dips onto the plate on the site of the groove, the ink is transferred onto the pad, and it acts as a messenger which then transfers the entire artwork onto the object that requires printing. The bottle is then placed on a conveyer belt which goes through a drying process to reach its final product. Lastly, the final product goes through a quality control assessment.

Pad Printing Multiple colors on Plastic

When an artwork contains more than one color, everything in the pad printing process is nearly doubled. Most importantly, the addition of the second tub of ink and a second metal plate must be used. The necessity of this plate is essential as it contains a unique piece of artwork that is in another color. The placement of the second color happens directly after the first keeping the time efficiency in place. This asset allows for the printing of more colorful artworks on bottles or caps using this method.

A huge benefit to the pad printing method is the time that it takes. It. Is a very rapid process that can print a large production of bottles in a specific amount of time. In Mepco’s factory, to keep the time efficiency card in place when adding more than one color, there is a machine that contains multiple fixtures for the silicone pads thereby giving the capability of printing both colors at the same time.

Pad Printing vs Silk Screening

A reason why pad printing may be used over silk screening, for example, is because the boundaries of the spot that requires printing is not smooth. It is almost impossible to silkscreen on a bottle that is rough, concave, or odd-sized in any way around the edges. In addition, many silk screening bottle decorating projects contain a large artwork that wraps around the circumference of a bottle. Pad printing is a method used for printing on a distinct vicinity of the bottle. Many times it will be used for branding, logos, or artworks that are less than a certain size. Since the amount of ink that is used for a pad printing project per bottle is pretty minimal, a smaller amount of ink can be used to produce a greater amount of bottles in comparison to other printing methods. This type of characteristic also vouches for a more eco-friendly approach.   

While minimalistic artworks continue to become popular and trendy, so does the use of pad printing to make these projects come to life. For products that require printing on any irregular shaped bottle, or the printing of a logo, a smaller artwork, this method is perfect. The ability to print more than one color via pad printing is another reason to put this relatively new method of printing on a high pedestal. The features presented in this process give the customer a great amount of flexibility for creativeness to bring their product vision to life.

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