Precision Screen Graphics - PSG - Pad Press Printing

Pad Press Printing: What It Can Do For You

Certain small items, most commonly pens and tools, are hard to print on using standard screen printing. The slightly rounded surfaces or odd shapes make it impossible to lay screens flat onto them. In these cases we are often able to use what is called a Pad Press to print onto the surface instead. This is most commonly used for small logos, names, ID numbers, and other simple things that you want placed on these small awkward locations. If you think you have a job that couldn't be done with screen printing, ask us about this method and see if we can still help you out.

Pad Press Printing works on all sorts of surfaces, not only small rounded items like pens and handles. You can see several examples of this throughout our Pad Press Gallery section. If you want to learn more about how the Pad Press works you can click on any of the sub-menu options to the left.

The sections that follow tell you what you need to know to see if this method is right for your needs.

What kinds of items can this work on?
Is there a maximum size for this?
How many color choices do I have?
How detailed can I make my designs?

What kinds of items can this work on?

Unlike with screen printing, the items we pad press print do not have to have perfectly flat surfaces. Pad printing can work on slightly curved and uneven surfaced, in addition to flat surfaces. This allows us much more flexibility in what we can print on. If you have something you think you'd want this done on, but aren't sure if we could do it, then feel free to contact us and ask.

Is there a maximum size for this?

Our Pad Press is relatively small, so we are limited to only smaller items (although they do make larger ones). The majority of what we do are pens, tools, sunglasses, and other similarly small items. Most items have to be small enough to be able to fit under the pad press, although some items may be too long for it, as long as the part we are printing onto will fit on it well enough without blocking the plate or getting in the way of the mechanism.

If you aren't sure if an item is small enough to fit on the pad press we have, feel free to give us a call or bring it in to ask.

How many color choices do I have?

Since the Pad Press uses the same basic kinds of inks as screen printing we have the same large range of options to chooses from, which can be nearly limitless. We keep a large selection of inks on hand, both for direct use and to mix and create custom colors, and we can special order others if you really need to have a specific one for your project (although this is rarely necessary, since our selection and ability to mix covers nearly all requirements). Our experienced staff is able to take sample items, pantone color codes, CMYK mixes, or nearly any custom color idea and turn out something that will work for you.

We can even do several kinds of specialty colors and mixes, from metals to fluorescents, although these are harder work will and mix to exact specifications. It's even possible to get glow in the dark, reflective, and other inks when the needs really arise, but please be aware that specialty inks can run a higher price than normal tones.

How detailed can I make my designs?

Since the pad press works more like a rubber stamp, picking up ink and then pressing it onto the item, the level of detail is more limited than what you can do with screen printing, but not so much that it prevents us from making high quality prints. The fact that we are able to print onto rounded and uneven surfaces more than makes up for the small loss of detail.

As you can see with some of our examples in the gallery, and this close-up of a small flashlight logo we recently did, we are still able to create very sharp images with strong lines and good detail. Even the small "Registered" Trademark symbol (the R inside a circle) showed up fine on these penlights (even though my photograph can't capture the same level of detail).

Last modified: 07.01.09 by admin