Tech Tip Tuesday: Considering Our Custom “Hot Wind” Option For Your Pad Printer?

The essence of the pad printing process is ink management – achieving a complete transfer of the ink (the image) from the Printing Platesto the surface of the part.

Our custom “hot wind” option is a feature that affords your operator(s) much more control over their pad printing (i.e., ink management) process.  Here’s how:

As most of you might know, your ink mixture changes over time.  The solvent will flash off (as it’s designed to do) and your ink mixture will gradually thicken.  As this occurs, you have a few options – you can add thinner as needed, you can program (if your machine will let you) “dwell” or “pause” times to accommodate, or you can direct a controlled air flow over the pad / part.

In order to maintain your production rate, pauses are not the best option.  Stopping to re-mix ink is not always the best solution, either.  Having the option to provide a controlled air flow is convenient and keeps your production rates up.  If your ink is not “tacking off” fast enough for a compete transfer, hot air can help speed things up.

If you are printing a multi-color job, your machine picks up all the colors simultaneously and prints them sequentially.  As a result, the last color printed has been on the pad for several seconds longer than the first color.  Unless your operators mix the colors differently (e.g., different ink-to-thinner ratios) this can lead to incomplete ink transfer from one (or more) of your pads.  Hot air (available for each pad / color) is a great way to adjust each color’s transfer speed, resulting in complete transfers and more efficient (i.e., more profitable) pad printing jobs.

Check out our Pad Printing Machines at www.epsvt.com. There you can also find more information about Engineered Printing Solutions custom solutions, standard pad printers, industrial inkjet, consumables and other auxiliary equipment. Email info@epsvt.com or call 1-800-272-7764 if you would like more information.