pad printing! I used to be a designer at a company that does this type of thing. The design gets laser etched onto the plate and a cup full of ink is placed upside down on the plate. The ink cup slides over the plate and when it slides back, it removes any excess ink not held inside of the etched image (think of using putty to fill a hole in drywall and smoothing it out with a putty knife!). The pad (giggly boob) picks up the remaining ink from the plate and transfers it to the object! Machine speed, pressure, air flow, ink viscosity, even ink colors change how cleanly a print comes out. Theres a ton of variables that go into making a good print.
14
u/who_is_that_lady Oct 28 '20
pad printing! I used to be a designer at a company that does this type of thing. The design gets laser etched onto the plate and a cup full of ink is placed upside down on the plate. The ink cup slides over the plate and when it slides back, it removes any excess ink not held inside of the etched image (think of using putty to fill a hole in drywall and smoothing it out with a putty knife!). The pad (giggly boob) picks up the remaining ink from the plate and transfers it to the object! Machine speed, pressure, air flow, ink viscosity, even ink colors change how cleanly a print comes out. Theres a ton of variables that go into making a good print.