FAQ

How long is the working life of a printing pad? Here several factors have an influence:

a) The colors and separating agents react differently

b) The amount of the press-force respectively degree of deformation

c) The surface condition of the product to be printed

In the best case a printing pad can resist hundreds of thousands printings. Perhaps it can only resist 100 pieces at a sharp-edged product to be printed with an aggressive color and a strong deformation of the printing pad. On average you can plan with a few thousand print strokes.

Yes, you should give the printing pad the time to regenerate. For example wait a whole day after an application of 8 hours. The recovery process can be supported by maintenance oil. Here the care product is massaged in and sprayed on the pad surface.

The unit for the hardness is Shore A. This is not uncontroversial. The relative error in the used lower range is very high and the measuring minimum rather amounts to 10 Shore A. But for some printing problems, like for example the printing of glass, the utilization of very soft printing pads is necessary. Because of the fact that here a classification in Shore A is no longer possible, you have to change to Shore 00, which is qualified as essentially softer. A very soft printing pad has a hardness of 35 Shore 00.

The unit for the hardness is Shore A. This is not uncontroversial. The relative error in the used lower range is very high and the measuring minimum rather amounts to 10 Shore A. But for some printing problems, like for example the printing of glass, the utilization of very soft printing pads is necessary. Because of the fact that here a classification in Shore A is no longer possible you have to change to Shore 00, which is qualified as essentially softer. A very soft printing pad has a hardness of 35 Shore 00.

Hard printing pads increase the sharpness of the printing format. It has a pin sharp quality.

Only in a small minority of cases extremely hard printing pads are used. Because of the strong pressing the color application is very thin and eventually must be printed repeatedly to achieve a covering of the motive.

The number 854 in 6 Shore A, or for longer letterings the number 855 in 6 Shore A.

The bigger, the better, because distortions can better be absorbed.

More than you think. The air humidity plays an important role. Excessively dry air immensely complicates the printing and electrostatic charges can appear.

The design can be seen as a cavity in the cliché. A doctor blade moves over the cliché and only leaves the color in the cavity. The blade could scratch the color out of the cavity when the blade is sagging. A screening of the motive avoids this. This problem is very limited for a doctoring cup of a closed system. A further advantage of a screening is the reduction of air inclusions. A disadvantage is the slightly lower ink application. By the way plastic clichés are generally screened due to the nature of the material.

Dot screens with a coverage of 90 %. The size varies from very fine 120 L/cm to rough 60L/cm.