I have to be honest. When I first started working for PrintMyThing and PrintMyRibbon, I had absolutely no clue what a hot stamp press was, or what “flexo” referred to, and even was a little fuzzy on the term “embossed.” (My sisters who are craft aficionados would be embarrassed of me on that last one.) However, because I love to learn about how things are made, I’ve learned what each of these terms refers to and how they work. The printing process can be extremely interesting and can get very complex for detailed artwork.
In an attempt to share what I’ve learned with you, I’m doing a series called “Press Spotlight.” Each entry, we’ll look at a different print process that we do here at PrintMyThing and PrintMyRibbon so that you, our very valued customer, can understand exactly what you need and what you’re getting in your print product. In this first entry, we’ll take a look at the hot stamp press.
A hot stamp press uses a fairly straightforward process to print. A plate is placed on the press and then heated. A foil material used to make the imprint is placed above the substrate material to be imprinted. The press then presses the foil against the substrate material with enough pressure that the foil sticks only in the intended places, leaving a slight imprint. Additional stations on the hot stamp press will allow for more colors to be added, die-cutting, and rewinding the labels for final packaging. Foil stamping is more environmentally friendly than other printing processes because it doesn’t involve the use of solvents and doesn’t put off any harmful vapors. You might hear the hot stamp process also called things like “dry stamping”, “foil imprinting”, or “leaf stamping.” For ease of description, we refer to our hot stamped labels as “Shiny Foil Labels.”
To achieve a successful hot stamping job, it’s important to provide the printer with “camera ready” artwork. The effectiveness of the hot stamp process is directly related to the quality of the original artwork provided.
The foil used in hot stamping is often gold or silver, but a wide variety of colors are available for your hot stamp design. Shiny foil labels made using the hot stamp process can be a great addition to your product to really set it off. We have hot stamp presses for everything from custom printed labels to personalized ribbon.
Be sure to subscribe to the PMT Voice Blog. More Press Spotlights will be coming, covering our flexo ink presses, digital presses, and thermal presses.
