Artwork Printing Services
As you have probably seen on our website, TBS Associates specialises in providing high quality tampography for all types of businesses. This method, also known as pad printing, is a popular choice for printing on a wide range of materials. However, you may have seen technical words on our website and wonder what they mean. For example, you may have seen the words ‘plates’, ‘jigs’ and ‘artwork’ and are now wondering what these have to do with the high quality printing that we provide at competitive prices. You are welcome to contact our team who are happy to talk through our processes and explain everything to you, but here is a simple explanation of these important parts of our process.
What are tampography plates?
The plates are really where the printing process starts. The plate is a flat surface which is etched, or engraved, with the design to be printed. For example, imagine that you want a particular logo printing onto an item which will be sold or used as a marketing product. The plates are chemically engraved with the logo that you want printing, creating a physical representation of the design. There are different materials that can be used for plates. They vary in cost as well as in how many prints they can be used for, so we would discuss your particular requirements before selecting the plates that are best for what you want.
Once the plate is prepared with the design or logo, ink is applied. It fills the etched design, rather than the rest of the plate. Then a silicon pad is pressed onto the design. The ink is neatly transferred to the surface. The silicon pad can be applied firmly to the printing surface, which we refer to as the substrate. The silicon fits around any uneven surface, applying the design evenly and keeping proportions correct. As you can see from this brief explanation, the plates are very important.
Jig Printing Services
What are tampography jigs?
As mentioned above, the ink is applied to the print surface, or substrate, from a silicon pad. But no matter how well the plate has been prepared, it is now important to make sure that the pad is applied accurately to the substrate. For example, if you were printing one pen it might not matter exactly where the logo was printed. But now imagine you want a thousand or more. Now it is essential that everyone looks the same. To do this, we create a jig. This is an inset which holds the item to be printed perfectly still and ensures that the pad makes contact with exactly the same part of every item to be printed. This means that the first item and the ten thousandth item should look the same, without any variation.
What is tampography artwork?
The artwork might be the most obvious part – it is the logo or design that you want printing. Getting this right is essential to make sure that the finished product is just right. Our artwork printing services are provided by an expert in house team. They use Mac and PC programmes to take your design and get it ready to use. They can work with a logo or design that you have already created, or they can help you by providing creative services if you do not yet have a logo or design to use. The emphasis is always on communicating with you to make sure that the design accurately reflects what you want.
All our services, including plate printing services and jig printing services, are available for your project. Why not contact our team today to see how we can provide the printing solutions that you need?
