What is hot stamp printing? Everywhere you go; everywhere you look there are very few products on the market left untouched by some form of the printing process. If it hasn’t been screen printed or pad printed, chance is it’s been hot stamped.

The hot stamp printing process uses controlled heat, pressure and precision to transfer a color or metallic foil to the surface of a substrate. The materials used for hot stamping can vary in shape and size. Hot stamping equipment can apply and decorate any number of shapes. Stamping foils are durable to take wear, tear and chemical resistant. They are available in a variety of colors and designs.

What products can you apply hot stamp printing to? Millions of manufactured products for consumer and business clients are printed every year using the hot stamping process. Companies, not-for-profit organizations, governments and individuals hire graphic companies to print labels for their manufactured products and equipment. The telecommunications, medical, aerospace, military and original equipment manufacturers are a few industries that use hot stamping. Hot stamp printing can be used to make overlays, labels, nameplates, and decals for product identification.

A hot stamp printing machine, depending on the type of die and foil materials used, can print on vinyl, acetate, acrylic, polyethylene, polystyrene, rigid and flexible vinyl, polypropylene, paper, coated and dry paper stock, and most thermoplastics.

What are some of the benefits to hot stamp printing? When choosing how you want something printed there are several options available. So how does one decide whether to have their products hot stamped? How does a hot stamped insignia, logo or text hold up to the elements? How many color options are available? How long is the hot stamping production process? With hot stamped products, a few things are assured.

The foils that are deeply etched into a product’s surface are durable and long lasting. They don’t flake. They withstand scratching and rubbing.  They stand up to repeated tape tests. Most foils are resistant to chemicals, such as alcohol, perfume, shampoo and hand lotions. Custom shaped and standard dies help speed up productivity. There are dozens of colors and styles of foil to choose from to make your product unique. Metallic foils, patterned foils, to heavy duty pigment foils. Let Data Graphics help you choose which option is best for your product.  All of the above mentioned Hot Stamp Printing products can have a protective lamination. There are over laminates such as matte, semi gloss, write on, hardcoating, and UV varnish to protect the label. Matte, semi gloss, gloss, epoxy, varnished, textured and brushed are several finishes available. Hot Stamp Labels can be shaped into nameplates and labels that have slots, round corners, die cuts or bends.   

For more information about hot stamp printing visit Data Graphics Inc