Pad Printing on Stress Balls

The most popular and easiest way to personalise stress balls is by using a technique called Pad Printing. Pad printing is a simple process which allows spot coloured custom prints to be made onto the surface of a stress ball. There are many advantages and disadvantages associated with using pad printing which we will elaborate on this page. Pad printing is a very popular way to personalize and decorate surfaces. Other than being used on stress balls, you can see examples of pad printing ranging from pens, key boards, smartphones, remote controls amongst thousands of examples.

The Pad Printing Process

To begin the pad printing process, an initial set up is required to create the printing templates. There are two known methods to create a printing template. For the purposes of branding onto stress balls, we utilize a technique called UV Exposure to create a branding image.

Step 1: Print Set Up

You may notice on our website that we charge a print set up of $50-$75 (varies depending on the product). This print set up involves the use of a special machine that exposes a UV photo exposure with positive films onto a plate. Once this process is done a printing plate is created via chemicals. This plate will have the image of your intended print graphics or text. Once this is completed the stress ball is now ready for custom branding.

Step 2: Pad Printing

The pad printing process is a manual task, which requires a technician to move the stress ball (commonly called substrate in the printing industry. i.e. the surface to be printed) onto the branding plate. A soft pad made from rubber silicone is then used to essentially pick up ink and stamp onto the stress ball. This soft pad commonly looks like a rubber cup. This cup will both print as well absorb excess ink in the same process too. When this soft cup is pressed down, air is released and pushed outwards which then transfers the print onto the stress ball.

With every press, the technician will commonly monitor every print job to ensure that the print result is free from smudges, has sufficient ink coverage and in general monitor any errors that may incur in the branding process.

Quick Word on Ink

The right type of ink is critical in the branding process. The inks we use to print stress balls are solvent based which means there are other ingredients added before branding. We utilize our experience to tailor the ink to ensure that the colours to be printed are precise and that the printed surface is durable to ensure your graphic or logo remains seen all the time. Typically once printed our ink will dry within seconds. Even so, we allow the surface to be dried for a few hours before we pack your stress balls into cartons for delivery.

The humidity in the air can effect ink. When printing in a dry environment, there are some situations which will lead to the print image drying too quickly leading to an imperfect print result. On the other hand, if the printing environment is very humid then ink can lead to lumps where there is a concentration of ink on certain parts of the graphic.

Benefits of Using This Method

The main benefits of pad printing on stress balls is:

• Low in Cost and quite a cheap process for branding
• Reliable and Consistent Branding Results
• Relatively fast process for branding
• Relatively durable print result

 Disadvantages of Using This Method

The main disadvantages or pad printing is:

• Full-colour prints are not possible
• Photo finish prints are not possible
• Glossy prints are not possible