Using a laser to produce a rubber stamp

Most people believe a rubber stamp is a product of the past – but they are wrong. Believe it or not there is still a big world wide demand for rubber stamp products and in the UK only there is yearly sold about 3.5 million rubber stamp products. The rubber stamp market is still there and now the ultimate technology like a laser is more and more used to produce the rubber stamp die. Manufacturers of rubber stamp production equipment have in recent years invested millions to develop a laser able to cut out the text on the rubber stamp die fast and very precise. These laser machines are now on the market produced by different manufacturers and besides being able to produce a rubber stamp die they can also do engraving on many different kind of materials like plastic, aluminium, glass and so on.

The rubber stamp lasers are expensive and targeted for rubber stamp manufacturers producing thousands of rubber stamp dies yearly. For the rubber stamp manufacturers the really big advantage using a laser is the laser makes it possible to cut out the rubber stamp die one by one as the orders come in which is a great advantage compared to how it has been and still is for most rubber stamp manufacturer. Using the present technology the rubber stamp manufacturers need to have enough orders on hand of rubber stamp dies to produce a “sheet “which is the trade language for an A4 size. A sheet contains in average about thirty rubber stamp dies and you need this numbers to make the production profitable. When you use a laser to produce the rubber stamp dies no chemicals are involved which is environmental friendly but as the laser is cutting out the text on the rubber die it produces a lot of very fine dust of rubber particles which are damaging to the human lungs. To absorb the dust the lasers are therefore equipped with filters but the filters are not able to remove the rubber dust completely which make many rubber stamp manufacturers hesitate to invest in the laser technology. The lasers also produce a lot of ozone which is damaging to the environment.

The rubber stamp has been produced and sold for about 150 years but the production methods are constantly being improved and has now reached the point where the ultimate modern technology like a laser is being used to produce a 150 years old product.

The UK rubber stamp market

Most people are not aware that the UK market for traditional rubber stamps with a separate ink pad is still very big. Every year millions of the old fashion rubber stamps are sold – but this is in the UK. In Europe the traditional rubber stamp has been replaced long time ago with self inking rubber stamps and in the Scandinavian countries only self inking rubber stamps are now being sold. There is a very good reason – quality. In the UK price has always been more important that quality where as in Scandinavia and most other European countries quality comes before price. In the UK we seem to say why pay more for a self inking rubber stamp that is guaranteed for life when we can buy a traditional rubber stamp that costs 40% less and with impressions almost unreadable and only last for a few years?  In Scandinavia and Europe business people say this self inking rubber stamp is 40% more expensive but it gives fantastic impressions and is guaranteed for life. We buy it.

In the UK business people spend lots of money on well designed and good looking documents to create a good customer impression. Now they have to stamp this good looking document so what do they do?  They use a rubber stamp where the ink pad has dried out so it is almost impossible to read the impression and it spoils the otherwise good looking document.

Often the separate ink pad is left open on the office desk which easily creates a mess and worse – the ink pad dries out. Nobody seems to notice or care. Bang – the rubber stamp hits the ink pad and bang – it hits the document. Nobody can read it.

Often documents are legally important papers where it is important for legal reasons to be able to read everything including the rubber stamp impression. Nobody think about this since in their mind the impression from a rubber stamp has no importance. History has samples that this way of thinking can be very costly.

This is why in Europe self inking rubber stamps have completely replaced the traditional rubber stamp. When you use a self inking rubber stamp you will always get very good impression and no mess if you remember to replace the ink pad as it dries out. When using a self inking rubber stamp people seem always to remember the ink pad has to be replaced when out of ink but when using a traditional rubber stamp with a separate ink pad no one think about the ink pad has to be replaced when out of ink.

The rubber stamp ink pad

No rubber stamps works without an ink pad…..and a rubber stamp ink pad is a rather complicated product. As it is with many other products a rubber stamp ink pad looks very easy and simple to make but that is not the case.

Just think about what the ink must be able to do!  When you make a rubber stamp impression the ink has to dry immediately – but at the same time the rubber stamp ink must not dry in the pad but be able to stay liquid for many years. What a mess it would be if it took more then 5-6 seconds for the ink to dry when you used your rubber stamp to make an impression. It has to dry immediately and it has taken many years to develop a rubber stamp ink that could do just that.

Ink Pad

On normal paper the drying process is a mix of the paper absorbing the ink and quick evaporation of the liquid… but what if you need to make an impression on a hard surface like plastic or steel. Modern technology has made this possible with special developed ink that dries immediately when you put a rubber stamp on plastic or steel or any other hard surface.

It is to day also possible using special developed rubber stamps to make an impression on eggs - like the date produced, place of origin and so on. The trick is that the ink must not penetrate the egg shell since that would destroy the egg.

Do you get the picture!  Rubber stamp ink is not just made of water and black colour but is a complicated chemical process to produce.

This was the rubber stamp ink – but to have an ink pad you also need a sponge to hold the ink. The ink pad in a self inking rubber stamp only holds 4-5 grams of ink. Hard to believe - but with this small amount of ink you can do thousands and thousands of impressions. The sponge is made of special developed material able to absorb the 4-5 grams immediately and spread out in every corner of the ink pad. This again means the machine used to drop the ink on the pad must be able to do this very precisely. Too much and the rubber stamp impressions will be all ink and nobody will be able to read them … too little and the rubber stamp can’t produce a quality impression.

Hopefully you will now get a better appreciation and a better impression next time you use a rubber stamp….

The UK rubber stamp market

Most people are not aware that the UK market for traditional rubber stamps with a separate ink pad is still very big. Every year millions of the old fashion rubber stamps are sold – but this is in the UK. In Europe the traditional rubber stamp has been replaced long time ago with self inking rubber stamps and in the Scandinavian countries only self inking rubber stamps are now being sold. There is a very good reason – quality. In the UK price has always been more important that quality where as in Scandinavia and most other European countries quality comes before price. In the UK we seem to say why pay more for a self inking rubber stamp that is guaranteed for life when we can buy a traditional rubber stamp that costs 40% less and with impressions almost unreadable and only last for a few years?  In Scandinavia and Europe business people say this self inking rubber stamp is 40% more expensive but it gives fantastic impressions and is guaranteed for life. We buy it.

Rubber stamp

In the UK business people spend lots of money on well designed and good looking documents to create a good customer impression. Now they have to stamp this good looking document so what do they do?  They use a rubber stamp where the ink pad has dried out so it is almost impossible to read the impression and it spoils the otherwise good looking document.

Often the separate ink pad is left open on the office desk which easily creates a mess and worse – the ink pad dries out. Nobody seems to notice or care. Bang – the rubber stamp hits the ink pad and bang – it hits the document. Nobody can read it.

Often documents are legally important papers where it is important for legal reasons to be able to read everything including the rubber stamp impression. Nobody think about this since in their mind the impression from a rubber stamp has no importance. History has samples that this way of thinking can be very costly.

This is why in Europe self inking rubber stamps have completely replaced the traditional rubber stamp. When you use a self inking rubber stamp you will always get very good impression and no mess if you remember to replace the ink pad as it dries out. When using a self inking rubber stamp people seem always to remember the ink pad has to be replaced when out of ink but when using a traditional rubber stamp with a separate ink pad no one think about the ink pad has to be replaced when out of ink.