Foil Printing
Foil Printing sometimes known as Hot Foil stamping, is typically a commercial print process, is the application of pigment or metallic foil, often gold or silver , but can also be various patterns or what is known as pastel foil which is a flat opaque color or white special film-backed material, to paper where a heated die is stamped onto the foil, making it adhere to the surface leaving the design of the die on the paper. Foil stamping can be combined with embossing to create a more striking 3D image.
The Hot stamping process:
- A die is mounted and heated,
- Foil is positioned above the material to be imprinted,
- A combination of heat, dwell time, pressure and stripping time control the quality of the stamp.
Foil stamping is environmentally friendly due to it being a dry process. It does not use solvents or inks and does not create any harmful vapors.
A successful hot stamping job is directly related to the quality of the original artwork. In order to insure the highest quality reproduction of an imprint, the original artwork should be “camera-ready”. The better the artwork at the beginning, the better the imprint reproduction result. The key to a successful hot stamping job is threefold; the first is creating a fixture to support the part firmly under the decorating area. Second, the fixture must also position the part for repeatability of the graphic location. And third, the fixture must allow the operator to easily load and unload the part from the fixture.
Hot foil stamping holograms
The hologram may be embedded either via hot-stamping foil, wherein an extremely thin layer of only a few microns of depth is bonded into the paper or a plastic substrate by means of a hot-melt adhesive (called a size coat) and heat from a metal die, or it may be directly embossed as holographic paper, or onto the laminate of a card itself.
