With the development of the printing and packaging industry, people pursue high-grade, exquisite, environmental protection, rich personalization product packaging. We know bottle screen printing is commonly used in the brand decoration of custom plastic bottles, but hot stamping is also popular for luxury plastic packaging containers such as custom plastic box, custom plastic containers, custom spray bottles, custom shampoo bottles, custom lotion bottles, and more.
Compare to bottle screen printing, hot stamping is a printing process with a unique metallic luster and strong visual effect, which can make the decorated products look extra noble and high-end, and is a process often used in the brand decoration of custom plastic jars manufacturer and custom plastic bottle manufacturers.
The hot stamping process is the use of the principle of heat pressure transfer, the aluminum layer in the aluminum electrochemical transfer to the surface of the substrate to form a special metal effect because the main material used in hot stamping is the aluminum foil, so hot stamping is also called aluminum stamping.
Hot stamping for custom skincare bottles is most commonly used in gold and silver, hot stamping is a generic term for the process, hot stamping does not mean stamping on the gold color, the color of the hot stamping materials are diverse, there are gold, silver, laser gold, laser silver, black, red, green and so on.
Classification of the hot stamping printing process
Hot stamping equipment and hot stamping methods for different custom plastic containers, custom plastic bottle, custom plastic box, and custom plastic jars manufacturers, generally commonly have flat press hot stamping and roll-on press hot stamping (also known as rolling).
1. Flat press foil stamping printing
Flat press foil stamping is the most commonly used foil stamping method. The stamping machine is mainly a pneumatic stamping machine, a servo motor stamping machine.
The surface of the product to be stamped is flat, rounded surface, or can be irregular surface, and the stamping plate to be consistent with the shape of the product surface to be stamped, that is, if the product is flat, the stamping plate is flat. If the product is concave, the stamping plate is convex of the same shape. The graphics that need to be stamped are made under the stamping plate, and through a certain temperature, pressure, and time, the stamping film is transferred to the surface of the product.
2. Roll On press foil stamping printing
The stamping plate is cylindrical in shape and is generally made of a moderately hard silicone
material, often called a silicone wheel, with a linear contact between the product and the silicone wheel.
It can be rolled on a flat surface (round stamping, as shown in the structure schematic above). It can also be rolled on round products (round stamping round), and if the equipment is specially shaped equipment, then the product can be square, oval angle, conical and other products.
The technical requirements of the hot stamping printing process
(1) The technical requirements
To get a qualified hot stamping printing effect on your custom plastic containers such as shampoo bottles, custom lotion bottles, custom pet bottles, custom plastic box or custom spray bottles, and more, the technical requirements of hot stamping largely depend on the pre-product shape design, so when designing the product, the following points need to be followed.
The raised height of the pattern or text is not less than 0.75mm.
The width of the lines of the pattern or text is not less than 0.25mm.
the surface of the lines of the pattern or text is arched along the width direction, and the height of the central arch is less than 0.15mm.
The side of the pattern or text may not be stamped.
The distance of the pattern or text from the side wall of the product is not less than 6.5mm.
The line of the convex pattern is located at the bottom of the oblique wall of the product, and the distance from the bottom of the oblique wall is not less than 1.5mm.
multi-color stamping, different colors of the raised height of the graphic should not be equal, and the distance between adjacent sides is not less than 1.0mm, so as to avoid rubber-stamping plate expansion and touching the avoidance surface.
Large flat plastic parts, should ensure that the flatness of the stamping surface is good, to avoid bending, warping, twisting, indentation, depression, or bump defects;
Box-shaped, frame-shaped large plastic parts, generally stamping their side, should avoid bending, twisting, and other deformation phenomena, to avoid its side of the existence of large cone angle, cone angle α is generally 1 ° ~ 3 °, in addition, the corner to avoid sharp angles (such as taking R minimum of 1 ~ 2mm);.
In the hot gravure word need to pay special attention to the width of the gravure design, although the stamping plate can be very narrow 0.1mm, but too narrow stamping plate design support effect is not good, in the stamping process is very easy to deformation, theoretically the width of the gravure word single side should be retained with the stamping plate at least 0.15mm and above the gap, in actual production is not recommended near the limit, otherwise it will greatly affect the service life of the silicone stamping plate and product defective rate.
In stamping products with larger aspect ratios, such as the powder box cover with a flange at a time, it is recommended to verify the actual capacity of the stamping equipment, different stamping equipment can provide different rotational torque, and the longer the product, the larger the ratio, the corner position will be more obvious deformation due to the sudden rise in pressure, the conventional will be designed to isolate the slot.
Application of hot stamping process in custom shampoo bottles and jars
(2) Different equipment parameters set
Different equipment parameters are set differently, such as roll-on press round hot stamping machine, due to the pressure of the line contact, its set hot stamping temperature is higher than the flat press round hot stamping machine or flat press flat hot stamping machine. In general, the temperature setting range of round press round stamping is 190℃～220℃, the temperature setting range of flat press round stamping machine is 130℃～150℃, the temperature setting range of flat press flat stamping machine is 100℃～120℃. Of course, the stamping time, stamping temperature, and production efficiency are also largely constrained by the transfer performance of the electrochemical aluminum foil. We will control the different parameters for different printing for custom pet bottles and custom skincare bottles.
(3) The choice of gold foil plastic materials
We have PP, ABS, PE, PS, and more plastic material for custom plastic box or custom lotion bottles, meanwhile, the choice of gold foil different plastic materials need to be matched with different formulations of the adhesive layer of gold foil to ensure the quality of stamping, the specific choice of reference to the following table.
Material | Foil Model | Thickness of Base Foil(μ） | Compatibility of Metal Plate | Compatibility of Rubber Plate | Compatibility of Rubber Roller | Characteristics |
| ST-*-H | 12 | Excellent | Good | | Standard type hot stamping foil. Suitable for ordinary plastic flat-press foil stamping. |
| ST-·-H(V) | 16 | Good | Excellent | | High-end foil. Clear edge, good heat resistance. Rubber version of high-end type hot stamping box. Good abrasion resistance. |
AS, ABS, PS, PVC | ST-*-HR | 16 | | Excellent | Excellent | Rubber version of high-end type hot stamping box. Good abrasion resistance. |
| ST-*-R | 16 | | Good | Excellent | Suitable for overlapping round-press stamping. |
| SUH-* | 16 | | Excellent | Good | Specially developed for abrasion resistance. Can pass RCA 100 times rubbing. |
| ATH-* | 16 | Good | Excellent | | Suitable for overlapping round-press stamping. |
| GP-* | 12 | Excellent | | | Suitable for metal version PE bottle stamping. |
PP/PE Bottle | GP-*(Z) | 16 | Excellent | | | High-end line hot stamping foil, good abrasion resistance. |
| PU-*-T(P) | 16 | Excellent | Excellent | | Suitable for PE bottle + UV screen printing. |
AMBS, AS, PS | HT-* | 25 | | Good | | Specially designed for fine foil stamping |
PMMA | HOLO-* | 25 | Good | Excellent | Good | Holographic hot stamping box |
Hot stamping printing service from custom plastic bottle manufacturers
As one of the professional custom plastic bottle manufacturers, shampoo bottle manufacturers, and custom skincare jar manufacturers, 3plastics provides high-quality custom printed shampoo bottles, custom skincare bottles, custom lotion bottles, custom spray bottles as well as the bottle screen printing service, hot stamping service, labeling service with our advanced labeling and printing equipment to make your brand stand out. See More our labeling and printing
We have many years of production and management experience, 20+ years of experience in the custom plastic bottles and custom plastic jars industry, and constantly develop innovative products to meet market demand, the product and printing quality is guaranteed, the price is reasonable, and can provide customized services, for different substrates, colors, areas, and other needs, quickly provide effective product solutions. Welcome to contact us for innovative plastic packaging solutions to meet your corporate goals.