Products and equipment for photopolymer stamp making
designed or marketed by our company for over 60 years
Thermoflex 50 v resin was developed by our company in partnership with the Anvar (french agency for research valuation) and the National school of Chemistry of Montpellier with the aim to offer stamp manufacturers a more qualitative resin than those present on the market.
It can be used both in flexography (high rate printing, with +/- aggressive inks) but also for business and creative hobbies stamps.
Our resin is odorless, resistant, secures fine detailed reproductions and includes an anti-tack treatment to avoid sticky effect.
Daylight film is a photosensitive film, used to produce a negative film when exposed to UV light through a laser or inkjet printed positive film.
Once the film is exposed to UV light in the Thermogravor photopolymer machine, areas exposed to light will turn black during development (developer) and fixation (fixer).
This negative film will be used to expose photopolymer resin.
All materials are selected or manufactured by our company, as a guarantee of quality through our expertise.
In the exposure frame of the Thermogravor, negative film is protected with a cover film. Once delimited by damming tape, stamp area is filled with resin and covered with a backing sheet
Then, exposure frame is closed to level resin and placed in the exposure part of the photopolymer machine.
Final stamps are obtained after several steps : exposure, engraving, drying and post exposure , all made in compartments of the same machine.
Then, it is just necessary to cut individual stamps after a simple and fast process in reliable and user-friendly equipment produced by ourselves.
Materials and supplies needed
Thermogravor photopolymer processing machine
A 4 size photopolymer processing machine
Designed and manufactured by our company, to produce photopolymer stamps from liquid resin or hard photopolymer plates to be pressed into a matrix board (mold)
The machine is made of 3 parts :
Exposure part (to expose photopolymer material to UV light)
- UV tubes with on/off digital timer including memory
- vacuum pump to keep positive and negative films or negative film and photopolymer plate in close contact
- glasses with closing and calibrating system for liquid photoplymer material processing
- plastic tray with holding system, for liquid resin post exposure
- compressor to pierce air bubbles in liquid resin
Engraving part : (to develop (wash out) photopolymer material
- all pieces are in stainless steel
- thermostat for water temperature control
- timer to start the engraving unit
- the engraving mechanism is outside water to avoid dirt and jamming problems of the moving part
Drying part (to harden photopolymer material)
- 3 drying compartments
- temperature control by thermostat
- on/off timer
- 3 drying compartments
Applications
Company Logo, slogan, picto... reproduction with a photopolymer stamp
Transparent mount with a clear stamp : for easy to printing positioning
Company stamp : contact details, accounting, store, ... in photopolymer resin
Company stamps with name, address, registration number... in photoplymer stamp
Easy print positioning with photopolymer stamp assembled on a transparent block
Sheet of clear stamps for decoration: card making, scrapbooking, announcement ...
Photopolymer stamp on wooden mount : a vintage look for your decorations
When printing your decoration, clear resin makes print positioning easier
Your creations of announcements, scrapbooking, card making, home decor or any other creative ideas with photopolymer stamps
Customize your creations with a photopolypmer stamp
Clear photopolymer stamp for creative hobbies: birthday cards, greetings, menus ...
Greeting cards, menus, announcements... illustrated with photopolymer stamps
Clear stamp on transparent mount for scrapbooking
Clear photopolymer stamp for your company
Clear photopolymer for company stamp
Clear stamp for decoration of menu cards, announcements...
Scrapbooking with clear photopolymer stamps
Photopolymer stamp for company logos
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Faq
« stamp » word can include inking pad, box containing ink pad, instrument used to transfer a print on a document and even final print. Stamp can be manual or automatic.
Our company offers products for the “seal” technical part of the stamp : part in rubber, photopolymer or pre inked material with characters, logo or drawing to print.
In case of rubber or photopolymer resin, stamp surface should be coated with ink from an ink pad. Then, stamp is placed above support and pressure is applied to transfer ink from stamp surface to the support. For another print, it is necessary to ink again stamp surface.
In case of pre-inked material, ink is directly contained in the microporous structure of the stamp (ink capsules).
Rubber stamps are mainly used for administrative applications, as a signature of a company, administration, commercial entity or individual. However other kind of stamps are available, such as daters specifically used to date documents or numberers to affix numbers on document series.
In France, company stamp is required to process most documents such as contracts, quotes or delivery notes. Signature is generally made next to or on the company stamp, with date.
Stamp is also widely used in scrapbooking applications, to customize creations : cards, announcements, albums, Christmas cards, birthdays… Multiple accessories are available for using rubber stamps in a different way : embossing powder, multi-color ink, metallic inks ...
Finally, stamps are also used in specific applications: outdoor use with UV inks, tracking information (for instance ampoules, with acid inks), textile marking for clothes…
Historically, texts were arranged and images were engraved by typographic workers then gathered together and tightened inside a forme. Then a matrix made of wax and other materials was placed on top and the whole was placed inside a heating press to imprim patterns inside softened wax.
After cooling, the wax mold was covered with rubber and parchment paper and placed again in the heating press so that rubber can flow inside mold depth and produce relief for stamps. The resulting rubber sheet was cut into stamps.
Development of computers allowed to give up cumbersome manufacturing tools (lead character fonts, presses..) and use computer-aided publication and photosensitive polymers
Now, stamp manufacturing process consists of several easy steps:
- patterns to be reproduced are drawn on a computer
- a film is printed to get a negative
- photopolymer liquid resin is exposed through the negative to get a photopolymer stamp, or hard photopolymer plate is exposed to produce a cliche
- photopolymer cliche is pressed into a matrix board to get a mold for rubber (rubber stamps) or premix gel (pre inked stamps) moulding
In case of rubber stamps, two manufacturing solutions are possible : laser engraved rubber or rubber molded in a matrix board. These two techniques are to be compared to photopolymer resin technique
Photopolymer liquid advantages
- faster processing (25 -30 minutes).
- a single small sized machine necessary
- very low equipment depreciation therefore low stamp cost price
Photopolymer liquid drawbacks
- ink restitution not so good (polymer closed structure)
- resistance not so good over time
- resistance to alcohol-based inks not so good
Laser/conventional rubber advantages
- better resistance to inks (especially alcohol-based ones).
- more resistant over time
- better ink restitution (rubber por
- choice of colors, nobler material.
Laser engraved rubber advantages
- Fast processing (3 minutes 30 s) for a single stamp with a laser engraver
Conventional rubber advantages
- lower equipment cost, compared to laser
- Cost for additional copies of a same stamp is very low and processing very fast : once the mold (with patterns in hollow) is obtained, only rubber is necessary and fast vulcanized.
Laser engraved rubber drawbacks
- high investment cost (laser engraver)
- long engraving time (2 hours 40 for A4 size, including 40 stamps, with a 30 w machine) that can be reduced using a higher power laser tube.
- important maintenance : 90 % of rubber material need to be removed and release a lot of dust that dirty the machine.
- same work and same cost for additional copies of a same stamp
Conventional rubber drawbacks :
- longer processing time for the first copy (1 hour 10 for a 40 stamp A4 size)
Production of photopolymer stamps is very easy and does not require important equipment.
Once a positive film is printed (laser or inkjet printer), all other operations are made in the same Thermogravor machine including 3 parts: exposure, engraving, drying.
Negative film is processed in the exposure part of the machine, then developed and fixed in trays
Liquid resin is
- exposed in the exposure part of the machine
- washed out in the engraving part of the machine
- post exposed in the exposure part of the machine
- dried in the drying part of the machine.
Space-saving, easy to use and designed by Thermoflan, Thermogravor machine allows the manufacture of photopolymer stamps up to A4 format.
Characteristics of 3 stamp types are summarized in the table below: