Pad printing is a wet ink transfer decorating process. It is probably the most versatile of all printing processes due to its unique ability to print on three-dimensional objects and compound angles. Today pad printing is used to decorate items like the cruise control knob on your car, the eyes of a dolls face, advertising specialty products, medical catheters, golf balls, control knobs and dials, bottle caps and even pens.

The object to be printed needs to have a higher surface energy than the pad. This rules out printing on silicone and other non-stick materials, as well as wet, greasy parts. Additionally, some types of plastic require pre-treatment. Pad printing is also limited to relatively small images compared to screen-printing. Pad printable images are usually less than 100 square inches. KEYWORDS for this process: printers