When it comes to the things we might take for granted in our day to day lives, printing remains a fantastic example of a technology that has indefinitely altered the world, while remaining relatively under appreciated.

When it comes down to it, printing is a big deal. But that is putting it very simply. With all of the printing technologies available today, the possibilities are virtually endless when it comes to what we print, how we print, and what we’re capable of printing on.

In fact, many businesses are directly affected by the ability of the printing industry to find new and innovative ways to print on various products. Consider for instance the electronics you use. Many of the electronics you use rely on “membrane switches”. A membrane switch is, essentially, a circuit. However, instead of being a mechanical switch, a membrane switch is created by printing on PET or ITO with copper, silver, or graphite ink for conductivity. To better imagine how a membrane switch might fit into a real world application, you can simple think of it in the same way you would a touch screen or a plastic keyboard. In every case, they help the user (you) give commands to a piece of electronic equipment like your washing machine or dish washer.

Then again, if it wasn’t for the rapid growth and innovation of various printing technologies, membrane switches would be no more than an idea, and the electronics we use would remain as they were when electrical switches were larger, less flexible, and far less advanced. Modern printing methods like screen printing and – more recently – pad printing, have made printing membrane switches faster and more efficient for industries around the world.

Put simply, pad printing machines use a direct offsite printing process that can transfer a 2-D image onto a 3-D object. In order to do this, the printer transfers the image from a plate, to a flexible silicon pad, and then to the actual product. Pad printing has emerged as an incredibly effective printing method for printing on virtually any surface (or substrate). While screen printing has been widely used for the same purpose for many years, technologies like pad printing represent a newer and potentially more effective and flexible printing method that delivers greater efficiency and clearer results. This underscores the fact that modern printing is as much a concern for industries as it is for consumers. In fact, the importance of printing in the industrial world directly affects consumers everywhere, which actually brings us back to industrial pad printing.

With more and more materials being used and the various shapes, contours, and profiles present in products ranging from sporting goods to electronics & businesses need a printing method that can quickly and effectively handle it all. For that reason, methods like pad printing exist to flexibly cover the spectrum of industrial printing applications.