Steel Cliche Plates

The plate is an important part of the pad printing process. The following items must meet high standards in order to achieve an excellent print quality.

• Type of Material
• Material Manufacturing Process
• Photoengraving process

TOSH produces 2 different types of steel plates according to various requirements such as, print quality, number of impressions, price and ease of changeover.

Thick steel plates 10 mm
These are used when high quality and long printing runs are required. This type of plate will last for more than 1 million impressions. TOSH plates are manufactured using a special high quality steel to resist oxidation. All plates are lapped 2 sides to a very fine finish to obtain a high quality print and longer blade life. They are hardened to 61-63 Hrc. The molecular structure of the TOSH plates allow an extremely fine and uniform finish. This is necessary to be able to accurately check the depth of etch during the photoengraving phase, which is a requisite for image quality during the printing process. These plates are photoengraved in our laboratory by TOSH, using precision instruments to guaranty a correct depth of etch.

Photopolymer cliches yield 10,000 to 100,000 impressions, making them the perfect solution for the majority of applications. You may choose to have us etch your photopolymer cliches, or make them yourself easily and economically.

Thin steel plates 0.5 mm
This type of plate will last for 100-200.000 impressions, and bridges the gap between the traditional thick steel plate (10mm) and photopolymer plates. It is generally used as an alternative to thick steel plates (10mm) when shorter runs and a lower price are required.

Both steel plate 10mm and thin steel plate are always available in stock in hundreds of different standard sizes. Special sizes available upon request, in short time.