CNC Laser Engraving A Custom Hot Press Mold for Foil Stamping
I bought a manual hot press machine several months ago, not to foil stamp paper and the traditional “hot press” items most companies with such machines use them for (though we can do that too) but to make use of a growing pile of acrylic scraps I have building-up in the CNCROi.com.
The first step along the journey of hot pressing our logo onto acrylic blanks is to make the hot press mold. Luckily, we have an awesome Austrian wide format Trotec Laser that’s more than capable of doing the job to create a custom hot press mold.
The first step is cutting the mold itself to size, we have auxiliary machines in-house to accomplish this so you have a nice solid aluminum backing that isn’t sharp like a knife. These molds come in big sheets, they are made-up of 1/8th aluminium followed by 1/8th rubber. The rubber used in this project has a durometer of 80 though we can get it 40-90.
It has literally taken me MONTHS to find a good supplier of these basic molds that met my specs. These blank molds which we cut to size are thermally conductive, hard (in the higher durometer – shore A) and can be made flat or with contours/shoulders based on your needs. They have awesome silicone to metal bond which means they won’t break apart during production… an issue I was having with other suppliers after extensive testing.
The process of CNC laser engraving a hot press mold is slightly different from that use for a regular office stamp, it takes WAY LONGER as the rubber is extremely hard. This is needed because of the heat and pressure put onto the mold. For our hot press machine, which I used for the testing and will be using to help our customers create unique products, we found durometer 80 works perfectly but the details need to be large. With industrial machines, this will vary based on the heat or tonnage you require so be sure to specify this if you know.
If you’ve never seen a custom CNC laser hot press stamp being made, you’ll notice that the results initially look like a mess, there is so much heat put into the mold that it literally dissolves with the consistency of hot ash. These molds are VERY HOT after initial production due to the amount of power required to get a 1.5 mm deep impression.
This is one of the cleaner blanks I use to show dirt, but all that stuff you see on the left on the above picture is from the hot press mold, on the right, cleaned-up. This is a dirty process and there is a tremendous amount of soot that takes a while to remove correctly off the mold itself after production.
The end result though looks AWESOME! If you need this to be 8.5″ x 11″ or far bigger or smaller, we are able to custom produce this from start to finish in-house.
Once the mold is cleaned-up, it’s time to put it into our hot press machine. Using heat tape, we put it in the back of our custom laser engraved mold where the aluminium of the blank will be glued onto the aluminum from our hot press machine.
The next step, once the machine is hot and ready, is to use some foil (available in a variety of colors) and put it onto one of our many acrylic blanks.
Then position everything under the machine, we then press firmly for about 20 seconds (this is a manual machine, not an industrial one where only 1 second is the goal) at 400 degrees and the results look very good!
Our machine is good for testing and most applications, we have a machine capable of an incredible amount of clearance. Our hot stamp machine is capable of printing a full 2″ x 9″ surface area and has a 10″ throat. We are able to adjust the height to suit most products and our table is 14″ square.
Like our CNC laser, we got all the bells and whistles on our machine, we are able to control the temperature within 1 degree and it has dual heaters thanks to a 550 watt heater (interestingly enough, our CNC laser is 110 watts CO2 and 30 watts fiber… ). Our machine is also American made and we have a number of accessories to increase accuracy and repeatability of our hot press.
If you are in the hot press business, you really need to contact us so we can make cost-effective hot press molds for you, generally with a 24 hour turnaround. Yes, 24 HOURS! Say goodbye to 7-14 days, by the time you go get your mail the next day, your custom mold may be in your mail box! Our focus is on producing the best quality rubber stamps and hot press molds you can get efficiently and cost effectively… at any size!
Contact CNCROi.com right now for all your custom hot and cold press needs… we also make custom delrin molds!
