Branding
Branding Explanations and guidelines
At Promo Connection, we brand all products in-house, and have a complete vertical operation. In-house branding offers significant advantages to our cliental, and most importantly we have very fast lead times and offer a large variety of branding options, see below.
Our branding processes are described below.
Pad Printing:
In the Pad Printing process an inked image is transferred from a photo-etched plate to a thick, soft silicone pad. The pad is then pressed against the object. The pad can wrap itself as much as 180° around a small object, and ink coverage is excellent. One colour is done at a time, but registration between colours is so accurate it allows four-colour process printing. Post-curing is aided by the use of heating tunnels.
Pad Printing is widely employed for printing plastic pens, memory sticks, water bottles and mugs, as well as many other plastic promotional items.
PA – Inexpensive, high volume item (pens), small print, simple or no packing, no treatment
PB – Small, medium and larger items, relatively inexpensive, labour intensive / demanding packing
PC – Expensive items, priming & extra curing required, easily damaged, labour intensive
PW – Wrap-print on selected pens
Screen Printing:
In the Screen Printing process a screen is made up of a metal frame with a fine gauze tightly stretched over it. The gauze is covered with a light-sensitive coating, into which the logo is burned. Ink is pushed through the screen by a squeegee and only transfers where the logo was burned.
Screen Printing provides excellent coverage and is especially good for large and bold logos; it is widely employed for printing bags, folders, umbrellas and t-shirts.
SA – High volume item, easy setup
SB – More complicated set-up, packing and/or drying
SC – Large bulky items, very labour-intensive, require curing, expensive items
SW – Wrap-print on selected bottles
Digital Printing:
Stickers are digitally printed in full-colour by computerized Vinyl Printers and then automatically cut to a variety of shapes ( square, rectangle, triangle, circle, oval ) by computerized Vinyl Cutters.
Domed Stickers are created by coating a Vinyl Sticker with Polyurethane to give a three-dimensional appearance.
Domed stickers can be applied to many surfaces or heat pressed onto fabrics and are utilized to easily achieve full-colour branding on items like cooler bags (which can only be printed with 1 colour logos) by applying the full-colour domed sticker to a recessed branding plaque.
DA – Vinyl stickers with application to products that appear in this catalogue
DB – Domed stickers (up to a size of 1 500mm2) with application to products that appear in this catalogue
DC – Domed stickers (1 501mm2 to 3 000mm2) with application to products that appear in this catalogue
Laser Engraving:
Laser engraving is a process by which an image is marked into the surface of either metal (by YAG laser) or organic items (by CO2 laser) by removing approx. 0.8 microns off the surface of the product. A computer system is used to drive the movements of the laser head whereby very precise and clean engravings are achieved at a high rate.
Laser Engraving allows logos to be replicated with precise accuracy and is widely employed to brand metal pens, metal mugs, metal keyrings and knives
LA – Inexpensive metal items (mainly pens and keyrings)
LB – Medium and large sized items, large engravings, long engraving time
LC – All CO2 laser engravings, wood and leather products
Embroidery:
Embroidery is the art of decorating fabric or other materials with designs stitched in strands of thread. Industrial Embroidery machines are driven by computers that read digitized embroidery files created by special software.
Embroidery machines produce high quality, neatly stitched, multi-colour designs on clothing, caps, towels and bags.
EMB – Embroidery required – price based on stitch count
Note: Where a number appears in brackets after a branding code, this denotes the maximum number of colours that an item can be branded, e.g. SA(1) = Screen Printing, category A, 1-colour branding only
Engraving:
A logo is burned into the product with a CO2 laser, replicating the original logo with great accuracy and in minute detail. Suitable for engraving on natural materials like wood, glass and leather.
Dome Stickers :
Stickers are digitally printed in full-colour and then automatically cut to any of the following shapes: square, rectangle, triangle, circle & oval. They are coated with polyurethane to give a three-dimensional appearance. Domed stickers can be applied to smooth and rigid surfaces or heat pressed onto fabrics.
Vinyl Stickers:
Stickers are digitally printed in full-colour and then automatically cut to any of the following shapes: square, rectangle, triangle, circle and oval.
