What is pad printing? Pad printing is often compared to screen printing, hot stamping, ink jet marking and ink stamping. While the final result may appear similar, pad printing is fundamentally different from any of these processes. Through a clever use of solvent evaporation, pad printing transfers an image out of an etched plate, onto a silicone pad and then finally onto the part. This makes pad printing quite a bit more complex that most other processes. Why go through all the trouble, rather than using a more direct process? There are a number of reasons, but in the first instance Swiss watch makers were looking for a way to consistently print the faces of their product. The process couldn't be done with a printing press, which was designed to handle paper. Hand painting was a slow and tedious process, even for the Swiss. Traditional hand stamping cannot reproduce fine lines. Thus confronted with a printing quandary, some intrepid soul had an inspiration. Some gelatin, a few copper plates and one would guess a few steins later viola, pad printing. Pad printing was mainly limited to Europe until the early 1970's when a few manufacturers introduced their products to the all the world. For the rest of that decade and half of the next pad printing competed directly with the more traditional hot stamping and screen printing for industrial decorating business. As people began to see the benefits of pad printing versus the other two processes a niche market developed.