Stamp (paper)
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A stamp or Stampiglie is a tool that is on the provided a surface with raised or depressed characters, letters and the like, by means of stamp pad imprint the figure applied paint or pressed into a softer composition, such as the die for coins and medals . The upper part is called the stamp cap, the lower stamp foot. The mark imprinted with such a tool, which serves as a feature of the tried and tested quality of a product, its origin or a fee paid, is also referred to as a stamp or stamp.
use
Stamps have two main functions:
- They serve to simplify the paperwork. In one step, texts can be put on paper that would take much longer to write by hand, for example the address of a company, the current date or the price of the item to be stamped. Especially in institutions where the files to be stamped have to go over many desks, a stamp has the additional advantage that the stamp text always has the same typeface and thus illegibility can be excluded.
- Difficult to forge, usually round stamps are used for authentication, similar to the signature or the seal .
In payment transactions, the stamp (actually: stamping) is used as a means to comfortably and inexpensively acknowledge collected fees, charges and taxes (fee stamp, tax stamp). Such fee stamps are said to have come into use first in the busy Holland (since 1624). They are applicable wherever the debtor presents or receives a document about the payments. In these cases, both stamp sheets (stamped paper) and adhesive stamps can be used. In other cases, stamped envelopes are also used (banderoles, e.g. for tobacco packaging), which are torn before use, while the stamp sheet is made unusable for further use by writing, the stamp mark by crossing out or expressing a symbol (nullified, cashed) ) becomes. In addition, an object (e.g. precious metal, newspaper, card game, cigarettes and cigar packs, champagne bottle, schnapps bottle, calibrated wine barrels, etc.) can be stamped directly by applying the stamp, thus providing proof of tax or fee payment. An example of an application of stamps in payment transactions is the cancellation of stamp paper from 1608 and 1624, following stamps with the paper stamp, tax stamps , fee stamps , dimension stamps , fixed stamps, tax bands or postage stamps with the postmark .
Another widespread use of the stamp is the identification of visitors who, at chargeable events, e.g. B. have paid their entrance fee in discos . For this purpose, they receive a stamp on the hand, which can also consist of a special color that is only visible under UV light. As a rule, this stamp entitles you to re-enter the event without paying the entrance fee again and is checked by the doorman at the ticket office.
To validate rail tickets , a stamp in the form of a pincer imprint is applied to them.
Manufacturing
Stamp plates are usually made from either liquid photopolymer or rubber using different manufacturing techniques.
Laser technology - The latest technology on the stamp market is laser engraving, in which the text is cut free from a rubber blank using a laser beam at the non-printing areas of the stamp or text plate. The letters remain raised and non-printing areas are burned away or evaporated. Then the stamp plate is lined with a double-sided adhesive foam rubber, cut out and then glued to the appropriate medium (wooden stamp or self-inking stamp).
Photopolymer - When manufacturing with photopolymer, the viscous polymer is spread onto a carrier film. A negative film is placed over a transparent protective film in which the areas to be printed later are transparent. A subsequent UV exposure cures the exposed areas in the polymer, but the unexposed areas remain liquid. These non-printing areas can then be washed out. The conclusion is post-exposure and further mechanical processing as with a rubber stamp.
Foam exposure - the stamp pad of this stamp lies behind the stamp cliché made of microporous special foam , which only remains permeable to color in the unexposed areas. The exposed areas are color-opaque. If you press the stamp, the stamp ink is transferred to the paper through the ink-permeable areas of the text plate.
Applications
There are a variety of stamp types. The stamp lexicon of the Flexographers Association describes more than 300 different stamp goods and stamping devices. As examples for the most diverse stamp variants are mentioned:
Roller stamp - with the roller stamp, the stamp plate (with text or motifs) is attached to a roll. This means that the text repeats itself continuously as the stamp rolls on the print medium. The ink is transferred by a soaked ink roller that automatically inks the stamp plate. Roller stamps are available in versions with and without return. The roller stamp can be used mobile for printing packaging with shipping notes or company logos. Sharp-edged and clear markings can be quickly obtained on a wide variety of absorbent materials such as cardboard, wood or mineral material.
Band stamps - band stamps consist of a metal or plastic housing and the vulcanized rubber bands. Plastic rollers transport the tightened belts over a bridge. Ribbon stamps occur as alphabet, date, double, price marking stamps, signature, time, word band and number stamps.
Branding irons - Branding irons are used to mark wood, in the form of boxes, pallets, barrels, etc., but also to mark plastics and leather. They are supplied with fixed or exchangeable clichés made of brass or bronze. The heating elements used to be heated in an open fire or with propane gas, nowadays mostly electrically with temperature control.
Pagination stamp - A paging stamp is a metal stamp with automatically switching numbers to generate consecutive page numbers or for consecutive or repeated numbering, i.e. This means that it counts up the number after each stamping due to its internal mechanism. The stamp pad is integrated and is pressed onto the stamp after each stamp imprint. Some models support other counting methods: One switching system stamps the number combination 1, 2, 3 and 4 times repeatedly, another international switching system 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 12 times repeatedly. Other paging stamps offer options such as: B. the omission of leading numbers or zeros. By switching off the switching mechanism accordingly, the same number can always be printed. Pagination stamps can also be combined with a cliché .
Self-inking stamps, self-inking stamps or pre-ink stamps are pre-colored stamps that color themselves again with a turn after the stamping process, in contrast to hand stamps, which also require a closable cushion. This results in a very high contour sharpness, since no disruptive raster is transferred from the ink pad surface and the stamp pressure on the paper is limited. Furthermore, the risk of soiling hands or the environment is significantly lower. The housing of the permastamp offers adjustment options for the imprint strength and the pre-colored cliché, which is glued into the housing. The cliché is made up of a mixture of plastic plastizol and the desired stamping ink. By heating this mixture, a solid microporous gel is created in which the ink is stored. By applying pressure to the gel, some color comes out, which is transferred to the paper. By mounting different colored cliché parts in a stamp housing, multi-colored prints can also be produced. Permastamps contain ink for around 20,000 impressions and can be reused using a special regenerating ink. The stamps themselves are available in a wide variety of designs as pocket or tripod stamps or with an adjustable date.
Related topics
- Stamp cutting art - the manual production of stamps of all kinds.
- Stamp foot - different meanings
- Stamp printing - a form of letterpress printing
- Stamp duty - a special form of tax collection
- Time clock - an older device for personnel time recording
literature
- Hugo Hempel: Stamp , Green Force, 1991, ISBN 978-3-925817-41-0
Web links
- About branding ( memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) in the finishing lexicon
Individual evidence
- ↑ Stamps and their use - StampPedia. In: stempelservice.de. StampPedia, accessed April 15, 2016 .