Printing Options

Screen Print/Pad Print:
Screen printing, previously known as silk-screening is a printing technique that traditionally creates a sharp-edged image using a stencil and a porous fabric. The screen is made from porous finely woven fabric held over a frame. Areas of the screen are obscured with a non-permeable stencil which is a positive of the image to be printed (the remaining open areas are where the ink will appear). When printing multi-color logos, a new stencil is made for each color and the different colors printed sequentially. Screen printing is most suitable for logos with 1-4 colors that have no shading or color gradation.

CMYK Full Color Photo Print:
Photo printing is similar to standard desktop printing in that logos can be reproduced in full color by combining 4 colors known as CMYK in varying amounts. Photo printing is the best choice for logos with many colors or those with shading or gradation.

Laser Etch:
This permanent marking process involves using a fiber or CO2 laser to etch your design on the surface of the USB drive. This process exposes the underlying substrate of the material if it is painted or anodized, or if it is a raw material, vaporizes a thin layer of the substrate to make a different color. It is necessary to use vector art for this process, as we cannot laser etch any gradients, halftones or colors. Keep in mind that the underlying substrate of painted drives might be brass, zinc, aluminum, steel, or plastic. These different substrates each have a unique color and will be exposed when etching painted drives. If laser etching a wooden drive, the laser will burn the wood a darker color as the temperature of the laser site exceeds the flash point of the wood.

Hot Stamp:
Hot stamping is a debossing process that is used to imprint leather or wood drives. First, a positive die is machined from your vector artwork. This die is then heated and pressed into the surface of the drive. The artwork is then permanently reliefed into the surface of the drive. This process has a fair amount of dimension in it, so small details might not be accurately transferred to the surface of the drive. As with laser etching, the hot stamping process will burn the wood or leather a darker color as the temperature of the die exceeds the flash point of the material.

Extruded Detail on PVC:
When creating a custom PVC drive, all details are extruded off of the surface of the drive. These details can be the same color as the base color of the drive, or poured as a different color. These details are hand applied, so there may be slight variation between two drives of the same batch. Some restrictions to keep in mind- details cannot be extruded taller than they are thick, details cannot be less than 0.25mm wide, and details cannot be less than 0.25mm apart. This is due to the machining limitations in creating the mould. Also, due to the hand made nature of these drives, we can only produce a custom PVC drive with 7 colors or less.

Epoxy Dome:
This applique features a digital full color print underneath an epoxy domed coating. First a die is created to the shape of your artwork, which is then used to cut a vinyl full color print to shape. A optically transparent epoxy is poured over the decal and allowed to harden, protecting the artwork from scratches or scuffs. This type of decal is only suitable for application to flat surfaces.

Vinyl Decal:
This applique is perfect for simulating a printed label on PVC USB drives. Your full color art is printed directly onto a vinyl sticker and die cut to size. As this label is made from flexible vinyl, it is possible to wrap it around cylindrical shapes.