foilingandembossing

Our services include:

Gold / Silver Foiling the design is hot pressed (debossed) onto the chosen material (leather, faux leather / pleather, book cloth, card, etc.) using heat-activated foils*
Blind Debossing (indented design) – the design is hot pressed same as above, but without the metallic or colour foils. The result is more subtle.
Embossing (raised design) – more complicated than debossing as it involves two dies – a male and female. These need to be perfectly aligned to make a clear impression in relief.
* We offer a selection of gold, silver, metallic and plain matt colour foils.

PROCESSES AND EQUIPMENT:

Foiling and debossing are done on our traditional hot stamping press. The process first requires a custom-made magnesium die block to be manufactured offsite (a mirror image version of your vector artwork is used). This die block is attached to a metal chase (tray) which slides into the press (upside-down) and is heated. Once the desired temperature is reached, and after a few test impressions and adjustments, the final product is debossed.

Our cast iron hot stamping press has the benefit of being manually operated.
The freedom to apply different amounts of pressure allows for variable debossing depth.
Temperature is adjusted according to the material used, as well as the foil type.
The large adjustable table allows thick books to be foiled directly onto the cover (although initial tests are required to determine if the surface is sufficiently even to produce a good result – smaller designs are preferable).
The generous chase allows for a die size up to roughly 90 mm x 170 mm (larger artwork is trickier to manage).

Foiling & Embossing

cea STUDIOS