Choosing the appropriate solution that works best for your specific marking application can be a challenge, but once you've identified the most practical, economical solution there is still one more step before you're ready to put your solution to work. The size and style of the characters on your metal stamps, type and dies can vary greatly which is why we thought we'd cover some of the basics.
Flexibility in character sizing is pretty straight forward; the size of the characters can vary from as small as .030” to over 1.0” tall but we've made even larger characters for custom applications in the past.
The real variety comes in the style of the characters. The good news is that in most cases your application will help dictate the type of character style that is appropriate.
Sharp Face - Sharp face character styles are most often used for indenting into metal. When stamping into metal, the character is engraved at more of an angle which makes it easier to leave an impression. Sharp face stamps and type are typically found in industrial part marking applications but also are commonly used in cartoning machines for food and pharmaceutical packaging. Narrow beveled sharp face stamps are usually used for die cutting.
Low Stress - A low stress character style is typically used on parts where stress risers caused by the marking process may eventually cause cracking in the stamped material which is not allowed or prohibited. This is most common in industries such as oil, energy and aerospace where maintaining the integrity of the part is of utmost importance. Low stress styles can come in either full (round face) or dot face characters.
Flat Face - When hot stamping or branding typically a flat face character is used, engraved with a narrower or steeper angle. You can add color by using a hot stamping foil or deboss directly into the substrate without any foil.
Concave Face - Characters engraved with a concave face are typically used to mark wire or other parts with small diameters. We manufacture OEM compatible type for all of the popular hot stamping and wire marking printers.
Convex or Spherical - Characters can be convex or spherical, used to mark in a round bottomed slot or into a sunken spherical shape.
This post was published on March 26, 2013 and updated on March 19, 2015.