Hot Foiling

BEC Group provide several secondary operations as well as tooling and plastic injection moulding, completed in-house, they add value to products through high-spec finishes and branding. These services range from assembly to heat staking, pad printing and ultra-sonic welding.

What is hot foiling?

Hot foiling is a secondary operation used by BEC to print text, images, and logos onto plastic mouldings for information, decoration, or branding. The process often uses metallic, eye-catching foils that are ideal for making your product stand out from the competition.

Above, an example of a BEC customer’s hot foiling

How is hot foiling used?

Several different methods of hot foiling are available, at BEC this process begins with a moulding. The area which is to be hot foiled onto is moulded to stand proud from the rest of the mould. From there a layer of metallic foil is laid over a heated stamping die, the die then pushes down and applies the foil onto the moulding. The foil transfers evenly onto where the stamp touches the plastic, the die is lifted, and the newly printed moulding is removed to rapidly cool.

The metallic foil used in hot foiling is made up of several different layers designed to transfer pigment to the moulding (substrate) when heat is applied; one or several layers of pigment or a metallic image, a glue or adherence layer to ensure it sticks to the substrate, and a release layer.

What are the benefits?

Hot foiling has several benefits over other printing methods, these include:

  • The process is quick to carry out once the heated die and foil have been setup and is a much simpler and cleaner method for printing rather than mixing liquid inks.
  • Hot foiling produces high quality results that are long lasting and hard wearing.
  • A variety of different colours and finishes for the foil are available, allowing customisability for your brand.

Looking for other methods of adding value or branding to your product? Take a look at our run-down of our main secondary operations. Either call 01425 613131 or email.  We’re happy to help!