A printed logo can look unchanged after a dry rub and leave color on a damp cloth. Those checks give you two observations about the same decoration under different contact conditions. They are most useful when you can tell which condition changed.
Set up comparable samples
Take finished parts from the same decoration lot and record their cure or conditioning time. Use equivalent pads, contact paths, loads, stroke counts, and inspection lighting. For the damp set, specify the liquid and control how much the pad holds. Water, lotion, and a cleaning product are different exposures. Give each its own run when that exposure matters to the product.
Use separate samples, or unused areas of equivalent geometry, for the dry and damp trials. A dry pass followed by a damp pass on the same area makes the effect of the first test hard to separate. Support curved barrels and caps consistently, and place the pad over the same part of the artwork. Flat printed coupons can help screen a decoration system. A finished curved part still needs a check representative of how it is handled.
Photograph the artwork and the pad before and after testing. Record whether the result is color on the pad, loss of gloss, abrasion through the print, or lifting at an edge. Check again after drying if wet appearance is part of the observation. Agree in advance which changes count as unacceptable and retain a reference sample. This comparison screens a defined contact condition. Service life and other exposure conditions require their own evidence. The SamBound packaging catalog is available at sambound.com.
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SamBound New Material Technology Company Ltd.
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