When you're the East Coast's largest manufacturer of decorative rubber stamps and craft kits, how do you take your business to the next level? For Inkadinkado, the answer was a new, premium line of stamps called Galerie Vernissage.

Inkadinkado makes rubber stamps for the craft market in a huge variety of designs selling to a loyal but demanding customer base. The company was using printed labels to decorate the stamps' wooden blocks, but was growing frustrated with the limitations of labels.

Labels have to be printed and inventoried. They're expensive to handle and apply. And, especially difficult for Inkadinkado, labels are tricky to use on wood. Labels simply wouldn't do for the new product line.

Inkadinkado turned to AutoTran for a solution they'd never tried: pad printing. AutoTran showed the stamp company how they could get a durable, clean image on the wood blocks, with the elegant look needed for the Galerie Vernissage line. An AutoTran AT-135, set up precisely for handling the wood blocks, went into operation in the beginning of 2002. The new product line was an instant hit, and delivery rates skyrocketed so quickly that Inkadinkado ordered a second AutoTran machine just six weeks later.

Inkadinkado Purchasing Manager Rich Febonio talks about working with AutoTran's Doug Parker:

"Doug's a unique resource, because he's had experience pad printing on wood in the past. That was a nice find. His machines work. Easy to set up, easy to maintain, easy to work with. Especially easy to train people on, which is a blessing. He's been open to improvements and suggestions from us. We've made thousands of stamps in less than four months, without a hitch." AutoTran also supplies all of the ink, pads and plates to keep the pad printing operation going nonstop.

The new stamp line gave Inkadinkado its busiest quarter in the company's history. AutoTran pad printing equipment matched the pace and helped make it possible.

back to about us