Products

Punching tools of all shapes and size, for all types of industrial marking applications.

What is a punching tool? Generally shaped like a parallelepiped (though it can also be shaped like a small cylinder or be fashioned into a complex shape), a punch is a tool made of metal, with letters, logos, number codes or other markings engraved on one end, that is used to mark out or identify a surface.

The different types of punch tools offered by IMPA feature specific construction and/or utilisation characteristics, which can be combined to obtain a diversified range of tools. A detailed analysis of such characteristics and a summary table are given below.

Impa Punching tools

Material

Steel pursuant to Italian standards UNI C45 / UNI C40: standard punches mostly used for universal automated marking and coding applications in the food, pharmaceutical and parapharmaceutical product packaging sector (cartoning, blistering, tube filling, envelope stuffing, welding machines, and the like).

Steel pursuant to Italian standard UNI 90MnVCR8ku: special punches used primarily for industrial marking applications in hot and cold metal stamping processes.

Brass: standard punches mostly used for automated marking and coding applications in the food, pharmaceutical and parapharmaceutical product packaging sector, especially in labelling machines and, in general, in thermal-transfer printing processes.

Shapes

PARALLELEPIPED: standard punches mostly used for universal automated marking and coding applications in the food, pharmaceutical and parapharmaceutical product packaging sector (cartoning, envelope making, welding machines, etc.).

SPECIAL SHAPES:

CONE SHAPED: standard punches mostly used for automated marking and coding applications in the food, pharmaceutical and parapharmaceutical product packaging sector (cartoning, blistering, filling, tube filling, envelope stuffing, welding machines, and the like), where the printing unit is rotary and the punch holder is not honeycomb type;
With an “L” shaped FOOT: standard punches mostly used for universal automated marking and coding applications in the food, pharmaceutical and parapharmaceutical product packaging sector (and especially in BLISTERING machines);
With a DOUBLE “T” shaped FOOT, with SLOTS and COMPLEX PROFILES: special punches primarily used for automated marking and coding applications in the food, pharmaceutical/ parapharmaceutical products and tobacco packaging sector (cartoning, blistering, filling, tube filling, envelope stuffing, welding machines, and the like), where special construction needs call for specific shapes.

CYLINDER SHAPED: special punches primarily used for automated and manual marking and coding applications in the packaging and the stamping sectors.

Utilisation Modes

AUTOMATED: standard punches mostly used for universal marking and coding applications in the food, pharmaceutical and parapharmaceutical product packaging sector (cartoning, blistering, filling, tube filling, envelope stuffing, welding machines, and the like) and in the stamping sector (by means of presses);

MANUAL: manually operated punches struck with a hammer, used in various fields (fitting, stamping, carpentry, joinery, jewellery, artwork and hobby crafts).

Direction of Engraving

RIGHT: standard punches used for marking and coding applications in any sector when the impression on a product has to appear on the same side as it was stamped on. In this case the markings (whether a number, a letter or a symbol) on the punch have to be engraved as a reverse (mirror) image (see an office stamp for instance);

LEFT: standard and special punches used for marking and coding applications primarily in the field of dies, whenever you want to create a die for an object showing positive images of words/codes, in the food, pharmaceutical and parapharmaceutical product packaging sector (BLISTERING machines), where the marking on the product punched has to be read from the opposite side of the high-relief impression. In this case the punch has the engraved markings (whether a number, a letter or a symbol) in NON reverse (non mirrored) form.

Height of Engraving

HIGH-RELIEF: standard punches for any application;

LOW-RELIEF: special punches used primarily for marking and coding applications in the food, pharmaceutical and parapharmaceutical product packaging sector in TUBE FILLING MACHINES.

Type of Engraving

CUTTING EDGE: standard punches for any application;

FLAT EDGE: special punches used primarily as automated marking and coding tools for the food, pharmaceutical and parapharmaceutical product packaging sector, especially in ENVELOPE STUFFING MACHINES and BAGGING MACHINES, to prevent undesired perforations in the items to be marked, and also used in other sectors to obtain words in bold characters.

Legends Engraved

ALPHANUMERICAL: standard punches for any application, can be fashioned to reproduce any type of alphabet and numerical system.

SINGLE: single character punches suitable for use in combination. Each punch carries a single number, letter or symbol that can be engraved side by side with other elements to compose the desired legend;
MULTIPLE: blocks containing several proportionally spaced characters (normally, a two-character punch is twice as wide as a single punch, and so on). They are used primarily to compose fixed legends, e.g., LOTTO, LOT, LOTE, SCADENZA, SCADE, SCAD, EXP, EXPIRY, BEST BEFORE, VERWENBAR BIS, BATCH, etc.), which are then combined with variable indications (e.g., a number, a date) produced with single punches.

TRADEMARK, LOGO, DRAWING, SYMBOL: special punches for any application, mostly used in the stamping, fitting, carpentry, joinery, jewellery, artwork, hobby crafts sectors, as well as in the packaging sector, for example, to impress a unified symbol indicating the expiry date (in the shape of an hourglass).