There is a huge market for silicon hot foiling stamping dies , it's a specific product aimed at specific applications. If the item is not dead smooth and not dead flat , then its the best way of foiling it. It's not really meant to replace magnesium brass and steel dies which cannot foil on rough surfaces or slightly curved ones. The prices you can get doing these are huge. They do as good a job as metal dies if used on the same surface , but wont last as long.
Reasons for not being able to get as good an impression would be more on the foilers side than this material , most likely too much temperature , too much dwell time or too much dwell pressure or perhaps the die was not engraved with the correct shoulder and is "squirming" You have to use fairly broad shoulders when making these , especially if the die has thin lines.
You also get various grades of this material with varying shore hardnesses , for higher pressure applications , you use the harder silicon
We buy ours from foiling suppliers who are a lot cheaper than laserbits. another application is tipping, basically the silicon sheet ats as a conformable base for items that have raised portions requiring a foil finish , for example a gauge wih a raised edge or border , the whole item is pushed onto a silicon die sheet (with foil between the sheet and item) and only where the raised portion touches is the foil applied - like the gauges or instrument bezels you see in autos with silver tipped raised rings etc around them. |
