Ink Stamper brands abound these days. Some of the major brands of ink stampers are Trodat, Ideal, Xstamper, Ultimark, Schwaab and Shiny. Each of these rubber stamper brands have their own unique ink formulation that makes the product ink, stamp and print for thousands of quality impressions. One of the most reported problems in custom rubber stamping manufacturing circles is when the provider receives a call saying that their Trodat or Ideal printing impression is not imprinting clearly any more. The most common comment is that the printing impression is bold in some areas and in some areas no impression at all. A manufacturer who has been around for a while knows immediately what has happened. The ink stamper problem is that most self inking rubber stamps are outfitted with Photopolymer printing plates. End users of these self ink stampers however tend to think that ink is ink and they will pick up the nearest ink around and re-ink their stamp. Xstamper ink or Schwaab or Ultimark ink will cause the Photopolymer print die plate to swell over time in mechanical Trodat and Ideal stamps. Invariably the end user thinks that it is something wrong with the original quality of the product when actually that was never the case.
The sad moral of this story is that when an end user has contaminated their mechanical, self inking, flip up and down stamper with these wrong inks they have in essence destroyed the product. Technically the printing die plate could be replaced. The ink pad up inside the product could be replaced also. But the cost of a remanufactured printing plate, a new ink pad, the cost to ship the product back to the manufacturer and the cost to re send it again to the customer exceeds the cost of a new stamper. So dear ink stamper user, if you have a mechanical self inking plastic body stamp, just be sure you do not put the wrong ink in your stamp. If it is an Ideal, Trodat Printy or Shiny stamper, Ideal Ink works just fine. If you have Xstamper, use Xstamper ink. If you have Schwaab, use Schwaab ink only. If you have Ultimark, use Ultimark Ink only. Self Inking Rubber Stamps will last for years if taken care of and the user puts the right ink in them when needed. Failure means you will have problems and it will cost you dearly in having to replace your Trodat or Ideal ink stamper every time.