Stonewear

Stonewear Process

Stonewear Process is our trade name for the top of the line in lithographed plates. The copy is printed on, baked at high temperatures, then coated with a clear, durable coating that will resist abrasion, sunlight, and chemicals. In specifying Stonewear Process nameplates, the customer is assured of excellent reproduction of fine detail, multiple colors, and reasonable cost.

The process of lithography has been around for a few hundred years, having been invented in 1796. It was first used as a cheap alternative for publishing theatrical pieces, a German author who is the inventor of this printing method. This old method uses wax, oil, or fat on a limestone plate. Somewhat similar to etching, this old method had unprotected parts of the limestone plate eaten by gum arabic and acid, making the design stand-out after this process.

Modern lithography however uses an aluminum plate that is flexible, which then has the prescribed image or text applied to it. The image or text that is applied to such a plate is made out of a polymer. Also called Offset Printing or Offset Lithography, this process involves the affixing of the lithographed printing plates onto rollers or printing press cylinders, which are then used to create multiple plates with the same print on them. This is one of the reasons why this particular manufacturing process is considered cost-effective.