Yes. When imprinting on thick and narrow substrates, such as glass slides, it is essential to use at least an improvised compound bearer stripe. Without it, you risk leaving marks on the cylinder and damaging your imprint.
A practical approach is to mount a larger base plate (similar in size to the provided 155 mm × 315 mm glass plate) with double-sided adhesive. Rows of your substrates can then be fixed onto the adhesive, forming a functional bearer stripe. This arrangement distributes load evenly, prevents jumps in thickness, and increases imprint stability.
In the illustrations (below), the green area represents the adhesive, black the supporting material, and red the imprint sample. Overlaps between substrates further stabilize the process, reducing the risk of sudden height transitions that could cause cylinder damage.
Benefits of proper bearer stripes:
- Enable accurate adjustment of cylinder alignment to the plate thickness.
- Ensure continuous contact between the driven plate and the cylinder at all times, preventing crashes.
- Stabilise the imprinting process by avoiding abrupt changes in load, improving imprint quality and tool lifetime.
