Sublimable pad-printing inks

Sublimable pad-printing ink and a method of marking an object with the ink, wherein the printing inks include a hardening transparent pad-printing ink base and at least one sublimable colored pigment. The hardening transparent offset printing inks base resists a sublimation temperature of the at least one sublimable colored pigment. The method includes pad-printing the object with a marking that includes a monochrome or polychrome marking composition having at least one monocolor pigmented component including fine particles of at least one sublimable monocolor colored pigment and heating at least one of the object and the pad-printed marking composition.

Thus, the hardening component resisting the sublimation temperature of the pigments, and the progressive hardening of which occurs prior to the sublimation of all of the colored pigments that are present, forms a screen preventing the pigment vapors from escaping into the surrounding atmosphere and channels the vapors toward the surface of the support-object to be marked. The use of a transparent base of a pad- printing ink as a hardening component has shown that the transfer by pad- printing of the sublimable colored pigments on the surface to be marked was performed under good conditions. However, a similar compound capable of fulfilling the double function of acting as an agent for the transfer of the pigments by pad- printing and as a screen for the sublimable pigments is quite acceptable.

According to a first alternative embodiment of the method according to theprinting inks, the transparent pad- printing ink base or similar compound has, without additional hardening agent, a hardening temperature between approximately 60° C. and approximately 100° C., preferably on the order of approximately 80° C.

It is noted that without leaving the scope of the invention, the marking method according to the invention also provides, for the pad- printing phase, the sheetfed offset inks of the monocolor pigmented components (associated with any agent of transfer by pad- printing), followed by the deposit by pad- printing of an outer layer of the hardening component