ITW Trans Tech now offers an accessory for the Orion 130 pad printer that allows for decorating products with large images up to 10 x 3.5 in. (254 x 89 mm) wide. The accessory, called the Orbiter, uses a rotary silicone-rubber pad roll to transfer an image to a flat or cylindrical part from a steel foil cliche plate. ITW says the Orbiter facilitates the deposition of a thicker layer of ink than would normally be applied with conventional pad-transfer methods, resulting in a more opaque and consistently even image with a single hit. The Orbiter works in conjunction with ITW’s standard cupslide accessory fitted with a 5.1-in. (130-mm) RedStar MultiCup ink cup. The Orbiter picks up the image from a magnetically mounted 150 x 810-mm foil plate, and then moves forward to the printing position. The pad roll (3.9in./100 mm in diameter by 3.9 in./100 mm wide) is pneumatically actuated to rotate to its home position prior to transferring the image to the part. ITW says additional benefits of this technique are the smooth, rotary laydown, which eliminates issues associated with pad-tip placement, allowing for a usable image area of up to 3.5 in. (89 mm) wide on a 4-in. (102-mm) pad roll. The 100-mm-diameter Orbiter accessory enables printing on flat parts or cylindrical parts with diameters narrower than 3.5 in. ITW recommends a manual part shuttle for loading and unloading parts into the printing area. Cylindrical parts also will require a suitable rotating mandrel fixture to allow the part to roll while accepting the image from the pad roll. ITW Trans Tech, 475 N. Gary Ave., Carol Stream, IL 60188-4900, 630-752-4000, fax: 630-752-4460, Web: www.itwtranstech.com.