What is Branding and How does it Work?

Branding is a process that can be used on many apparatuses such as wood, leather, rubber, plastic, cork, soap, wax, and even some types of livestock for several distinct purposes.

It is considered the most economical way to permanently mark anything that is capable of burning.

It can be done either by an electrically heated tool or a fire heated tool, usually an iron or metal conductor of heat. Branded promotional products have been around for years.

Branding is done for a variety of purposes; it can be done to mark a piece of wood with a signature of symbol, it can be used to seal a brand logo on a bar of soap of a piece of plastic, it can be done to make a piece of leather have distinguished marks for clothing or branded items.

It can even be used to make a marking on livestock to distinguish them from other livestock. 

This is normally done to prevent or guard against theft of livestock. Branding is generally done to leave a logo or a particular mark on one of these surfaces in order to distinguish them from other common products.

Branding is a relatively simple procedure of imprinting a symbol on a surface. It is done when an iron or other heat conducting metal is combined with a heat source until that iron or other heat conducting metal is red hot.

This simply means that the metal has conducted its highest possible level of heat before it is either destroyed, or simply stops conduction. Once the iron or other heat conducting metal has reached this level or maximum heat, the metal is applied to the material that the brander wished to brand.

The heat seals off open areas of the material and leaves the mark perfectly implanted on the material in question. On some materials, the level of heat must be closely monitored to avoid over burning or the destruction of the material.

The hot metal must be left on the surface for a closely determined amount of time to make sure these effects do not occur.

The heat added to the cool or moderately tempered surface allows the mark to last longer than a life time. For this reason, branding is revered as the longest lasting and most effective way to ensure that a particular symbol lasts on an area for the longest possible time.

Some Promotional Products that use this process are:

• Wooden USB Drives
• Branded Pencils
• Rubber Wristbands

Can you see a theme here?

Leather and wooden promotional products can be branded using a hot iron method and are the main materials that this process is used on.  Other items such as branded coasters as seen in the image above can also be branded with your logo.