Boxcar Base Technology

If you’re a letterpress printer in the 21st century, chances are you want to work directly from your design files to polymer printing plates. But how to mount your plates to a type-high surface? Hundreds of letterpress shops, fine presses and universities worldwide have fallen in love with the Boxcar Base system. Paired with our plastic-backed polymer, our base will create the type-high surface of your dreams for your cylinder or platen letterpresses. In fact, our system holds your printing plates better than any other repositionable method on the market, guaranteed!

Our bases are precisely engineered from cast aluminum, then ground and gridded to perfection, to provide the ideal foundation for letterpress printing. Even the largest sizes are guaranteed to within 0.001" in thickness, parallel, and flatness. All of our bases are made in the USA from the highest quality American tooling plate. We manufacture all our bases with the same craftsmanship you put into your printing.

The Boxcar Base system consists of:

• A precision ground and gridded Boxcar Base, which is reusable and locks up in your press’s chase or bed
• Boxcar high-tech adhesive (double-sided)
  
• Plastic backed photopolymer plates, which are reusable

The adhesive adheres to our plastic-backed plates and turns these plates into high-tech  stickers with a super-strong hold. After you press the plastic-backed plates to your base, the plate moves only when you want it to: our adhesive & plates pulls up from the base easily when lifted vertically, but resist the horizontal shearing of the rollers and press cylinder.

We've anodized a grid of .25" black lines on top of our bases for registration ease; because plastic-backed plates are transparent, you'll be able to see the grid through your plates for convenient positioning on press. The base’s anodizing protects the metal surface from scratches and wear with a permanent coating that's harder than a sapphire.

As if that’s not enough, the Boxcar Base’s plastic-backed plates are also easy to cut – you can trim your plate with scissors or an exacto. If you keep your adhesive clean, you’ll be able to reuse it if reprinting with your plate. You’ll love these plate’s peak-a-boo transparency too, which—thank to the Boxcar Base’s grid—will make registration a snap.

If you have a need for a base with a different thickness or size, don't be shy: we can make custom bases at reasonable prices. Satisfaction is always guaranteed.

We’re committed to making sure you love the printing you’re creating with our Boxcar Base: if you encounter difficulties with our system, our expert printers will help troubleshoot your printing.