Logo Depth in mm That Will Wash and Peel | RUUIPON
Lock logo depth in millimetres before CAD freeze. Too shallow washes after temper; too deep tears serifs on demold. 0.3–0.6 mm is a start, not a slogan.
Kyler Yang · Founder8 min read
A custom logo in an RTV cavity needs a depth in millimetres, not the word “crisp.” Too shallow and chocolate, soap, or pectin washes the mark after the first good dump. Too deep, or cut as a closed-V serif, and the dump tears in the letters while the rest of the piece peels. On our Bao’an floor we start most 15–30 g food bars around 0.3–0.6 mm recessed, with a min-stroke conversation near 0.3 mm, then we change that number for soap, resin stamps, and thin-bar wash risk. The number lives on the 2D before CAD lock. Prototype is 3–7 business days after that lock. Production is MOQ 20 pieces per design.
This article is for a logo that is *molded into the dump* — chocolate bars, soap stamps, gummy brands, wax melts. Pad-print on a carton, and logos engraved in LSR steel for a molded *part*, are different RFQs. Parts go to wydsilicone.com.
Does not apply when the mark is ink, when you only need a carton PNG, or when the “logo” is a 0.1 mm hairline you already know cannot fill. Those jobs should not freeze an RTV master.
Three ways a millimetre fails
Wash-out. The dump fills the well, then the mark disappears after temper, a hot soap unmold, or a wet scrape. Confirm: depth on the 2D is under about 0.25–0.3 mm on a thin bar, or the stroke is narrower than it is deep. Fix: thicken the stroke, add a little depth, recast against an unsanded master. Do not sand the pattern “to clean it up.”
Lock and tear. The piece leaves the field and the serifs stay in the cavity, or the RTV lip around a closed counter tears by pull 5. Confirm: raking light on the cavity — leftover dump in the well, dry walls, same letters every time. Fix: draft the root, open the counter, or drop depth. Harder Shore is the wrong first move.
Dishwasher / film. First week was fine; after a commercial wash the mark smears. Confirm: the tray is not bone-dry, or detergent film is in the micro-texture. Fix: hand-wash spec on the next PO, dry cavity-up. Depth was not the root cause — say so rather than recasting blindly.
Raised in the dump (sunk in the cavity) reads well and takes abrasion; it also tears a 10A–20A lip if the letter undercuts. Recessed in the dump (raised on the master) hides wash from knives and is the usual food-bar start. Pick one on the 2D. Mixing “molded-in look, we will print if it is hard” is how you pay for both.
The photo that would prove a depth call is a sectioned bar next to a caliper on the well, plus the cavity under raking light after pull 5. A beauty shot of pull 1 is not that photo.
Typical shop values
Caption: typical shop values, not a named lot.
| Item | Typical shop value |
|---|---|
| Min feature conversation | about 0.3 mm stroke |
| Common recessed food brand | about 0.4 mm on a 12–30 g bar |
| Start band we talk through | 0.3–0.6 mm, then dump family can move it |
| Thin-bar wash risk | about 0.25 mm on a thin chocolate can wash after temper |
| Cavity Shore | 10A–20A gloves; 20A–40A food trays as the pocket needs |
| Mix / shrink | platinum 1:1 or 10:1; about 0.1–0.3% on the master |
| Prototype / MOQ | 3–7 business days after CAD lock; 20 pieces per design |
| Simple 3D | USD $50 when that CAD scope applies — PNG is not millimetres |
Common mix-up: a sharper PNG is a better mold
Bitmaps get traced into trenches. Outlined vectors only, with depth in mm and raised-or-recessed named. Legal marks (®, ™) need width to fill. If the art cannot survive a 0.3 mm conversation, it is print, not mold. ISO 3302-1 M2 on the tray drawing does not make a 0.15 mm serif fill.
Worked example (anonymized)
A 24-cavity logo bar, about 12 g, platinum 25A tray. Art came in as a PNG with “deep crisp logo.” We billed USD $50 3D because there was no STEP and no millimetre. First cavity used 0.8 mm on a thin serif; chocolate tore in the well after a documented temper and a dry tray. Recast at 0.4 mm with draft at the root. Same rubber. Soap using the same wordmark later needed a deeper deboss — we split the quotes rather than one depth for two dumps.
We would not recommend
We would not recommend greasing a food-contact well so a too-deep letter “releases.” You will fight streaks and the document pack.
We would not recommend raising Shore A to save a V-cut serif. Draft or flatten KEEP/FLATTEN on the 2D.
We would not recommend freezing 20 production trays from unscaled art. If CAD scope applies, the $50 model is how the millimetre gets locked.
| Dump family | Depth conversation we actually have | What usually fails first |
|---|---|---|
| Chocolate / compound bar | 0.3–0.6 mm recessed, off the parting land | Wash on thin bars; tear in serifs if deeper and undrafted |
| Pectin / gelatin gummy | Shallower than soap; grams are the CTQ | Outer-row weight if the tray sags; logo is secondary |
| CP / HP soap stamp | Often deeper; alkalinity plus lock on unmold day | Islands gone by pull 5 if the counter closes |
| Resin / UV stamp | Stroke and draft over “sharp”; 10A–20A lip | Tear at the root, not wash |
What to ask when you are buying
- Is depth on the 2D in millimetres, and is the mark raised or recessed in the dump?
- What is the min stroke, and will pull 5 still have islands?
- Is the wordmark off the parting land?
- Do chocolate and soap share this art, or are they two depths?
- Will you archive the unsanded master for recast?
Related: custom logo molds, files for a quote, tearing at a thin logo wall, contact.
RFQ copy-pack — logo millimetres
Paste into [email protected]:
Outlined vectors (not a screenshot) Depth in mm; raised or recessed in the dump Min stroke mm Dump + peak temperature Off parting land: yes Pull-5 islands required: yes 3D at $50 if CAD scope applies Prototype 3–7 business days after CAD lock, MOQ 20 per design Food-contact path: 177.2600 / LFGB / craft-only
Matched next step: send vectors and a millimetre. We mark whether it will peel and whether it will wash — not a “crisp logo” promise. Phone +86 135 3006 2969. Bao’an / Shajing, since 2018.
How we would measure depth (method, not a lot result)
We do not publish a named-lot depth here. On a witness dump we would: (1) section one bar through the wordmark, (2) read well depth with a caliper or microscope scale on the *cavity*, not on the PNG, (3) dump the real chocolate/soap/resin, (4) inspect pull 1 and pull 5 under raking light. Fill this grid on your sign-off sheet — leave cells empty until you run it.
| Check | Pull 1 | Pull 5 | Pass / fail sentence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Well depth vs 2D mm | |||
| Stroke fill (no starve) | |||
| Islands still in dump | |||
| Tear at serif / counter | |||
| Wash after temper or unmold |
If pull 1 is pretty and pull 5 is bald, depth or draft failed. Recast the skin; do not “touch up” the master with sandpaper.
FAQ
Is 0.4 mm a spec I can copy onto every SKU? It is a common food-bar start. Soap, thin chocolate, and resin stamps move it. Write the millimetre on *this* 2D.
Can I send a PNG if I also write “0.5 mm” in the email? The PNG still has to be traced. Outlined vectors plus the millimetre. If we must model from that pack, USD $50 when that CAD scope applies.
Will a deeper logo look more premium? Until it locks. Premium on a bar is a mark that survives temper and peel, not a trench.
Does FDA 21 CFR 177.2600 set logo depth? No. That path is extraction on the finished rubber article. Depth is geometry.
If letters tear, do you recast? If the same serifs tear on a dry tray with a documented dump, we look at depth, draft, and KEEP/FLATTEN, then recast against the unsanded master. Production stays MOQ 20 per design.
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Free quote for OEM/ODM projects. MOQ 20 · Prototype 3-7 days · FDA/LFGB available.