Meet Steve Langer, Founder

 

Steve Langer began his printing career in 1977 when he started working for a small offset printshop at the age of 16.

 

His interest for the printing business grew as he continued to seek avenues in re-educating himself in many different printing techniques. Over the years he learned pre-prep & production for offset, web, flex hot-stamping, silkscreen & heat transfer.

 

In 1986 he became employed by Ala Carte, an ASI company that specialized in pad printing on wrapped candy. Langer was fascinated by the ability to print on 3-dimensional items. He quickly learned more about the pad printing process than the company owners. In a matter of months he was promoted to Department Manager.

 

During his time with Ala Carte, he was personally put in charge of taking on the challenge of printing on Gumballs, something that was never done before. He enlisted the help of Keith Hillestad from (United Silicone)  for Pad development that would enable Ala Carte to imprint 16 gumballs in a single hit. He also worked closely with Tom Kay, the owner of (Technicore) Industries for the automation feeding system.

 

With his natural ability to be a problem-solver, it did not take long for him to come up with the solution of using pharmaceutical ink to tackle this decorating problem, making Ala Carte the first company in the world to print on gumballs.

 

After working closely within the pad printing industry for five years, he decided to open his first contract pad printing business, Pad Printing Decorators, in 1991. He quickly developed a national reputation in the ASI industry as a reliable, dependable and experienced pad printer.

 

In 1998 he relocated to South Carolina, where he started Pad Printing Specialties. After only one year in operation, Pad Printing Specialties had acquired an end-user list that read like a Who's Who for Fortune 500 companies.

 

His ability and experience in R&D led him to a project for a company in Seattle to print on a new stress-ball that no ink would stick to. It took around six months of trial and error, but eventually Langer developed a process & special ink blend he developed himself that worked for this application.

 

The innovation caused ripples throughout the Pad Printing industry, with an assortment of companies, from equipment suppliers to ink suppliers asking for test samples with interest into buying the rights of the process and ink he developed.

 

In 2006 Langer relocated back to Chicago, where he is the present owner of Langer Printing.

 

He is a master pad printer with over 30 years in the printing industry. He has been featured in many news publications and industry magazines for his accomplishments.

 

Langer says:

 

"The challenges that excite and energize me the most are the ones I get when a customer calls me and says, I have sent this item to ten other printers, and they all say it's impossible".

 

Steve Langer's experience in multiple forms of printing processes makes it easier for him to tackle an issue most other contract pad printers just can't resolve. He has developed a niche in the pad printing industry by offering techniques and services that other contract pad printers shy away from, such as no minimums, next-day turnaround times (depending on the quantity), and an extremely impressive reputation for printing on very expensive items, such as high-end electronics, with a 100% guarantee for the customer's merchandise.

 

Sound too good to be true?

Give me a call and let me prove to you that NOTHING is impossible.