Affixing the time and date on products and documents is an important procedure in factories and offices as consistent time and date marking facilitates traceability. Writing dates manually on a large bunch of documents is labor intensive. Such a task is also monotonous, and therefore prone to human errors. Time and date stamp is a mechanical device used to address these problems. It also allows business establishments to track time more effectively.
Traditional time and date stamps are made up of six or eight flat rubber bands loaded on a support pulley system that is attached to a wooden knob for holding the stamp. An inkpad is used to wet the required date embossing, which is then positioned on the document and pressed slightly to get the imprint. Self-inking versions of time and date stamps with plastic caps are also available in the market.
Operators using manual date stamps have to rotate the bands and pre-check the positioned date on a waste paper. This is necessary because embossed numbers do not resemble normal numbers. Electronic time and date stamps overcome such drawbacks.
Recent developments include ribbon based electronic time and date stamps that print automatically when paper is inserted. They are equipped with solid-state electronic circuitry that assures consistent impressions along with adjustable stamping force for multi-copy forms. Ribbons can be changes easily for fresh printing cycles. These devices can also be used for numbering of documents in addition to printing time and date.
Electronic time and date stamps are also highly useful in automated production environments where products need to be marked for traceability. They can be installed with in the production environment for automated marking, requiring no human intervention.