The largest area of growth for hot stamping in general is in the rotary hot stamping market. Rotary hot stamping units are being offered with new flexo and UV flexo printing presses or a unit can be retrofitted to an existing press. The rotary hot stamping process, in principle, is similar to foil stamping with a conventional platen or clam shell press.

The foil is applied to the substrate with heat and pressure. The key difference is that rotary stamping in done on a web with an engraved brass die verses the conventional sheet‑fed method using a flat die. The challenge with rotary hot stamping transfer machine applications in the past, for standard foil or holographic foil, has been the enormous amount of foil waste indicative of the process. The foil roll traveled at the same speed as the web of paper, resulting in thousands of feet of wasted foil. And for holographic foil applications, rotary foil stamping was even more unfeasible, because the cost of the holographic product was much higher than a standard gold or silver foil.

In addition to standard rotary hot stamping machine units that are making inroads into the holographic market, there are two machines in particular that are related to the rotary hot stamping family, though have taken somewhat different approaches, that look to have potential benefits for hologram applications as well. A German press manufacturer, Steuer Grafische Maschinen, has developed the Steuer Foil-Jet foil stamping press that combines the technology of the rotary hot stamping process with more conventional sheet-fed platen equipment.

The innovative rotary design includes a patented, self-optimizing foil program that actually surveys the foil running and controls the foil consumption. The foil program allows sheets to run at optimum speeds of 10,000 sheets per hour without consuming foil at the same rate. Unlike rotary hot stamping, where a web of paper is used, a printed sheet is fed into the press one at a time, much like a conventional platen press. In addition, actual engravings are used on the foil‑jet that are curved to fit the circumference of the cylinder inside the machine.

The ability to utilize engravings verses an entire engraved cylinder, prevalent with conventional rotary hot stamping, can save thousands of dollars. Brass engraved cylinders are usually priced between $5,000 to $10,000. The foil-jet machine, still relatively new to the market, has recently added registered holographic anti-counterfeiting positioning stamping machine capabilities. The unit is said to have the capability of foil stamping image holograms with 6 webs at speeds of 8,000 sheets per hour. Every hologram is detected individually with a special registration system that is accurate to .001 of an inch. This is extremely tight registration at very high speeds for hologram production.