Second of the 8 Malaysian inventions - THE RUBBER STAMP CLONE

2. RUBBER STAMP CLONE 

Before this invention, you would have to wait for days for a custom rubber stamp to be made. The Polyclone can do it in 5 minutes.

The Inventor : Robest Yong.

What it is: The Polyclone rubber stamp machine has changed the rub­ber stamp industry of the world. With this invention, it takes only five minutes to make rubber stamps when previously one had to or­der days or weeks in advanced. The invention eliminates completely the need for lettering bits, composing messy plaster moulds, the use of high temperatures, and the need for photographic equipment.

How did it happen? His first claim to fame was the instant rubber stamp machine, which has since revolutionized the way rubber stamps are made. The idea first came to him when he wanted to start his own company. “Everybody needs to get a rubber stamp,” he says. “But I noticed it took so long to make them - up to a week. I felt this process could be improved.”

So, he set about to do something about it. While in Japan he had noticed a printing technology using a photo-polymer that he believed could be used for his instant rubber stamp device.

In creating the prototype he realised that photo polymers were not suitable for making rubber stamps, so he went to Japan to find out if it was possible to adjust the formula to fit his needs. He found his answer there. The material he used for the stamp is not natural rubber but Polyclone, a polymer that looks like transparent rubber.

The next year, he won a gold medal for that product in the International lnvention Competition in Geneva and he returned a local hero, lauded by strong newspaper coverage.

‘People used to laugh at my product because they couldn’t believe I was the first to create something like this,” he says. “They thought surely someone overseas would have already come up with it.”

Bonus: Robest reached out to us and shared that he has a new product, the VisionTouch Braille Phone, a screen protector with an app to help the visually impaired navigate the touch screen phone. Read how he came up with the idea here!