Foiling redefined
Hot-foil stamping effects and high-sheen metallic accents can be achieved via cold-foil transfer and overprinting inline.
Edited by Associate Editor Jorina Fontelera -- Converting Magazine, 8/1/2006 12:00:00 AM
Consumer goods companies rely on their brands to express certain attributes about their business and facilitate recognition in a competitive marketplace. Since packaging is the first line of defense against counterfeiters, CGCs rely on converters to create secure products that are also distinctive on the store shelf.
One way to add value and protection to a package is through hot-stamping or cold-foiling methods. Converters can add holograms, diffraction foils, hot-stamp foils, micro-embossing structures and embossing. MAN Roland's (www.manroland.com) new InLineFoiler Prindor is one machine that uses the cold-foil laminating method to enhance a product's look.
"It is gaining acceptance with printers in packaging and label," says Yves Rogivue, MAN Roland North America's chief executive officer.
As of yet, it hasn't been installed in any North American converter's facility. However, Converting was able to learn how the machine works and get a feel for one of its pressroom applications through sister publication Graphic Arts Monthly.
Good-bye hot-foil stamping
GAM's senior editor Mark Vruno reports about this ground-breaking, inline press technology. For GAM's eight-page, roll-fold July cover, Druck und Papierveredelung (DPV), a commercial printer in Langweid, Germany, used an 8-color, 41-in. MAN Roland 708 PLV with inline foiler and coating unit. The cold-foil method employed allows for high-sheen metallic accents via foil transfer and overprinting inline.
The InLineFoiler Prindor, which applies metallic effects at press speeds up to 13,000 impressions per hour on late-model Roland 700s, is transforming foiling from a decorative novelty (almost an after-thought added to printed pieces) into a new form of expression that designers can incorporate in their creative development process.
InLineFoiler Prindor eliminates the need for a subsequent, standalone hot-foil stamp production step—and the associated time and cost. No special embossing dies or hot foiling blocks are required. This cold-foil transfer provides quality "almost as good as hot-foil stamping," according to MAN Roland, yielding intensely reflective gloss that, like hot foil, has more impact than printing with metallic inks, which tend to be absorbed into paper. Inline foil production also skirts register problems.
The foiling mechanism mounts over any two consecutive printing units of the Roland 700; the third unit balances the weight of the unwind/rewind unit. Changeover for non-foil jobs takes only a couple of minutes: Simply cut the foil and wash up the first printing-unit ink train (the dampener is already turned on). Hence, the foil application inline is ideal for short runs where low-cost form preparation is critical.
Mix and match foils
The three-step inline technology is not complicated. In the first unit, the areas of the substrate where foil film (supplied by Kurz, www.kurz.de/en) is to be applied are "printed" with a special adhesive ink by the conventional offset plate via the blanket. Next, the foil is transferred to these areas in the second unit over the blanket cylinder. A silicon layer, between the foil and the foil carrier, allows the foil to peel off when it makes contact with the adhesive ink. Then the remaining sections of the sheet are printed. The process is so refined that 3-pt. type can be foiled in sharp resolution—something extremely difficult to achieve, if not impossible, with dies and hot foiling.
In the case of GAM's two-up, 42,500-sheet-cover run, the foiling technique was treated as an additional color. Silver foil was applied and then overprinted with four-color process inks to create a more dramatic, highly glossed golden effect. Aqueous coating was added over the 100-lb. matte cover stock.
With the latest version of the InlineFoiler Prindor, customers no longer are limited to using full rolls of only one foil type over the entire sheet. The process now allows for multiple rolls, which means shades of silver, gold and diffraction patterned foils can be mixed and matched.
Along with commercial applications, it can be carried over to converting applications for the production of secure labels and packages by using various foils.
This article originally appeared in Graphic Arts Monthly (July 2006).
| More Info: | ||
| SUPPLIERS: | KURZ TRANSFER PRODUCTS, 800/333-2306, fax: 336/764-3225, www.kurz.de/en | MAN ROLAND, INC., 630/920-2000, fax: 630/920-9183, www.manroland.com |
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