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

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

Inspecting Invisible Coatings

Clear Clear coatings, security codes, anti-counterfeiting measures and identification marks have become standards in everyday life. Label printers use a variety of designs and codes visible to the naked eye and viewable only with the help of a black light to help protect their customers. Stroboscopic inspection lights equipped with UV illumination kits for black light inspection can ensure that these security printing measures have been done correctly.

Clear coatings and UV invisible inks present a different inspection problem than typical printing. They remain invisible under standard strobe equipment because the standard quartz lens found on most industrial-quality lights actually block the UV light emitted by the strobe. Equipping a strobe light with specially designed UV lamp and UV lenses excites the phosphors in the inks and coatings as they pass under the light. A 360nm UV illumination system shows more detail, but the 250nm system typically provides enough detail for press operators to distinctly see the clear coat and inks with brighteners or phosphorescent in them. Depending on the spectrum of light that is needed to excite the phosphorescent chemicals used, various lenses can be used to get the maximum visual effect during inspection.

Setting up a black light/UV inspection station is similar to setting up a standard stroboscopic inspection station. It is recommended that a black light/UV system be installed at a point along the web where all security printing is completed. If variable information is to be added at a later station and a protective coating applied after that, a second system should be added at that point. Additional stations can be installed on slitters and rewinders if those locations best suit a label printer's inspection needs. Inspections at these points can verify that registration marks and special codes are still intact after post-printing operations.

UV stroboscopic inspection lights are the perfect complement to any printing house doing security printing items or working with coatings critical to the final product's appearance or functionality. As measures needed to combat fraud increase, black light/UV inspection can help label printers take the claws out of illegal copycats.