Labeling without labels
Everyone involved in label printing will be familiar with the 'no-label' concept where a graphic is printed onto a transparent label stock, which is particularly effective on articulate glass and plastic bottles as the graphic seems to float on the canteen'southward surface. Actega has now gone a step further with its new Signite solution by doing away with the label stock, which creates a unique graphic effect and significantly cuts down on the amount of plastic used.
In this story, I'm going to cover the press of Signite labels. I'll follow this up next week with a second story on applying those labels to their containers and the implications for the recycling of those containers.
The basic principle behind printing a Signite label is fairly unproblematic, starting with a carrier picture show, which has a release coating on the opposite to foreclose blocking when the substrate is wound up afterwards printing. The first phase is to impress the graphic onto this carrier picture. That involves offset laying down a clear coating, which Actega refers to as the L3 layer. So the CMYK ink layer is reverse printed on superlative of this clear blanket. Finally, an adhesive layer is added on tiptop. This sandwich – clear blanket plus ink and adhesive – is then peeled off the carrier film and practical to the container, which Actega says results in a label that'due south upwards to 3 times thinner than a standard pressure-sensitive label.
This procedure was originally designed to work with narrow web flexo press though the press will need to be reconfigured. Initially, Actega outsourced the printing to a local converter with a Nilpeter flexo press about its R&D base in Rhode Island, USA, before ownership its own Mark Andy hybrid press.
Tony Carignano, technical managing director of marketing at Actega North America, says, "We actually speedily constitute out a couple of things, that each press has its own personality and when you are directly printing, as opposed to indirectly press with digital heads where you are shooting droplets versus using flexographic plates that directly touch the surface, so nosotros constitute that using a direct printing 100% flexo process is actually hard to do with printing Signite considering you lot are printing only the image itself onto a container. Y'all are literally just printing about 24-25 microns of fabric onto a carrier picture show and then transferring over to a container with a piece of application hardware. So nosotros institute that the more touchpoints that y'all have with the fluids, with whatsoever type of surface or any blazon of piece of equipment, is opening up issues with picking or delamination or other types of issues that yous don't desire to accept when you are laying downwards such a thin film."
He adds, "We currently utilize a Mark Andy hybrid digital press to impress Signite. The printing uses both UV curing on the flexo stations at the commencement of the press where our L3 liquid laminate layer is applied. The press uses intra-color UV-LED pinning on the piezo digital inkjet portion of the press. The last Flexo print station on the printing uses UV curing."
Carignano says that Signite tin can exist printed on whatever narrow web flexo press with UV curing on all stations, but notes, "Compared with conventional UV narrow spider web flexo printing, Actega has learned that impress registration on a hybrid digital press is doable with much less difficulty. Mark Andy'southward HD printing creates significantly less print waste and perfectly suits ultra-short Signite print runs. In addition, at that place is much less physical UV flexo station-to-station contact with the Signite L3 layer. Thus, the HD press printing procedure creates much fewer opportunities for producing image 'picking' and de-lamination from the Signite carrier moving-picture show."
That said, the process can be run on a flexo press. He adds further, "Although the pre-printing artwork aspects of press Signite are not challenging to larn, pregnant printing set-up learnings would demand to be transferred face-to-face before Signite could be successfully printed using a conventional 100% UV flexo printing." Apart from training the operator, the narrow web flexo press would have to be modified and converters would have to consider the implications this might have on warranties and service plans for that press unless Actega can come to an arrangement with the press manufacturers. Carignano says, "Nosotros know information technology's doable because nosotros had to practise it ourselves." Printing Signite does not affect the running speed of either a flexo or digital hybrid press with Actega currently achieving speeds of 150 to 200fpm or 45 to 60mpm.
Carignano explains, "Based on Actega's experience on printing, we guess that to retrofit an existing inline narrow web UV press for printing Signite will cost US$ 8,000 (approximately Rs 6 lakh). This assumes that the UV flexo press has already been geared with the appropriate servo-driven tension controls and auto-registration capabilities to run thin, unsupported carrier films." That would rule out older mechanically-driven presses only this shouldn't exist a trouble for most label converters since nigh modern narrow web presses do use servos throughout, including virtually entry-level models, specifically so that they can handle thin films.
He adds, "In improver, the rollers used for the pressure-sensitive labels have to be inverse out to teflon rollers so that you don't become tacking or agglomeration of the force per unit area-sensitive adhesive. Our process is similar press in reverse because instead of the overprint varnish being printed last, we're press that first and then the clear station would have to go on the front end cease of the press, followed by the process colors and nosotros typically apply our white as i of the last stations before applying the force per unit area-sensitive adhesive. The pressure-sensitive adhesive, before we had to put a liner flick down and make a sandwich and then that you wouldn't go tacking only we have found a mode effectually that by putting the front on the backside of the carrier flick then that y'all don't get blocking of the roll."
UV-curable ink
Initially, the process was designed for employ on flexo presses, and and then the articulate coating and the ink was a mixture of photopolymeric monomers and oligomers along with photo-initiators and additives. Using the hybrid arroyo, the UV digital inkjet inks are monomer rich so that they have to be optimized for a given printing and it follows that the inks have been developed for employ with the Marking Andy hybrid that Actega has been using.
Carignano says that it should be relatively easy to optimize the process for other printheads, noting, "It's photopolymer chemical science so information technology'southward basically compatibilising a digital inkjet low viscosity fluid that'south UV curable with an L3 layer, the clear layer that you lay down first, which is also UV curable so information technology'southward really not that difficult to do. There is some tweaking that would have to have place to the L3 layer, the articulate coating that goes downwardly first, but information technology really is not picoliter-sized dependent, it's more chemistry dependent in making sure that you lot are getting good hedging of the clear coating with the process colors that are applied over the pinnacle of them."
Actega is as well working on a version for apply with piezo inkjet label presses though there'south no date yet for when this volition exist commercially bachelor.
For now, the process uses CMYK only Carignano says that the plan is to innovate more colors, noting, "We currently on the Mark Andy tin do up to two spot Pantone colors but nosotros realize that extended gamut and the ability to impress much more than CMYK is extremely important in the market." Actega has already produced some stunning samples using metallic furnishings and is working with Eckhardt's golden pigments for this.
Determination
So far I've only written about some of the considerations in developing the printing side of the Signite labels. In the second half of this story, I'll comprehend the process for applying Signite to the containers and the implications of this approach, especially in terms of recycling and the sustainability of this applied science.
In the meantime, information technology'south worth noting that Signite is capable of producing some extremely striking designs whilst as well significantly reducing the amount of plastic label stock used. In terms of toll compared confronting pressure level-sensitive labels, Carignano says, "In lower book higher epitome complexity applications, Signite is an outstanding replacement for conventional pressure-sensitive labeling and is cost-competitive. We accept still to develop the application hardware that would allow u.s.a. to be price-competitive for high book fast-moving CPG commoditized product applications."
This article was first published in Print and Manufacturing Journal
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Source: https://packagingsouthasia.com/type-of-packaging/flexible-packaging/labeling-without-labels/
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