Improving Printing Quality with Clean Substrates
Achieving the best printing results? Start with clean substrates!
Aqueous and UV Coatings Tricks to Cleanup Process
Aqueous and UV / EB Coatings have distinct cleanup methods that can make the processes run better. This article will address specific tricks to cleanup before, during, and after press runs of aqueous, UV, and EB Coatings. Safety First and Second We will tackle the important steps in the cleanup of coatings for both Aqueous […]
Measuring Durability in Coatings with Abrasion Testing
How do we best test to predetermine the durability of printed/coated graphic arts products? Abrasion tests can determine the durability of printed and coated graphic arts. The durability of a printed coating is typically defined by such terms as, scuff, wear, rub, smudge, abrasion, blotching, and/or pick-off resistance. Historically a problem, defacing abrasion damage is […]
Advantages of UV LED Curing in the Print Industry
The advantages of UV LED light curing over the traditional mercury lamp have been pushing its growth. Explosive Growth Recently LED lighting technology, because of its low energy consumption and long life, has been eating up the competition while being rolled out with an explosive future trend playing out. Research from Gartner, Inc. says that Smart LED […]
UV LED Light Curing is Booming
Once a lab curiosity, barely able to cure a UV ink, UV LEDs first appeared early in the 21st century as play things, and then later as commercially available curing devices. With very low power initially, power levels have increased to a point where curing applications emerged in the last few years. Progress to full […]
PFAS: Phasing Out Banned Chemical Compounds
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER WITH REG’S PHASING-OUT BANNED PFAS Momentum is seemingly building to speed the phase-out of PFAS. Some states have now taken action regarding its use in direct food contact packaging. Let’s review what we’re dealing with: Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) made their appearance in the 1940s, due to the attractiveness of properties […]
Trends Affecting Printing & Coating Markets
Trends that affect Printing and Coating Markets Covid-19 Accelerates Trends in Printing and Coating Various trends are in place that are now and will continue to affect printing and coating markets. Covid-19 has acted as an accelerant for these trends. When the initial reaction to Covid-19 locked-down world wide economies, businesses closed, people stayed home, […]
The Growth of In-Mold Labels: IML
In-Mold Labels: A Cost-effective, Sustainable Alternative Time flies, and as improbable as it may seem, in-mold labeling (IML) debuted in the late 1970s. Looking back historically, IML developed as a high volume, low cost, paper substrate driven market. The beginning applications consisted of long-run blow-molded branded bottles, and to a lesser degree, injection molded containers. […]
Testing the Cure of Electron Beam Coatings (EB) & Ultraviolet Coatings (UV)
The UV and EB Curing Process Prior to discussing the testing of the cure of UV/EB curable coatings let’s review what UV/EB curing is. Curing or polymerization is the process of reacting prepolymer monomers and oligomers together in a chemical reaction that forms polymer chains, or cross-linked three-dimensional networks. UV curing is a process that […]
Specialty UV Coatings Protection and Chemical Resistance
Our world is an ever-changing one as evidenced recently by the appearance of Covid-19, unusual weather, and ever-evolving new technologies and products. These changes are presenting both opportunities and challenges for UV coatings with their ability to resist attack by chemicals, and various consumer and industrial products. Currently, we are advised to wear masks, wash […]
