Trends in Narrow Web Coating
In order to compete in the trend towards market niche applications, a printer must have commitment and endurance towards product and market development; be prepared to add or develop new skills and knowledge and, last but not least, have the right customer base in order to search for application solutions where coating plays a key role.
Coating related added-value applications
How can adhesive coating play a key part in added-value label, tape and ticket solutions?
There are many standard and special self adhesive materials on the market from leading suppliers. The objective is not to set up in competition with them but to complement where intelligent market niche applications come in. It is also important to make clear that siliconising release liner is a totally different subject and there is no intention to cover or get involved in this subject.
So let’s look at a few typical coating applications:
Alternative to print onto adhesive side
If multi-colour print onto the adhesive side is required (e.g. for a shampoo), so the print can be seen through the bottle’s content, then printing onto adhesive is not ideal if fine halftone and top print quality is required.
This is a typical application where printing front and back of a material is done first and then an adhesive coating is applied to create the self adhesive material prior to die-cutting and finishing.
Neutralising adhesive side
To create a multi layer label, partial neutralisation of the adhesive on the second self adhesive material is necessary to make sure its does not stick at a defined area. This can be done by using a de/re-lam option, “printing” a type of varnish onto the adhesive to achieve a partial adhesive “kill”.
For large volume multi layer labels, however, it may be more cost-effective to print the top layer on a mono-material and then use a partial adhesive coating to laminate onto a self adhesive label. This way, cost-saving will be made because there is no second release liner waste.
Cold foiling and UV lamination
These are the two most common adhesive applications used in daily label production. Not long ago, this would have been considered a “special” but is now a standard application.
No label look
A very new application with interesting coating solutions for this new demand. It is especially suitable for beverage labels.
Industrial labels
Practicality is the key to the viable production of many special industrial labels. Examples include punching holes through the top material and release liner; lamination of several layers of different material at different widths and different stages; partial and complete sealing etc. These are typical applications where in-line coating makes technical and commercial sense.
RFID labels and tickets
RFID labels and tickets are converted most cost-effectively off-line so that printing presses can print both reels at high speed first with the RFID inlay being integrated on a dedicated converting machine.
For RFID ticket integration, full and partial adhesive coating is required.
Security labels and tapes
Brand protection and counterfeiting are high on the agenda of premier brand product owners from all type of industries. Besides the whole range of security features, adhesive coating can give an additional dimension, e.g. tamper evident labels and tapes. Printing front and back first and then applying the adhesive coating enables in-line creation of the final self adhesive tamper evident label or tape.
Technical products
There are many products outside the traditional narrow web label market, e.g. in the medical, electric, electronic, automotive fields, who have moved from sheet to reel production due to automation, rationalisation and cost-efficiency. With strong know-how in material and adhesives, in-house coating is the preferred production method for such technical applications.
Heat re-sealable coating
This is a typical packaging printing application which has entered the narrow web field because of shorter production runs.
Summary
There are many more applications using adhesive coating to add value to a product. Environmental issues with regards to recycleability (e.g. removable adhesive from containers and glass) offer potential for development.
Once a company is involved in adhesive coating, many more doors will be opened to other added value label, ticket and tape applications.
The LAMBDA coating machine can offer the following adhesive coating options:
Flexo – Gravure – Screen – Conventional & UV Hot Melt and Transfer Adhesive.
The LAMBDA Coating machine concept
The Lambda concept caters not just for adhesive coating applications but also the whole range of added value, intelligent narrow web applications. It is truly one machine for many applications, guaranteeing low machine investment risk together with high productivity and profitability, thereby providing a faster return on investment.
The End - 763 Words
Added: 11-06-2008
