SOLUTIONS
WHAT MAKES SENSE FOR YOUR BUSINESS Michael King, President/CEO, Eagle Systems Inc.
In the sheetfed production world, there are many ways to add a touch of foil to your packaging and commercial print jobs. One of the most notable ways to apply foil is with hot foil stamping, which is most ideal when you have small, targeted areas of foil coverage. But when larger areas of foil coverage are desired, two additional options become a part of the conversation—laminated foil board and cold foil.
The Ins and Outs of Laminated Foil Board
Purchasing laminated foil board, also known as metallic poly or met poly, for packaging production is a common practice among many of the companies we’ve worked with throughout the years, particularly those working in high volume packaging production.
The Magazine 8 05.2016
The sheets of met poly make quite a complex substrate. The base board has an adhesive that is applied so that a polyester fi lm with aluminum backing can be adhered. A high gloss coating is applied to the polyester fi lm before the aluminum to boost the shine, and the sheet is laminated to ensure all the components stick together throughout the production process.
To produce projects with laminated foil board, an opaque ink—most often white—is printed over any area in which the metallic eff ect is unwanted. Depending on the project, this could require multiple hits of white per sheet to ensure the metallic is completely masked where
COLD FOIL VS. MET POLY
desired. Even with these multiple hits, the white is never truly white, as it results in more of a grey color.
For projects like toothpaste boxes, you are selling white teeth with grey boxes. A lot of these same boxes require very small type to list the ingredients of the product. When looking at these areas most of them are illegible. With cold foil, you’re able to reverse out type as small as 3pt, and you can be sure the copy is readable. Under a loop, you can truly see the diff erence, as the opaque colors tend to smear or spread out to a blur.
Additionally, for projects requiring folding and gluing, the met poly sheets require the application of an additional treatment so that the glue has something on which to grip in the converting process. This is yet another expensive hindrance in the use of met poly.
Cost Savings with Cold Foil
A cost-eff ective alternative to met poly when high foil coverage is desired is to use a cold foil application. By keeping the foil in-line, you’re able to apply foil and print in a single pass. This opens the door to creating multiple colors of foil by simply overprinting the foil as it passes through the press, and the coverage allows you to maximize the use of your foil by using narrow webs, or ribbons, of foil.
Just a few years ago met poly had a higher shine, while cold foil still had a grainy look to it. Today, however, the shine is there, and cold foil competes directly against met poly. The box on the left was produced using cold foil and the box on the right was produced using met poly.
SOLUTIONS
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