Static Control & Web Cleaning
Web cleaning is important, but so is when you do it!
I
f there is one key variable that is often overlooked in the printing process, it’s the quality of the substrate, or to be more precise, the quality of the substrate surface. While important across all types of substrates, paper and board are easier to manage – it’s the fi lms and foils, where there is no absorption, that can prove tricky.
As the inventors and pioneers of corona surface treatment, the process that modifi es the surface tension of the top layer of substrate to allow ink or lacquer to adhere, Vetaphone knows how vital it is that the substrate web is as clean as possible with all contamination removed. Any particles left on the surface will result in imperfections in the fi nal print quality. With time costing money and today’s complex and expensive substrates requiring careful handling, no printing company wants to engage in reprints to keep its customers happy. Critical to the process of preparing the web is to clean it before corona treatment and this is always the recommended sequence of events. Cleaning after corona treating can signifi cantly reduce the dyne
34 July/August 2025
level – the capability of the substrate to aff ord secure ink adherence without the risk of smudging. Vetaphone developed its own web cleaning system in response to market research across the industry. Converters were repeatedly reporting issues with diff erent substrates that had been contact cleaned. While this standard industry practice is eff ective at removing particles down to 1-micron in size, it can also lower the surface energy (dyne level) and aff ect the fi nal print quality.
On closer inspection, the company found the issue related to two features: fi rst, that in many cases the web was being cleaned after surface treatment; and second, the poor quality of the particle transfer roller was depositing a high level of silicone on the web. The result was that either a more powerful and costly corona treater was required to combat the silicone, or that the production speed had to be reduced to obtain the correct corona dosage needed to ensure the quality of print required – either way there were serious cost implications.
What’s required is a web cleaning system that
works in tandem with the surface treater, and that’s why Vetaphone elected to design and develop its own technology in-house for maximum fl exibility and ease of control. The Vetaphone Web Cleaner can be single- or double-sided and is available for narrow/mid web applications from 350mm to 570mm, capable of a maximum operational speed of 250m/min. It can be mounted in various locations to suit any press confi guration and web orientation, and the active anti-static system prevents any possibility of re-contamination after the cleaning process has fi nished.
Importantly, the Web Cleaner can be linked to Vetaphone’s iCorona Generator, which eliminates the need for any additional operating system. This improves production effi ciency and reduces operator stress because the Web Cleaner control and maintenance is fully integrated with the Vetaphone Corona system via the same module. This means that one screen provides all the information required for both web cleaning and surface treatment.
www.convertermag.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62
