Coating & Laminating
Thin coating and printing speed limiters
Machine speed, speed of throughput is almost always touted as an important factor in production output – and so it should be, says Tom Kerchiss, chairman of RK Print Coat Instruments
he faster the web-fed processing machine performs, the closer the converter will come to being able to realise commercial and productivity objectives, which are: make-ready, run the job, speed it out the door; bring in another, mount it on the machine – and begin again.
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While the objectives seem clear cut, the reality is that speed limiters, process variables and even environmental factors sometimes make processing at optimum speed and high quality difficult. Day end production totals are often determined by a variety of factors, some conditioned by the machine itself and by the various elements or configured components that make up the line. Other factors to take on board and which contribute to quality and production day totals
30 July/August 2023
include the nature of the job and the substrate itself, the ease with which the substrate can be printed, coated/laminated, dried, cured and so forth.
Since a converter may obtain short, medium and long run work, it is important to note a further distinction. On long runs (for many a thing of the past), the issues that challenge throughput are often job specific as machine set up and make ready procedures are fewer and far between. Control procedures and corrective control procedures are relevant, regardless of length of run. Job intrinsic conditions such as poor web management; inappropriately controlled web tension, colour variability and ink/coating substrate compatibility are speed limiters; generating high levels of waste and invariably threatening quality
and reputation.
The move towards the printing and coating and processing of thinner products, thinner roll-to-roll materials and thinner sheet-to-sheet materials shows no sign of let up. In fact, the ability to coat thinner still on the micro-scale using Nano-particles is in its infancy but progress in this direction is being made.
Thinner materials or layers of thinner materials are more effective in operation than many of their thicker material counterparts. For example, keyboards and membranes that can be rolled up and confer obvious advantages. Polymer semi- conductors are also a production area of note. These are made from synthetic polymers and are generally referred to as conjugated polymers. They change from being an insulator to a semi-
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