Static Control & Web Cleaning Web cleaning – the when and how I
f there is one key variable that is often overlooked in the printing process, it’s 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.
Vetaphone, as the inventors and pioneers of corona surface treatment, 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 house 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 level – that is to say the capability of the substrate to aff ord secure ink adherence without the risk of smudging. It was in response to market research across the industry that Vetaphone developed its own web cleaning system. 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, it was 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 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.
The Vetaphone Web Cleaner is designed to be linked to the Vetaphone iCorona Generator and work with the Corona Treater
28
March 2026
www.convertermag.com
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