Packaging
Package and product presentation By Tom Kerchiss, chairman, RK Print Coat Instruments.
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onsumer product manufacturers and their suppliers have come to realise that merely launching what they believe to be an outstanding product does not necessarily mean that the world will beat a path to the door. Successful product merchandising depends on many factors, one of which is packaging presentation.
The creative use of colour, graphics and design help to catch the attention of an often-diffident consumer. However, process variables, flaws of one kind or another, contaminants and a mismatch in processing technology sometimes make it difficult for quality objectives to be easily obtained. Consider a process such as coating. A product’s appearance can be marred by streaks and drips due to irregularities in the coating film. A transverse variation in film thickness or ribbing as it is most commonly referred to gives rise to the appearance of striated patterns on the coated film. Many performance limiters can be attributed to web handling and tension control issues. Without the precise control of web tension it is difficult to maintain close coating weight tolerance and avoid the various tension transients
Every element associated with the process must be taken into account when troubleshooting and assessing quality. Substrates and substrate finish can on occasion affect quality. Irregularities in material manufacture or impurities in any additives and in the coating mix itself may jeopardise the quality and overall appearance of the product. Cast or blown film for example must be free from optical irregularities such as haze, pinholes and wrinkles. If the substrate is a foil it must be free from scratches and coating defects. If it is a paper substrate it must be free from pick-offs, pits, oil spots, orange peel and other irregularities. Sometimes more can be added to the process than intended. Unlike many process disturbances that affect the web at selected points, contaminants may be intermittent or they may appear at all points throughout a process. When coating the introduction of foreign material can result in a non-uniform coated web, a high level of throwaway material and a waste of time and energy, not to forget the downtime that accrues as machine operators and converting managers try source the origin of the contaminant(s) and remove them. There are many potential sources of contaminants, including airborne and those associated with the preparation
of materials for use on the coater. Airborne contaminants such as dust, hair, insect particles, clothing fibres and skin shed by the coating operative and others may be a contributing factor. Web cleaners and good housekeeping procedures are useful; clean room conditions may be worth considering and for some applications such as stamps, wallpaper and flat panel displays clean room conditions are regarded as essential. RK Print Coat Instruments VCM pilot/ production coater and the VCML Lab/Pilot
Coater can be configured for clean room processes and procedures.
Foreign matter or contaminants appear in many different guises. The lexicon includes, fish-eyes, bubbles, oil spots, cratering, specks, pinholes, comets, bacteria spots, coating lumps, and the list goes on. Some times poor web control or some aspect of the process is wrongly attributed to contaminants, but the reverse can also be the case. The choice of coater applicator is important. Often it is not readily apparent, especially when new coating formulae, substrates or adhesives are involved as to which coating method to use. Factors that need to be taken into consideration include methods of drying or curing and for what purpose the product is going to be used for? Overprint varnishes and other coatings protect print, graphics and other decorative elements from abrasion, moisture, etc. Coatings may also provide for functionality, choosing the wrong method of coating or choosing coating materials, adhesives, inks and other materials that are ineffectual can be costly.
Coating and laminating requirements differ considerably. RK Print Coat Instruments have designed and developed a number of color communication devices and pilot/production coaters, etc.
The VCML Lab/Pilot Coater with a working width of up to 300mm enables operatives to print, coat and laminate on all types of substrates. Various coatings including inks, varnishes, adhesives and even paint that make use of water based or solvents can be applied. Knife- over-roll, meter bar, gravure, direct, reverse and offset gravure, flexo, rotary screen, slot die and other technologies are available. The VCML Lab/ Pilot Coater is also able to undertake small-scale production runs, enabling users to trial under real world conditions.
New in 2022 is the servo driven K303S Multicoater. This bench top device is supplied with easily interchangeable gravure and flexographic printing heads and offers meter bar coating capability. The K303S can be used for quality control and colour comparison using various ink/substrate combinations and also to determine printability issues. The meter bar coating head expands processing and quality control possibilities. Bars are available for wet coatings from 4 to 500 microns. The samples are suitable for visual and computer colour matching and for the evaluation of adhesion, gloss and other quality associated parameters.
Xwww.rkprint.com
www.convertermag.com
November 2022
39
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