Week 5

May 15, 2017 May 20, 2017

Tour of Printing, Lamination, and Converting Area

The trainee was given a tour to the printing, converting, and lamination area of the
plant. She was given a short introduction about the jobs and functions of each area.

The printing process uses the principle of extrusion and rotogravure printing.
Extrusion coating is the coating of a molten web of synthetic resin on to a substrate
material. In rotogravure printing, the image is etched directly onto a cylinder.

Inks for flexible packaging can be divided into surface printing inks and lamination
inks. Surface printing inks must have reasonably high gloss, excellent rub resistance and
resistance to a number of different external elements, such as water, solvents, detergents
and other materials that may come into contact with the printed surface. These inks
typically use a protective overprint varnish to increase the surface resistance and to
impart the desired C.O.F. and gloss. On the other hand, inks for reverse printing must
have good adhesion on printed substrates, good bond strength with adhesive to support
lamination, high color strength, high transparency and gloss.

In the case of flexible packaging, converting would be the process of utilizing films,
foils and resins (through the process of lamination), forming them into a multilayer
structure.

She also observed some troubleshooting techniques for common problems in the
printing area, e.g. ink not charging to the cylinder, which results to poor printing. The
problem can be solved by cleaning the cylinders, using a different kind of ink, or making
some alterations to the solvent ratios.

Noted by:

_________________________________
Joselito Miguel
Ink Making Department Senior Supervisor