Frugal Foil Usage
August 2005
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Reducing foil waste can be simple. Experts tell you how.
FOIL STAMPING AND embossing is, innately, a very wasteful process. Material waste is part of the package-enhancing technique.
While foil scraps will probably never be eliminated from the process, designers, equipment suppliers, and end users are finding ways to reduce waste and save converters, printers, and their customers money. How? Stamping and embossing equipment suppliers recently chimed in to answer that question.
Plan carefully
Foil often graces packaging in the form of ornate designs or borders—accents to the overall design layout. This usage of foil automatically lends itself to foil waste, since only a fraction of the foil surface area is used. Add that to the fact that many stamping and embossing machines advance the foil more than is needed and the result is a lot of foil bound for the trash.
This can be easily remedied if the layout is carefully thought out, and the machine is designed for accurate and calculated foil advancement, said Chris Raney, vice president, Bobst Group Inc. It's a simple concept, he said: "The more precise the machine advances, the smaller the distance, the less foil you use."
"Careful planning of a job coupled with a machine that can accurately control the foil advance is absolutely critical to get the maximum usage out of a reel of foil. The job planning needs to take into consideration the size of the image to be stamped and the distance between the images, including the safety that you need to allow between one image and the next—directly dependent on the accuracy of the machine control. The goal should be to calculate the job so that the maximum amount of foil can be used," Raney said.
Not only can converters save foil between image repeats, they can also reduce waste by minimizing the foil width. But, again, equipment that can tightly track the foil will afford operators greater control, therefore reducing the foil trim needed between the image and the edge of the foil.
To help with machine control and calculation, there is software—such as Bobst's OACS (Optimum Advance Computing System)—available to help operators quickly and accurately calculate foil usage to ensure that it is kept to a minimum. All in all, with well-thought out layouts and requirements, converters can save hundreds of thousands of dollars, Raney said.
Know your machine specifications
The optimum speed and temperature for stamping and embossing varies from equipment brand to equipment brand. Knowing this information can save foil by cutting out the guesswork.
FOIL STAMPING AND embossing is, innately, a very wasteful process. Material waste is part of the package-enhancing technique.
While foil scraps will probably never be eliminated from the process, designers, equipment suppliers, and end users are finding ways to reduce waste and save converters, printers, and their customers money. How? Stamping and embossing equipment suppliers recently chimed in to answer that question.
Plan carefully
Foil often graces packaging in the form of ornate designs or borders—accents to the overall design layout. This usage of foil automatically lends itself to foil waste, since only a fraction of the foil surface area is used. Add that to the fact that many stamping and embossing machines advance the foil more than is needed and the result is a lot of foil bound for the trash.
This can be easily remedied if the layout is carefully thought out, and the machine is designed for accurate and calculated foil advancement, said Chris Raney, vice president, Bobst Group Inc. It's a simple concept, he said: "The more precise the machine advances, the smaller the distance, the less foil you use."
"Careful planning of a job coupled with a machine that can accurately control the foil advance is absolutely critical to get the maximum usage out of a reel of foil. The job planning needs to take into consideration the size of the image to be stamped and the distance between the images, including the safety that you need to allow between one image and the next—directly dependent on the accuracy of the machine control. The goal should be to calculate the job so that the maximum amount of foil can be used," Raney said.
Not only can converters save foil between image repeats, they can also reduce waste by minimizing the foil width. But, again, equipment that can tightly track the foil will afford operators greater control, therefore reducing the foil trim needed between the image and the edge of the foil.
To help with machine control and calculation, there is software—such as Bobst's OACS (Optimum Advance Computing System)—available to help operators quickly and accurately calculate foil usage to ensure that it is kept to a minimum. All in all, with well-thought out layouts and requirements, converters can save hundreds of thousands of dollars, Raney said.
Know your machine specifications
The optimum speed and temperature for stamping and embossing varies from equipment brand to equipment brand. Knowing this information can save foil by cutting out the guesswork.
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