Special Treatment

January 2005

multipage

Surface treating technology makes printing on plastic substrates possible, but not just any off-the-shelf equipment will do.

PRINTING ON FILMS without first treating the substrate surface is a lot like skydiving without a parachute. It's possible, but the result is going to be a mess.

Luckily, there are several surface treating options, each with advantages for different applications. Of the three main kinds of treaters, corona treaters are the most common, according Tom Gilbertson, Enercon Industries Corp.'s vice president of applications engineering. They are used for most applications and are less expensive alternatives compared to atmospheric plasma and flame treaters.

Atmospheric plasma treaters, however, are good for hard-to-treat substrates, and have the advantage of having no environmentally-harmful emissions and low degrees of dyne level degradation—which also goes for flame treaters. Flame treaters also are excellent options for high-speed applications where high treatment levels are required.

"Surface treatment helps printers avoid [problems with wettability and adhesion of inks, coatings, and adhesives] by ensuring consistent surface energy throughout the substrate surface," Gilbertson said. "The biggest challenge facing printers is controlling the process, including the interaction of ink and the substrate surface. Surface treatment is a simple and inexpensive way to eliminate (or control) one of the key variables in the process."

Surface treaters have become a vital part of package printers' day-to-day operations, especially in light of the growing popularity of films. And while the treating systems have evolved into advanced forms, costly problems can still arise.

The ins and outs

First of all, really knowing what you are buying and how to get the most out of your purchase is one of the most important things a printer can do prior to finalizing a purchasing decision, according to Bruce Stobbe, president of Corotec. That's elementary. But printers need to know more than how to use the equipment—cost of operation and the treater's efficiency are just as important.

"An introduction and good basic understanding of the technical elements of the process is very important when it comes to day-to-day operations, especially when things aren't going as expected," Stobbe said. "Another area that is often overlooked is the daily cost of operation of the equipment, not only from a maintenance standpoint, but from a power consumption standpoint. There can be vast differences in the efficiency of the system from one supplier to another, so it is important to consider this when comparing equipment, because a savings in the purchase price could be lost in additional power consumption costs over the course of the first year of operation."

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