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Flash Poll Reveals Flexographic Printers’ Thoughts on Tape, Sleeves and Mounting Materials

Worries & Concerns

Worrisome Results

What are major tape-related concerns?

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Topping the list of potential problem points associated with plate mounting tapes, printers polled point to plate lift as No. 1. Better than 78 percent name it as the biggest tape-related concern. In second position, at 44 percent, comes print quality.

Demounting is a major trouble spot for 38 percent of the sample. Another 19 percent points to over-aggressive adhesives. Inventory, at 10 percent, is also watched carefully. Stepping outside the choices, printers respond largely with single words: “bubbles,” “trash,” “cost,” “registration.” Some made this more verbose observation: “Print quality is not as good as it is with sleeves.”

Problems, Problems

Why can tape be problematic?

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What’s the cause of such consternation?

Some 55 percent of printers indicate that insufficient adhesive is the most likely culprit. Forty-five percent list improper pressure adjustment as contributing to imperfections. Similarly, 39 percent cite the addition of graphic elements, like screens, tints, highlights and halftones.

An identical 21 percent credits both increased press speeds and a change in variety of plate—solvent, water wash, liquid—as a possible cause. Twenty percent believes new substrates and their unfamiliar properties are contributors and 17 percent thinks an increase in durometer plays some role in a less-than-ideal outcome. In a non-traditional twist of fate, just 9 percent blames the ink!

Turning to mentions of other potential issue initiators, printers mention “seams,” “long runs,” “mounting time” and more elaboratively, “Operators crushing it!”

Protocols & Practices

Protocols & Practices

What protocols are followed in mounting/demounting?

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Cleaning, specifically plate cylinder cleaning, ranks No. 1 on the list of protocols and practices followed on print production lines in hopes of optimizing mounting material performance. Ninety-two percent of poll participants rate it first. Second, with 87 percent of the vote, is plate cleaning itself.

Seventy-one percent lives by surface inspection, 65 percent stands anal about trimming excessive tape and a matching 65 percent swear by storing plates in a closely controlled environment. Twenty-eight percent looks to apply primer, 22 percent seal plate edges and 19 percent elects to detach adhesives where necessary. The only other course of action drawing mention was “building up tape beyond solids.”

Multiple Lives

Is tape reused?

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Asked, “Can tape be reused?” Sixty-nine percent of the sample audience routinely and forcefully answers, “No!” Thirty percent favors doing so and does reuse tape multiple times.

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