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Investigation on electrostatic assist and gravure process parameters on solid mottle reduction for shrink films

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Abstract

Gravure is a high throughput printing process, normally associated with speed, quality, and long print runs. It is widely used for printing on shrink films and other substrates. The shrink films, in particular, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and glycol-modified polyethylene terephthalate (PET-G), are two dominant substrates widely consumed and printed by gravure process. The PVC and PET-G offer different properties which greatly influence the printability. The surface energy of the substrate determines the adhesion and wettability of ink, while electrical properties such as surface and volume resistivity impact electrostatic assist (ESA) performance. The introduction of ESA in gravure further improved the print quality by eliminating dot skips with reduced impression pressure. However, print defects such as print mottle is inevitable. Print mottle occurs due to a discrepancy between substrate, ink, and process parameters which degrade the print quality. These complexities need to be addressed to deliver higher productivity with less print waste. Therefore, the study investigates the effect of process parameters, i.e., substrate type, line screen, air gap (distance between charge bar and impression roller), viscosity, voltage, and speed, and aims to quantify their effect numerically on defect minimization. The Design of Experiments (DOE) was generated for the above-mentioned parameters and analyzed to extract the best combination of process parameters. The optimized setting showed a reduction in solid mottle by 54% and 57% for PET-G and PVC, respectively.

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Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank OMNOVA Solutions Inc. for funding the research project and P.V.G’s College of Engineering and Technology, Pune for providing the laboratory support for the work. We would like to express our gratitude to Rossini for furnishing ESA impression rollers for the project. The authors are grateful to Manish Packaging, Garware Polyester Ltd, Acuprint Systems Pvt. Ltd., and Flint Group India Pvt. Ltd. for sponsoring PET-G and PVC substrates, cylinder, and ink for the research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Printing Engineering, P. V. G’s College of Engineering and Technology, 44, Vidyanagri, Shivdarshan, Parvati, Pune, 411009, Maharashtra, India

    Akshay V. Joshi

  2. Enulec Energieuebertragungselectronic, Rudolf-Diesel Str 7, 22946, Trittau, Germany

    Christoph Dettke

  3. Enulec Electrostatics, 17209 Chesterfield Airport Road Unit 107, Chesterfield, MO, 63005, USA

    Joseph Steingraeber

Authors
  1. Akshay V. Joshi
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  2. Christoph Dettke
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  3. Joseph Steingraeber
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Correspondence to Akshay V. Joshi.

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Joshi, A.V., Dettke, C. & Steingraeber, J. Investigation on electrostatic assist and gravure process parameters on solid mottle reduction for shrink films. J Coat Technol Res 13, 375–383 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11998-015-9753-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11998-015-9753-5

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