Spot UV Coating on the Aqeuous Tower - can it register?

kroe

Member
Hi All,

How close of register can I expect with a Cyrel plate on the coating tower of an 8/C 40" Heid for spot gloss UV (not aqueous) coating? I had a printer pull off recently because they couldn't register it. Is it a common practice to spot UV Coat this way? I thought you had to do it offline?
 
Re: Spot UV Coating on the Aqeuous Tower - can it register?

Yes it can but you need to distort the file used to make the Cyrel plate. I normally used 99.2% in the feed direction.
 
Hi Shimmyp,

Related to your reply to kroe, I had just supplied cyrel plates to a customer using a Heid CD 74 with print repeat 680mm with the same % value provided by you..however, the issue with registration did come up after few jobs that we were already done for them. Could it really be the cyrel plate or is it something else...

Welcome suggestions and views on this direction.

Thanks,
DRB
 
It is fairly common to do spot UV coating inline with the printing. Spot coating can be fairly expensive with the Cyrel plate costing last time I remember looking around $300 from an outside source. To avoid an additional step printers will often do this inline if they have the press with a coater. Just like on a flexo press a distortion calculation must be applied to be successful with proper fit. Is the distortion number used is wrong it will not register.
 
I spot UV coat inline a few times a week using cyrels,on a 8/c 105 Heidelberg. I run the press,so I can't offer much in the way of distortion %'s,that is done in prepress. I can tell you that the fit/print length can be manipulated by the amount of applicator pressure and cylinder squeeze. If you are having fit problems on press make sure they are backing off their squeeze/applicator pressure till it breaks up,then come back down until coating JUST prints smooth. From there you can give more squeeze,if needed, to change print length. Go too much and you will get a "halo" around the image areas though. Cyrel print length can also be altered by over or under packing the cyrel blanket. Hope this helps.
 
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67Drake:
Did you ever try to spot UV with a strippable blanket? Would a thin strippable blanket make the distortion factor not necessary. No personal experience, just asking.

John Lind
Cranberry Township, PA
724-776-4718
 
67Drake:
Did you ever try to spot UV with a strippable blanket? Would a thin strippable blanket make the distortion factor not necessary. No personal experience, just asking.

John Lind
Cranberry Township, PA
724-776-4718

Yes. We do this also,buy usually on jobs that fit is not critical. Like cutting the glue flap areas out on a pocket folder for example. Some of the guys around my shop are actually pretty good at this! They can cut a blanket that you would think was a cyrel. The down side is it is very time consuming. On a tough job with lots of small presice cuts it may take 45 minutes of downtime to do this,and alot of times the blanket kind of lifts along the cut edge while running,so the once clean sharp cut gets kind of sloppy looking,also while making the cuts,one slip of the razor,and you waste a blanket and start over. This is why on higher profile jobs we just use cyrels now.
I never was good at cutting these myself,plus these days my eyes are not what they used to be!
There should be no distorsion factor either. We just turn the applicator roller off,UV lamps off,but keep the coater on impression so that the image is transfered to the coater blanket. The only time the blanket distorts is if my 2nd man cuts too deep and goes through the blanket down to the packing,in that case the blanket stretches in that area.
 
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I spot UV coat inline a few times a week using cyrels,on a 8/c 105 Heidelberg. I run the press,so I can't offer much in the way of distortion %'s,that is done in prepress. I can tell you that the fit/print length can be manipulated by the amount of applicator pressure and cylinder squeeze. If you are having fit problems on press make sure they are backing off their squeeze/applicator pressure till it breaks up,then come back down until coating JUST prints smooth. From there you can give more squeeze,if needed, to change print length. Go too much and you will get a "halo" around the image areas though. Cyrel print length can also be altered by over or under packing the cyrel blanket. Hope this helps.

Drake... have you worked with raised uv coatings on a cyrel much and how best to correct excessive build up of coating at tail edge or knock out of image. Would increasing the packing amount help? In a recent experience there was no lattitude between the pressure to get a uniform image and reducing build up of coating on tail edge of image (6/c CD Heidelberg)
 
I can't say we run it alot,but maybe every month or so. I did run into this a few months ago when running a spot raised UV coating with glitter in it.We just could not get it to lay smooth,it seemed to either break up,or fill in the reversed out areas. We changed to a smaller cell anilox also,but then were not putting enough down on the sheet. I don't think changing the packing would have helped in this case,you can always back off or add,pressure or anilox,from the counsel.
What I see alot of times is the pressman will back off squeeze till coating breaks up,then squeeze back down,this is fine for printing units,but on the coater,the anilox needs to be backed off also.
 
Thanks Drake,

I believe your 105 has a 1 to 2 ratio all the way through correct? Do you notice any every other sheet differences with the cyrel's?
Also on our 102 CD I am packing at bearer high with the Cyrel plate using paper underlay sheets (.080")
and the Cyrel is at .046" equalling .126. Is there a better substrate for packing? Do you use a torque wrench when tensioning the Cyrel?
BTW... the roller we used for the raised was a 47 bcm volume. We like to call it the monster roller. Our next step down is a 12.9 bcm.
 
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Thanks Drake,

I believe your 105 has a 1 to 2 ratio all the way through correct? Do you notice any every other sheet differences with the cyrel's?
Also on our 102 CD I am packing at bearer high with the Cyrel plate using paper underlay sheets (.080")
and the Cyrel is at .046" equalling .126. Is there a better substrate for packing? Do you use a torque wrench when tensioning the Cyrel?
BTW... the roller we used for the raised was a 47 bcm volume. We like to call it the monster roller. Our next step down is a 12.9 bcm.

Yes,we have double transfers.
We use just a manilla type press packing,My 2nd man packs them,so off hand I forget to what? I believe .080 or .082.
We usually tension them by hand. We have a "standard" of 10 Ft. Lbs.,but this is such a touchy tension that we usually do it by feel. Scientific? NO! But it works!
I forgot to mention another thing to the original poster. I remember years ago when we first started to run Cyrels on our conventional presses,we cut the packing to sheet size. Often this led to fit problems. We always run a full size packing under our Cyrels,regardless of sheet size. This helps keep the Cyrel distortion free as it is tensioned. This will give better fit,of coarse.
 
Drake,

With respect to raised coating again, how important are new blades on the chamber with a high volume roller( I think I know the answer) and what type do you use. We have both metal from Tresu and some plastic blades that seem to deliver more of whatever type of coating your using. By the way...we have your LCP calendar in our press office. That a nice piece of work. I'd like to know more about the moss (soft touch?) on the trees (March).
 

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