metallics and lamination, varnish, coatings
metallics and lamination, varnish, coatings
If you are going to laminate, varnish, or aqueous seal any metallic ink it is imperative to use a non leafing pigment. The wetted pigments in the ink disperse in the ink film instead of leafing (floating) to the surface as with a normal metallic ink. Many people claim that you can't laminate a metallic, well, that is simply not true, you just need to use the right metallic ink for the job. The MetalFX non leafing ink, which costs around $30 per lb, product code MFX 06 9000 NL, is the one you need. This was developed for all these purposes. This ink can also be used for blister pack applications as well. Although the ink price of $30 a lb seems quite expensive, it should be noted that with the MFX system you printed a much thinner film weight (density) on press. It is advised to measure a metallic ink with a polarised densitometer, non polarised filters cannot accurately measure a metallic ink due to light reflection form the aluminum particles. historically a printer will always flood the metallic on press with the theory of the more they put down the more it will sparkle. this is also not true. The more ink you put down, the wetter it becomes, setoff increase, drying times take days. However, using the MFX ink with an increased pigment content meant that you print less ink, thus saving you money, speeding up drying times to just a few hours, it can be varnished, laminated etc etc. So, as many people claim, MFX is not special, the palettes are not what made MFX special its the inks and how you use them. As a guide, if you measured a normal metallic ink with a pol filter on a densitometer it would be around to 100 to 110 mark (density) with MFX it is measured around 070. So, over 30% thinner film weight. Now... do the math on that with the price per pound of the metallic ink and it reduces the price per page drastically.
the other key thing with metallic is substrate. Orientation of pigments are effected by substrates, whether they are coated, silk/dull, uncoated etc. and also the surface pitting. All these effect metallic. if an uncoated stock is used the metallic ink is absorbed into the substrate and thus you get a crap metallic effect. however, there are always ways to get an excellent metallic shine on uncoated paper and yet still retain that touchy feely effect that designers want when using FSC uncoated stocks. You just need to know who to ask...