Industry Standards for Abraision Testing of Metallic Inks with Gloss Aqueous Coating

[Bama12]

I am trying to find information on industry standards for packaging products using the Sutherland Rub Test for Abraision Resistance of Metallic Inks with Gloss Aqueous Coating.

 

[Cold]

I am trying to find information on industry standards for packaging products using the Sutherland Rub Test for Abraision Resistance of Metallic Inks with Gloss Aqueous Coating.

Hello Bama,

I do not know that you will find industry standards for that given scenario. I'd be very interested if you did.

The reason I say this is because metallics in general have poor rub resistance,albeit less poor under AQ, but some formulas are much better than others. Brand X is more brilliant, but has horrible rub resistance while Brand Y has decent rub resistance, but is not very brilliant at all.

If you have a disatisfied customer, I'd work to developing an internal standard that both parties can live with.

The type of flake as well as the vehicle of the formula can be altered to improve results.

If you can't find a standard and need an assist, let me know. I'd be happy to help.


Best,


Cold

 

[Bama12]

I agree with you that I may not find an industry standard for this scenario but there has got to be something out there better than what I have found so far. I have found plenty of standards for Rub testing of conventional inks with AQ but the only mention of metallic inks and AQ is that they will have less rub and abrasion. Less is a pretty broad term and pretty hard to sell. We have been working with our customer to establish an acceptable rub test for these products but they are all about having procedures in place that meet industry standards.

Regards
Bama12

 

[Cold]

I agree with you that I may not find an industry standard for this scenario but there has got to be something out there better than what I have found so far. I have found plenty of standards for Rub testing of conventional inks with AQ but the only mention of metallic inks and AQ is that they will have less rub and abrasion. Less is a pretty broad term and pretty hard to sell. We have been working with our customer to establish an acceptable rub test for these products but they are all about having procedures in place that meet industry standards.

Regards
Bama12

If you do come across anything please let us know. I'll do the same.


Best,



Cold

 

[Bama12]

Sure will. Thanks for your input.

Regards
Bama12

 

[D Ink Man]

The Sutherland Rub Tester is the standard equipment piece used in the print/ink industry to look at abrasion, tribology.

There is no industry standard to my knowledge for a particular printing type or form.

However from experience I can declare this.

Using the Sutherland tester, outside exposed or cover type print work should stand up reasonably well with 50 strokes at 4 lb. weight. You will normally always get some degree of marking on the test which makes it somewhat subjective, but experience and common sense will determine if you have adequate rub resistance.

For inside text work, 25 strokes at 4 lb. wt. are good specs to use for assessment.

Offset business type uncoated print work, 50 strokes at 2 lb. works good for analysis.

With your particular situation with packaging, metallics and aqueous coatings I would do this.

I would ask both your metallic ink supplier and your water based coating supplier to perform tests for you and provide exhibits. The recommendation would be to print the metallic as is and then the metallic with the aqueous coating. Do rub checks on the Sutherland, as follows: ink to paper, ink to ink, and aqueous coated ink to paper and aqueous coated ink to aqueous coated ink. Also include a virgin stock to virgin stock rub test. You would be surprised how many times the basic integrity of the coating of the substrate can be faulty. I would suggest 25 strokes at 4 lb. weight all around for this.

Hope this adds some value to your ongoing endeavors.

D Ink Man

 

[Bama12]

Thanks for the recommendation. We are going to pull sheets and perform some Sutherland tests based on the guidelines you provided. I had a meeting today with the Field Marketing Manager for our AQ coating supplier and he made some similar recommendations for testing (excluding the substrate test). He also took some samples of our printing and is going to have his lab do similar rub tests and rate them
by their standards and return the results for our review. He also reviewed our samples of what we were considering Failed Samples and said, as you mentioned that, that the test is subjective but he would consider these sheets as passing. I ask him about a standard for metallic inks with AQ and he said the best thing we could do would be to establish our own standards by doing some rub testing and figure out what we can realistically expect and create some pass and fail samples and make that our standard. Hopefully with your suggestions and the input from the coating company we can establish something that we can present to our customers that will meet their expectation. I will be glad to share the results.

Regards
Bama12