Foiled by Foil

On simplification, he said, "Foil decorating has become more of an everyday job rather than a special, less frequent run job. This allows converters and foil suppliers more opportunities for better communications to improve the efficiencies of their operations."

However, with the rising demand for quick turnarounds, printers and converters can create some potential pitfalls to the foil stamping process. McElree added, "Increasingly shorter lead times from printers and converters can lead to foil stamping over inks or coatings that are not fully cured or dried. Also, new coatings are being used on substrates before evaluation has been completed to determine the proper surface tension required for foil stamping. An ideal surface tension for foil stamping would be a dynes level of between 36 and 42."