Toward a Painless Cure

For printers curing inks or adhesives on the underside of the web (where UV light waves have to travel through the film), Midlik adds a more unusual troubleshooting tip is to make sure there are no UV inhibitors in the film. This is especially important in UV laminations.

Hahn advises checking a few quick basics before starting a job. "Most film materials are corona treated during the manufacturing process, but converters should typically bump treat them in-line on press to ensure the perfect printing surface … and for the ink to adhere, the film's dyne level must be at least 10 dynes higher than the ink's." He also suggests checking with the ink supplier to ensure they have included the proper chemistry for thick, dense colors, like black. "Printers often have trouble 'through-curing' dense colors. Make sure it contains photoinitiators targeting both short and long wave lengths for surface cure, depth of cure, and bond to the substrate," Hahn states.