Printing & Storage guidelines - UV Offset

These guidelines are intended to help the UV-Offset printing machine operators to improve the printability and performance of the material. Please review these instructions in advance before printing in order to achieve the desired results.

STORAGE GUIDELINES

Store inside at room temperature, from 18º to 27ºC with a relative humidity level between 25% and 50%.

If the pallets are kept in a cold warehouse, the material should be acclimatized to press room tem­perature in the sealed original wrap for 24 hours before opening it.

Unwrap Stafix® once it has acclimatized to the press room temperature.

Let the opened Stafix® pallet acclimatize to press room temperature 24 hours prior to running.

Sudden changes of temperature and/or humidity may cause the film to wrinkle.

After printing rewrap the remaining, unused material appropriately with plastic foil.

Humidity and dust should be avoided to prevent Stafix® from wrinkling and losing its static charge.

INK USAGE

Use as little ink as possible. Heavy deposits of ink should be avoided to prevent the film from curl­ing. Total ink coverage (TIC) should not exceed 240% in the color build, a raster of 60-70 l/cm is recom­mended. When having a combination of two or more solid colors – reduce the ink density on the press.

When printing on the transparent material and using a covering white, please rasterize the covering white to 95%.

Recommended inks:

Use inks suitable for printing on thin polypropylene substrates.

Here are two recommended ink series:

  • Sun Chemical (Suncure Starluxe)
  • Hostmann-Steinberg (NewV Poly Series)

STAFIX® SHEETS

The Stafix® film is glued on to a cardboard by two glue lines from the long sides of the sheet. One glue line is continuous and the other one has a dotted pattern. The glue is colored red to help to distinguish them. Do not cut the glue lines before printing.

On the tail of the sheet it is recommended to leave an unprinted area. The color bar should be placed 2cm from the tail edge of the sheet.

The maximum printing area is defined by the sheet’s format size.

  • 320x450mm sheet’s maximum printing area is 300x440mm
  • 480x650mm sheet’s maximum printing area 440x640mm
  • 707x1000mm sheet’s maximum printing area 640x990mm

The sheet sizes 480x650mm and 707x1000mm have a cardboard margin on the tail edge of the sheet to allow for better feeding.

ON PRESS

Fan the sheets properly prior to loading (please check the video instructions from our website). Run in short lifts of 200-250 sheets.

Strong air supply is essential for feeding Stafix®. Position feeder air blowers so that the air separates the first 10-15 sheets to minimize blocking.

Use additional side blowers. Position side air-blowers at the front sides of the stack.

Set the feeder for printing on thick materials.

Run at max. press speed of 5000-7000 sheets per hour.

Run with low levels of water. Stafix® absorbs practically no water and therefore very little water is needed. The plate requires only enough water to keep the surface wet.

Set the print impression pressure as light as possible in order to avoid stretching of the film.

Static Eliminators

Do not use any antistatic devices including sprays, tinsel, or on-press electronics. These will reduce the static charge loaded in the material.

Coatings

Do not use varnish or aqueous coatings! Coatings will eliminate the static charge and curl the material!

Drying

Adjust the UV lamps to a minimum level that still cures the inks but does not wrinkle the film. Is recommended that the heat of the lamps should increase progressively in the running direction of the material, applying less heat on the first lamps and more heat on the last lamps before delivery.

When using a hybrid printing machine turn off the IR lamps if possible.

POST-PRESS

Stafix® can be die-cut and kiss-cut. Please avoid long thin shapes as they might curl away from the surface. Avoid sharp corners because they might cause the film to tear. Perforating and direct mail inserting are also possible. When trimming, use sharp, nick-free blades. Do not cut the glue lines in order to allow auto-feeding.

Please protect the products well from humidity when sending the finished goods to your client.

Avoid packing the material with products that emit VOC’s (Volatile Organic Compounds / Solvents) they will reduce the static charge.

 

Stafix Ltd will not accept any claims or warranty on material that has not been handled according to these instructions.