Uflex is the first Indian company to manufacture glitter printing rotogravure cylinder on its state-of-the-art direct laser engraving line.
Pigments of glitter inks are substantially bigger in size as compared to conventional gravure inks therefore rotogravure printing on substrates using glitter inks has always been a challenge for convertors.
The specialty glitter ink has been manufactured for flexible substrates like paper and heat sensitive films and can be cured using LED lamps applied in-line with gravure printing process using solvent or water based ink system.
Uflex manufactures different variants like metallic glitter & polymeric glitter inks among others. Conventional metallic shades are available only in Gold, Silver and Copper, whereas polymeric glitter inks are available in several colours.
Uflex cylinders business joint president P.K. Agarwal said: “It is extremely difficult for a cylinder with electro-mechanically engraved conventional gravure cells to pick up pigments of the glitter ink and transfer them on to the substrate, therefore in-case of this specialized cylinder, we developed bigger sized customized pits (cells) that trap the high solid content of the glitter ink.
“The customization of cell geometry of the rotogravure cylinder on our direct laser engraving line is the real innovation here. Pigments of the glitter ink have a tendency to get stuck inside the pits/ cells of the cylinder (cell filling).
“When the printing surface is sandwiched between the impression roller and the gravure cylinder, the high solid contents of the glitter ink get transferred from recessed cells to the substrate with the help of capillary action and the tangential force of the roller.”
Uflex chemicals business joint president Rajesh Bhasin said: “This was one of the toughest challenges posed to us by our client, wherein we were asked to develop glitter ink for a variety of flexible substrates including heat sensitive films.”
