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Printers looking to add a touch of sparkle to a piece of print have long turned to spot coating. By highlighting a word, a picture, a face or simply adding something clever, a run-of-the-mill job can be turned into something a little bit special.
Traditionally, this kind of work has been carried out by specialist laminators and coaters with application-specific machinery. Investment in the necessary kit has in the past been worthwhile for jobs such as 100,000-plus runs of magazines or brochures. However, this kind of work is increasingly hard to come by.
For many printers and finishers, the reality is that the bulk of their work is produced in short runs under tight deadlines. As clients demand faster turnarounds, sending work out to a trade coater is often just not feasible, but the cost of buying and operating the specialist kit necessary to bring coating in-house is too expensive.
So, for a printer looking to extend its offering with some ‘added-value' services, what are the options? Well, there are
a number of different paths to follow. Toner-based digital presses often have varnishing options, while a new generation of offline inkjet coaters is also coming to the fore, some of which even combine laminating with spot coating
functionality.
The first thing to remember is that anything that can be done with an analogue system can also be done by inkjet. But, there is a catch: it won't come cheap.
Market pressures
Inkjet can be very expensive and a printer will already be selling at a price set by the market. Once you add a varnish, the cost is going to go up because you are likely to be running a machine that costs more to buy, added to the fact that inline systems will slow down the productivity of your existing machine. In a world where price is often the deciding factor, you will be losing work if you try and maintain a decent profit level on that kind of investment.
Tudor Morgan, group marketing manager at Fujifilm Wide Format Europe, believes that printers need to ask themselves what they want to do with a varnish before they invest in a machine or an add-on for a machine.
"In our core business we have 25 different varnishes because no one or two inks handle everything that we need to do," he says. "It could be indoor or outdoor, long life or short life, there are lots of parameters to meet. "We get asked what a printer can do, but it is difficult to give advice. What are they looking to do? What substrate will it be printed on?"
Fujfilm has been able to meet customer demands through ink chemistry, with the latest equipment offering a gloss area on print, depending on what it is that needs to be emphasised. According to Morgan, the price of a spot varnish is no different to that of a normal ink.
He continues: "We can't cover all coating aspects, but we have formulated a lot of inkjet varnishes. Again it depends on the cost, but invariably what will happen is that quality will improve, speed will improve and the cost of print will fall."
Fujifilm will be addressing inkjet coating issues at Ipex, and it isn't the only manufacturer that's focused on this field. Scodix also has a new machine that launches at Ipex, the Scodix 1200 (see box below).
HP Indigo offers a further alternative which isn't true spot coating but an extra ink that can be used when needed, called Digital Matt Ink. The product gives a matt finish on top of a gloss finish given by the Indigo to give a matt spot effect. It is currently available on a number of presses in the 3000 and 5000 series.
Neil Tipping, supplies business manager UK and Ireland at HP Indigo, says: "The advantage is that it will always be added inline as it is another ink, there is no drying time. No extra skills or machines are required."
Another advantage to using a digital machine for coating is that it can be varied from page-to-page. According to Tipping it is treated in the RIP as an ink and handled in exactly the same way.
Tipping adds that it can be used for a number of things including unique finishes, marketing collateral or work that traditionally would have been uneconomical to produce on a litho machine.
Another option is light production printers that offer clear toner to create a range of matt, gloss and metallic finishes, such as the Canon Image press C1+. Canon's machine eliminates the set-up costs associated with offset print using Canon's V-toner system with ultra-fine particles and oil-less fusing. It can also produce special effects such as photo-like finishing, watermarks and reverse matt coating.
Shane Burchett, Imagepress & professional solutions marketing professional at Canon UK, says: "The C1+ can open up a whole new world of design, marketing and even security applications for the small printer or designer."
Large-format specialist Durst is also busy in this field. It offers the option of a selective varnish for virtually all of its Rho UV flatbed inkjet machines. The Rho varnish is a UV-curable transparent ink lacquer, which can be inkjetted over the whole printed area or on selected parts for highlighting. It has a different viscosity and curing speed from pigmented inks in order to guarantee a uniform layer of glossy lacquer over the printed area. It can be processed at the same pass speed and at the same time as CMYK. According to Durst, the varnish has been particularly popular with printers of corrugated board and other manufacturers of POP displays.
Other options
Of course, it is not all just down to the digital manufacturers and inkjet to offer new solutions for printers. Derby-based lamination specialist Autobond has been supplying machines for years, many of which will go into print houses rather than the finishers.
Its products are all based on the same shell - it has its own feeders and stackers, so it is simply a case of putting something different between the two. Managing director John Gilmore explains: "We don't mind what we put in there."
The company has been making UV machines for about three years and also has a spot machine and a spot coater, all of which will be on show at Ipex. According to Gilmore, spot coating had been on its agenda long before the company introduced it.
"A blanket coater is not accurate enough and screen printing is not conducive to short-run work," says Gilmore. "We have one customer who is shipping 50 loads of as low as three copies every day - they need a machine with zero makeready. "They needed to be able to laminate and then spot coat in-line over the top. It is a big advantage, it is the way it should go and it will be the way it does go as the cost of matt film comes down."
A quick scout around the market shows that there are many options available for printers to cost-effectively add a bit of spot UV or varnish, although they may go under some other name. With the technologies mostly in their infancy, in the eyes of printers if not the manufacturers, there is perhaps still a knowledge vacuum around what each product can offer.
Commentators have said this could be the most important Ipex ever, but they don't expect large amounts of money to change hands. Instead, printers are expected to be heading in their droves on a viewing brief. For those interested in adding a coating or a varnish, the best advice appears to be to do the same. Keep clear in your mind what it is you want to be able to do and go to Ipex and talk to the key players about what they offer. There is bound to be something to pique your interest.
IPEX LAUNCH: Scodix 1200
Scodix points out that digital post-press development is a long way behind the rest of the industry. Initially, the digital revolution began in the 1970s with pre-press machinery. In the mid-1990s, the technology was picked up by press manufacturers. And now, 15 years later, post-press is beginning to catch up.
The Scodix 1200 is a high-resolution UV-based inkjet machine, which produces a thick varnish up to 70 microns dual-sided. According to the company, the machine brings work that was previously long-run only into the short-run arena and is even cost-effective on just one print.
Elements of the Scodix 1200 include:
- Embossing
- Dual-sided embossing
- Selective varnished areas (gloss and matt)
- Gradient
- Raised text
- Proofing
The press is 4.7m long and requires just one operator. It is a closed, covered system. According to Scodix, it produces a minimal amount of waste, while the digital process consumes 91% less energy than traditional systems.
