A man with a beard and ponytail, wearing a blue polo shirt, stands smiling with his hands on a large cylindrical object wrapped in yellow tesa tape. Industrial machinery is visible in the background. (This text has been generated by AI)

The Secret Behind Every Happy Printer?

Technologies

Our complete package for reliable plate mounting

As a press operator, you’re striving every day to run your press at the maximum of its capacity, with minimal downtime, while maintaining consistent and high-quality print results. Having a reliable partner that understands your specific needs, has all the right adhesive products, and can give you technical support on-site is critical.

tesa is the supplier that ticks all these boxes. We have a comprehensive product assortment for the flexographic printing process, developed by our extensive R&D and lab support team of specialists. Over 100 flexo experts are out in the field on any given day, helping you find the best solution to optimize your processes and reach your targets. To make sure your staff is trained and understands our products we have a dedicated global team of application support engineers for technical support on site when needed.

Our Unique Plate Mounting Solutions Assortment: tesa® Softprint

Since the print quality in flexo is improving continuously and is competing with the standards of gravure print quality, the importance of the right plate mounting solution is critical. The right solution and density are crucial in transferring the image to the substrate as accurately as possible.

Furthermore, since brand owners have many changes in their design and want to minimize the time to market, the amount of job changes is increasing. This puts a lot of pressure on the mounting department and the press operators to get the maximum efficiency out of their press with the lowest amount of downtime possible.

tesa® Softprint: Plate Mounting Tapes With High-Quality Foam Backings for the Highest Demands in Flexographic Printing

Our tesa® Softprint assortment  is available in two thickness categories 15 mil and 20 mil. Additionally the assortment provides two product designs, CLASSIC and FLEX, offering individual possibilities for more process efficiency. 

Due to its closed-cell PE foam combined with a PET reinforcement film, tesa® Softprint CLASSIC offers easy handling and is suited for a wide range of specific applications. By comparison, due to its aligned design, which incorporates PE reinforcement layers, the tesa® Softprint FLEX range is ideal for critical sleeve applications, including thin-walled sleeves and scratched sleeve surfaces.

All tesa® Softprint foams facilitate excellent print quality, supported by a smart tape production process – leaving all foam cells intact for better cushioning and resilience over time. All raw materials used in production are carefully selected by a team of dedicated chemical engineers and flexo market experts to ensure the highest quality standards.

Depending on your individual needs and conditions, the perfect combination of adhesives on both tape sides (sleeve and plate side) can be selected. Sleeve types, plate models, climate conditions, ink types, and process requirements all play a significant role in choosing the right plate mounting tape.

The assortment is available in five different hardness levels ranging from extra soft to hard and two different thickness levels for more choices to maximize print quality for halftone, process, and solids. 

The difference in adhesion levels provides the benefits that you are looking for, easy mounting and demounting, prevention of bouncing or plate lift. Our tapes can do it all!

Experience Smooth and Trouble-Free Plate Mounting with FE-X EA Series for Easy Application

Our tesa® Softprint FE-X EA is specially developed for easy tape handling to reduce waste, save time, and further improve productivity in your print room.

Micro-channels within the adhesive ensure effortless air removability during plate mounting and printing. Our state-of-the-art FE-X adhesive reliably holds the plate edges down while making the plate-demounting process quick and painless. The improved surface makes product handling even more convenient.

Benefit from the following product features:

• Unique liner structure helps air escape during mounting
and printing

• FE-X adhesive prevents plate lifting while allowing easy plate repositioning and demounting

• Improved product surface ensures smooth manual tape-mounting process

• High-quality components deliver consistent and excellent
print results

A close-up of a roll of textured red material with a smooth, translucent sheet being unrolled from it. The cylinder core is dark blue. The surface shows a subtle grid-like pattern on the tesa tape. (This text has been generated by AI)
tesa® Softprint FE-X EA sleeve with open liner

tesa® Softprint Product Selection Guide

Light bonding to sleeve side Medium bonding to sleeve Xtra bonding to sleeve
 
Product explanation
FE-M
 
FE-X
 
Very low tack adhesive for fast plate mounting and demounting. Excellent plate repositioning.
Requires clean and standarized conditions.
 
SC-M SC-X Secure bond - excellent resistance to edge lifting across a broad temperature range. Reliable mounting at lower temperatures. Works best in clean and standarized conditions.
 
TP-L
 
TP-M1
 
TP-X
 
Medium tack adhesive for reliable plate mounting. Very good resistance to edge lifting especially under warm and high humidty conditions. A true allrounder that works under most conditions.
ST-M
 
High tack adhesive for strong initial plate mounting. Works even in unclean and cold conditions.
About tesa - Company Information

1 We recommed our TP-M as an entry-level product. From this starting point, you can easily switch to other products depending on your specific needs.
tesa Easysplice® FilmLine
tesa Easysplice® FilmLine

Our Splicing Solutions

Film converters benefit from our decades of experience in flying splice applications with a tailor-made film splicing assortment.

With the invention of tesa® EasySplice, we revolutionized processes in paper-producing and converting industries. Film converters benefit from tesa® EasySplice with our FilmLine series, which we specially developed for the splicing of non-polar, filmic substrates. Fast preparation and secure splicing at the highest speed ensure process stability and efficiency. The secret lies in our specially formulated contact adhesive and reliable splitting strip.

We also offer a double-sided tape and functional label assortment for conventional flying splice applications.

tesa® EasySplice Benefits

  • Save time: As the name implies, this is the easy and therefore fast way to prepare reels for a splice. Just one straight line - no extra tape, no additional butterflies necessary. 
     
  • Be quick: Run even difficult-to-splice substrates at full machine speed! The secret lies in the formulation - our patented FilmLine contact adhesive meets the highest requirements.
     
  • Reduce waste: Higher splice performance means less waste! All tesa® EasySplice products come with a specially designed splitting strip, ensuring safe closure of the new reel during acceleration and precise opening of the new reel after contact - again and again.

tesa: Your Reliable Partner in the Flexo Printing Industry

As a full system provider, we offer a market approach that considers all factors of the printing process. Based on your individual needs, we provide the best product solution for your process. In fact, this is the secret behind every happy printer.

Besides plate-mounting solutions and splicing tapes, we also have a wide range of complementary solutions based on pressure-sensitive adhesive technology speed up changeovers, prevent machine stops, and facilitate everyday tasks.

Roller wrapping, plate-edge sealing, UV measuring, plate cleaning, or failure flagging tapes facilitate efficient and reliable printing processes and are just a few examples of the well-conceived solutions tesa has to offer.

For more information, please get in contact with your local sales representative or visit us at www.tesa.com/paper-print