tesa® Foam Advisor
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tesa® Softprint Assortment
Once upon a time, stickyback tapes came in only two options. You could choose from either a 380 μm / 15 mil for label printing on a narrow web press – or a 500 μm / 20 mil for flexible packaging printing on a wide web press.
But what if your processes included nuances that neither of these couldn’t address? If only these foam tapes came in more variations, your results would be so much better.
But that’s in the past – fast forward to now.
We’ve been in this business long enough to know that in flexo printing, any compromise, no matter how small, is almost always reflected in the quality of the printed product. And, we know you and your customers have higher standards than that!
That’s precisely why we evolved our stickyback tape line from the original two choices into a full matrix of tailored solutions – in both classic and flex designs.
Now, besides the wide range of options, what makes our tesa® Softprint selection so special?
- First… we don’t apply stress to the foam during manufacturing.
Why is this important? Because when all of the foam cells are untouched and undamaged, the foam is better able to absorb bounce from the sleeves that can leave chatter, or gear marks. It’s also more resilient. Our foam will compress and return to the same thickness over and over and over – from the first impression to the last. That means you’ll get beautiful results, from fine screens to deep solid areas, whether the job is a few thousand or a few million feet.
- And second, we’re very serious about the quality – and variety – of our adhesives.
Why is this important? Adhesive quality can mean the difference between having to clean residue off of every sleeve, or cylinder, when the job is stripped, or having the tape remove cleanly with little to no cleaning. Our adhesives prolong the useful life of your plates. Or, you can ruin them with sub-par adhesives and watch your costs go up. And who wants that?
There are many different plate materials – and thicknesses – used in modern flexo printing. So we’ve made sure the plate-side adhesives in our tesa® Softprint assortment are available in a large enough variety to accommodate them all. This is especially important, as the right plate-side adhesive will prevent edge lift with thicker plates, and tearing and stretching with thinner plates. You also want to be sure to choose an adhesive designed to bond to the cylinder or sleeve material you’re using to prevent bubbling and labor-intensive clean up.
Simply put, even with so many variables in play in flexo printing today, you can still breathe easy. We’ve formulated our tesa® Softprint adhesives to bond to sleeves, cylinders and plates as securely as possible during printing to completely eliminate any possibility of plate edge lifting, or bubbling. And, when the job is done, they remove as easily as a siliconized liner.