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[February 2004]
Emery Colours Chooses Capillex CP
Emery Colours Ltd (Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent, England), a well known designer and producer of high volume decals and colour products for the ceramic industry, is now using Capillex CP from Autotype International Ltd (Wantage, Oxon, England) on its fully automated print systems for the production of decals for candles and mugs.
Autotype's Capillex CP is used in conjunction with Sericol's screen making materials and this partnership is said to be helping Emery Colours attain exceptionally high and consistent levels of print quality in an aggressive production environment.
Emery has invested in six, automated roll-to-roll print machines, capable of producing over 250,000 decal sheets per month. Each system incorporates a roll feed station, screen print area, hot air dryer and roll take-off unit.
Brian Ward, Print Manager for Emery Colours, said: "Print quality and consistency are crucial and depend almost entirely on the efficiency and accuracy of the screen print process, from screens that can be up to 76cm in length. The challenge, however, is to achieve this in high volumes from a system that places considerable stresses on the screen materials - stresses that are a consequence both of the automated screen print mechanisms and the use of the relatively abrasive ceramic inks.
"The squeegee units, however carefully they are adjusted, will always place high pressure on the screen mesh. To achieve the high level of accuracy required, the screen is stretched up to 10% tighter than is normally the case."
Capillex CP is specially formulated for ultra-fine half tone and line printing, making it ideal says Autotype for the high definition images that are used in the decals for candles and mugs. These decals include seasonal and festive images, plus a wide range of subjects such as animals, star signs, fruits and flowers. In each case, images are often complex multi-colour incorporating a broad spread of tones.
Brian Ward added: "Capillex CP film provides excellent screen reproduction, with a low stencil profile and Rz giving a superb half tone dot across all colours, low ink build and minimal ink skipping. Perhaps as importantly, the film in combination with the high quality mesh used gives us the ability to handle high resolution output, typically at 112 lines per inch, yet is sufficiently resilient to produce in excess of 12,000 impressions.
"High definition and high volume transfer printing for the decoration of products such as candles and mugs is a complex process, with a large number of variables that can affect the final result. The function of the screen in controlling the print quality and ink deposit is crucial and we believe that in Capillex CP we have found the best possible solution to ensure that we maintain our already high levels of success."
Website: www.autotype.com
ENDS