Surface treatment for label printing applications
The task
With extremely compact dimensions and the consequential special demands on corona stations and generators, surface treatment systems for label applications have a special position in the portfolio of products offered by SOFTAL. Whereas corona stations for film stretching lines can easily have widths in excess of 10 m, treatment stations for label applications are located at the other end of the spectrum with widths limited to a few centimeters.
In label applications corona treatment is used to functionalize the surface of material web to improve the adhesion of print colours, lacquers, adhesives and other coatings on labels. The relatively small systems required by this market demand compact corona stations that can easily be integrated into new or existing production systems.
The CLN series of corona stations and corresponding generators by SOFTAL are equipped with a number of interfaces and tried-and-tested measurement, notification and monitoring functions and thus ideally prepared for integration into different systems. Compact dimensions, low weight, and the cantilever design allow the design of easily accessible systems. In addition, the CLN series of corona stations has a removable electrode module which further simplifies cleaning, maintenance and process-specific applications.
Results
Improved adhesion
Low operating cost
Characteristics
Adhesion guaranteed
We are proud of our growing global customer base that includes manufacturers of film production lines, finishers, film producers and research companies.
Naturally, the portfolio of products offered by SOFTAL is just as multi-faceted as our customer base. This is made possible by the modular design of our treatment systems, which allows customer-specific changes and a rapid development of new systems and processes. This ideal starting point allows us to meet customer demands and achieve results. Guaranteed.
Customer-specific interfaces and solutions
The numerous hardware and software solutions offered by our treatment systems ensure seamless integration into customer-specific systems and processes. Starting from proven standard components, our systems can be modified to suit any material and/or process. We specialize in the surface treatment of your materials – so you can concentrate on your core business.
Refresher treatment for converting steps
When a film has finally arrived at the production facility of the converter, the surface energy of the film is often not enough for perfect converting results. In this case, converters apply a so-called refresher corona treatment to the material to improve its surface energy and increase its wettability and achieve better adhesion of colours and coatings.
Install and forget
SOFTAL has been part of the corona and plasma industry for more than half a century. Our engineers and developers know, what really matters at the end of the production day. Factors like easy maintenance and service, low operating cost, long life and the optimum in operator safety are considered early in the development process to ensure maximum user-friendliness and up-time.
User-oriented
During all design and construction phases of our corona systems, SOFTAL ensures that our systems are easy to use and, most of all, provide the maximum benefit during their entire life cycle. In the case of corona stations, this requires the following: Easy insertion, replacement and correction of film web, optimum access for cleaning and maintenance purpose and ease of use. The new generation of generators will be equipped with another important component: Here, a rotary controller and touchscreen were combined to create our most user-friendly user interface yet.
Cost efficiency
SOFTAL generators are setting the industry benchmark for efficiency and cost effectiveness. Careful balancing between generator, transformer and treatment station ensure that the system operates at resonance frequency. This means that the treatment system operates at maximum efficiency, keeping the operating costs as low as possible over the entire lifetime.
SOFTAL surface treatment for label applications
Corona
Material surfaces are treated with the plasma generated by a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) to increase their surface energy. An increase in surface energy leads to an increase in the adhesive forces exerted by the surface, which is a major advantage for printing, laminating and other processes. This effect is therefore used frequently in the production and converting of plastic films and other substrates.
Plasma
So-called plasma treatment technology is based on the same principle as corona treatment systems. However, in a plasma treatment system, the discharge is ignited within an atmosphere of pure Nitrogen. This gives the user better control of the process gas atmosphere and treatment results.
Linear Plasma
Linear Plasma is a further development of the Plasma Jet technology and suitable for treatment of large surface areas. As no counter-electrode outside of the electrode housing is required, this technology is suitable for materials of virtually unlimited thickness. Another important feature of Linear Plasma is the ability to generate a potential-free plasma, which is usable on even the most sensitive materials that would otherwise be destroyed by a plasma discharge.
ALDYNE™
In an ALDYNE™ system, the plasma is ignited within an exactly controlled process gas atmosphere. The composition of the process gas can be adjusted, until the process gas atmosphere and plasma discharge fit the requirements of the related material perfectly. Often used in combination with our patented liquid-cooled electrodes, ALDYNE™ offers extreme results on extreme materials.
Corona stations
The portfolio of products offered by SOFTAL is as diverse as the possible applications of corona technology. Our corona and plasma systems are always based on our tried and tested standard components, but specifically chosen and adopted to meet the demands of your materials and processes.
Corona generators
SOFTAL corona generators are, of course, just as adaptive as our corona stations. It goes without saying that the products of a company that has been successful in the market for decades offer the ease-of-use, robustness, low maintenance and service costs and numerous small and large solutions for smooth everyday production work that you expect form a global player.
