Zeller Gmelin expands cold foil stamping adhesive range

Printing ink manufacturer Zeller Gmelin has added two new developments to its range of adhesives for cold foil stamping. The new adhesives O0830 and O0831 from the Euralux-series have been developed for conventional sheet-fed offset printing. These adhesives supplement the existing product ranges of adhesives for UV offset, UV letterpress and UV flexo printing; the latter being mainly used in narrow web printing where inline foil finishing is already popular.

The new Zeller Gmelin adhesives for cold foil stamping in conventional sheetfed offset printing are applied by means of a standard offset printing unit. A constant and controllable filmweight is essential to achieve good quality of the foil stamping however up to now the filmweight of adhesive applied has been difficult to control. For example, if in production excess adhesive is applied ‘squeezed edges’ that occur during the lamination process leading to blurred edges of the stamped motif. 

In order to solve this problem, Zeller Gmelin now offer its adhesives for cold foil stamping in specially pigmented versions. The adhesive Euralux O0830 is intended for the use in combination with gold foils and is therefore toned yellow whereas Euralux O0831 adhesive has been developed for the use with silver foils and consequently has been colored grey. The pigmentation of the adhesives enables a densitometric measurement of the applied filmweight. By means of this control a constant and requirements-based application during production is guaranteed.

In the near future, Zeller Gmelin will be introducing further additions to its product range of adhesives for cold foil stamping. These will be in the Uvalux range, suitable for UV curing sheet fed offset application. Uvalux U0830 for use with gold foils and Uvalux U0831 for silver foils, are currently under development.

Initial tests reportedly show good results and Zeller Gmelin plans to introduce these two new UV-adhesives at the forthcoming drupa exhibition in Dsseldorf.

Typical fields of application for cold foil stamping are printed products like folding boxes, cigarette packaging, chocolate wrapping, labels and art prints. The application in the field of packaging make special demands on the adhesives to be used and consequently an important development objective is that the adhesives Euralux O0830 and Euralux O0831 feature low odor and taint properties. In order to verify these properties Zeller Gmelin has had the adhesives analyzed by the independent testing institute ISEGA based in Aschaffenburg.

Additional important features of the two adhesives are good printability, fast curing as well as good adhesion of the stamping foil on a variety of different substrates. The adhesives are suitable for all current press configurations for cold-foil stamping offered by the major manufacturers of sheet-fed offset printing presses. No special washing solutions are required for cleaning the printing unit which was used for the application of the adhesives.