Corona Treatment: An Adhesion Promoter for Water-Based & UV-Cured Printing, 1996 New Printing Technologies Symposium Proceedings

David A. Markgraf

Enercon Industries Corp.

Maintaining high quality impressions on film, metallized film and foil webs at production level line speeds requires a controlled balance between substrate surface characteristics and ink chemistry to meet both production goals and environmental regulations. Substrate surface energy is the most obvious characteristic that requires measurement and control, but it plays a different role in water-based versus radiation curable inks. Water-based inks present a problem because of the high dyne level of water which is a major component in the ink. With radiation-cured inks, the very rapid cure rate increases adhesion problems because of the ink’s viscosity, flow-out and shrinkage characteristics. Improving bond sites on the surface of the substrate along with increasing the surface energy can alleviate these problems. Corona treatment can promote bond sites and increase surface energy without sacrificing the positive properties of the substrate and ink.