Films are widely used as packaging material in a large number of industries. In the food, confectionary and pharmaceutical industries in particular, presentation plays a major part in advertising and promotion of products via effective packaging.
The ink blocking test simulates the high pressure of packaging reels. These reels are transferred from an ink-printer to a converter/sealant printer where an adhesive or cold seal is applied. The reel needs to unwind smoothly at high speed (150-200 m/min) without ripping the ink design off the substrate.
In this note we look at two simple tests of these properties which involve a hydraulic press and heated platens: (1) ink transfer & film adhesion on a flexographic printed film, and (2) ink transfer & cold seal properties of a gravure printed film.