Understanding the Drying and Folding Processes of Heat Set Web Printing Method

By | October 9, 2011

Looking for a printing service provider in the Arlington area? You may want to drive around and check some good heat set commercial printers out there

Looking for a printing service provider in the Arlington area? You may want to drive around and check out some good heat set printers out there. Arlington heat set web printing companies can provide you with quality prints at your convenience.

Heat set web printing is a printing method that utilizes heat to dry the ink on a printed sheet. This process makes used of ink that doesn’t absorb into the sheet thus, heat is applied. Two of the components that make heat set web printing possible are the oven drier and chill rolls.

The oven drier and chill rolls operate in tandem with each other to ensure that the ink on the sheet is dry. They also prevent the ink to set-off. In order to dry the ink, the web passes through a dryer after going through the last printing unit. This stage exposes the moving web to a temperature of as high as 300 to 350 F degrees. This temperature is necessary to make most of the ink solvent to evaporate as well as to soften the ink resins, which binds the ink pigments together.

After passing through the drying ovens, the web then goes into the chill roll component. Chill rolls are called as such as they are basically rolls that contain cooled water to make the temperature cool enough (about 90 degrees) to set the binder and pigment and ultimately produce a dry print.

Of course, as with any printing process, heat set web printing also provides folding and cutting. Many high-speed web presses are equipped with folding devices. These components have the capacity to fold printed webs into signatures or set of pages as it leaves the machine. Depending on the kind of work, the press utilizes different folders, which can be any of these types: jaw folders, former folders and chopper folders.

There are times when the three folders are used into a combination folding device. A former folder folds the web making it pass over a triangular board. This stage folds the web along its length. After passing the former fold, additional folds are made using the jaw and chopper folders. The jaw folder folds the printed web across its width by letting it to move up a cylinder with a tucker blade that places the paper into a jaw on an opposite cylinder. After going through the folding jaw, the web is cut into separate signatures and enters a chopper folder, if necessary. In the chopper folder, each signature is placed between a pair of rotating fold rollers for the final fold.

Having the right equipment for your print job is an important consideration when looking for a reliable Arlington heat set web printing company. For instances, a good web press is equipped with a sheeter that cuts the printed web into sheets for possible post-press processes.

Whatever type of printing job you require, always make sure that the printing company you hire understands your needs and can guarantee excellent service and printed output.