It must be clear that not every plate mounting tape fits to every printer. Individual requirements, operating procedures, and printing consumables can affect the performance of a tape’s adhesive. Using the wrong combination can lead to hard plate demounting after printing and can even lead to plate damage, resulting in high material costs and hold-ups during production.
Ideally, a mounting tape’s adhesive holds the plate firmly in place during printing, yet allows for easy and clean removal after the job is printed. The key lies in choosing a tape that specifically fits the individual circumstances at your production site. This includes printing consumables such as plates or type of inks, but is also highly dependent on existing plate cleaning processes and plate cleaners.
It is the residues of solvent-based inks on the backside of the printing plate which can lead to very hard plate demounting in combination with many plate mounting tapes. Why? Because chemical binders within the inks manipulate the bond between plate and tape, it becomes too aggressive, and the plate cannot be easily removed any longer. So these residues either need to be avoided altogether through thorough cleaning, or a different plate mounting tape needs to be chosen.
When it comes to plate cleaning, automatic plate cleaning machines can unfortunately help ink residues to find their way on plate backsides. Even the thinnest layer of ink residues can cause serious damage. Laboratory tests even show that the thinner the layer, the harder it gets to demount plates. Meaning that even plates which look perfectly clean can feature the residues of chemical binders, but they will not be noticed until an increase in the demounting force results in plate damage.
