When printing with sleeves that offer a compressible surface layer, an incompressible self-adhesive plate mounting tape should be used.
These tapes are commonly based on film backings and a full assortment should feature different adhesives to cater to all possible applications and market needs.
Our decades of experience in flexographic printing tapes result in constant assortment updates. Quite recently, we launched our new tesa® 52918.
We developed this tape especially for a highly esteemed customer, who was looking for the perfect tape to use on Flint Rotec® non-conductive compressible sleeves in combination with 1.7 mm (0.067 inch) plates. In close cooperation with our customer, we were able to launch a perfectly balanced tape that provides a secure bond to both the sleeve and plate, while maintaining its ability to be easily removed upon completion of the print job.
We incorporated a flexible, yet sufficiently strong film backing, so the handling of the product and easy demounting can be guaranteed. The product’s paper liner features a special micro-structured surface, which ensures very smooth and unobstructed manual mounting of the tape to the sleeve. The state-of-the-art adhesives of tesa® 52918 provide both solvent resistance and resistance against contaminations on the backside of the printing plate with residues of nitrocellulose (NC) based inks.
This feature prevents an increase of the bonding strength between plate and tape during printing, which would otherwise cause difficult plate demounting or even plate damage during demounting of the printing plate.
During plate mounting, the plate-side adhesive allows for repositioning of the plate if needed, without interfering with the reliable bond of the tape to the sleeve.
