How it Prints

Polyart® adapts quickly to most printing processes, such as flexography, lithography, gravure, rotary letterpress, screen, as well as variable information systems such as thermal transfer, ion deposition, dot matrix, ink jet, etc.

Polyart's clay coating is responsible for its ability to readily accept color - and show it off beautifully. 
Polyart ensures rich, vivid images with excellent ink holdout without requiring special preparation.

Printing Tips

Inks

  • Use litho inks (which have low mineral oil content) and control ink/water balance.  You'll get the same printing result with minimum damping and less ink film.
  • With lighter basis weights, use special inks with very low mineral oil content that are allowed to dry entirely by oxidation.
  • For best results, consult with your ink suppliers.
  • For both heavier and lighter basis weights, print on the dry side while maintaining good ink/water balance.
  • Ink tacks should be in 16 tack or below.
  • Multi-color work is best achieved when printed in a single pass on a multi-color press.

Proofing

  • Where possible, practice undercolor removal in wet-on-wet printing (to keep film weight down).
  • Use minimum ink weight in solid area

Drying

  • Ink is usually run straight from the can.
  • In some instances, may need to include small amount of non-mineral oil reducer. (Consult ink manufacturer in these cases.)
  • Successful results can be achieved using UV drying techniques with appropriate UV inks, as well as electron beam and infrared drying techniques.
  • Oven temperature should not exceed 74°C / 165°F. (Maximum web temperature 38°C / 100°F)

Stacking

Heights of approximately 500 sheets (5 inches / 13cm or less) are recommended.

Feeding

Polyart will feed just like a matte-coated paper on all types of feeders. Ensure that sheets are aired (fanned) prior to printing.

Anti-Offset Spray Powder

  • Should be used during printing by litho and letterpress. 
  • With heavy four-color process and/or solid background work, use non-vanishing, starch-based offset sprays of small particle size (20 microns and above ≈ .5 to 1 mil). 

Humidity

Keep pressroom humidity levels at 45-60%.

Small Offset Machines

  • Keep the proposed end-use in mind when selecting inks. (For example, light-fast inks must be specified for prints to be exposed to sunlight.) 
  • Synthetic oxidizing inks are recommended.

Litho & Letterpress

For best results, use screen sizes of up to 175 screen.