You’re a print shop and you are looking for that edge. Not just an edge in the type of print finishes you can apply to your high-end offset printing, but the complete package. You are searching for the right fit for your print shop so that you can see efficiencies in operations, less waste in your materials, higher throughput with your workflow and satisfied customers with the final print product. A wow with significant business impact.
Foil embellishment to print is a good way to grab attention and leave a lasting impression. It is a capability print buyers and designers are looking for in a print shop. The challenge as a print shop is finding a solution that allows for the most efficient, high-quality and easy process of applying the cold foil to offset print. The answer is a 2-step foolproof inline system.
Eagle Systems has many systems installed and has turned the art of cold foil into a science for high-efficiency, high-quality and easy-to-use cold foil. Eagle Systems units are self-contained and fully automatic, with the additional advantage of being able to be installed on most sheet fed offset printing presses. Configured in a twin printing tower setup, the cold foil is applied in two easy steps.
Step One
The Eagle uses the first two towers of the printing press to perform the cold foil process. Adhesive is placed in tower #1 in the ink tray and applied to the substrate in the design defined using a standard printing plate, transferring image on plate to standard printing blanket.
Step Two
The Eagle cold foil unit is mounted on top of tower two and feeds silver cold foil through the blanket and impression cylinders of the tower where it sticks to the adhesive in the defined areas. No printing plate is needed. The foil carrier is rewound into the unit and substrate continues to next tower for printing. The foil is then overprinted with ink giving a brilliant, shiny and unique finish. When foil is not being applied, normal printing with ink can be performed in both towers.
And that is it! Okay, so that is it from the printing process perspective since the operation of the Eagle Cold Foil System is fully automatic. But what about the efficiency for operators and the reduced waste? We have you covered.
Switch on the Fly
With the inline design, our system is built to easily allow operators to switch from regular print to cold foil applications. The operator just needs to restring the foil, change the blanket, washout the ink in tower #1 and replace with adhesive. You are now ready to foil which runs at the same speed as the printing press and without stopping. This reduces your press downtime and increases your continuous production.
Cold Foil Advantages
Imagine…being able to foil both sides of the substrate without leaving an impression, provide ultra-fine detail to 200-line screen, halftone screens, one color foil- silver, can run single or multiple webs at same time, no costly dies, true litho registration, ideal for long or short runs and runs at press speeds up to 18,000 sph.
Simple Software Operation
The Eagle is fully automatic and controlled by high-end software designed with operator usability in mind. Mike King, our foil expert, said in an interview:
“It’s like getting in a car and saying, ‘Okay I’m at my office and I want to go home and all you have to do is sit there and the car drives itself. There’s no steering wheel, there’s nothing to program. The Eagle is self-teaching and has extremely high-end software so the operators don’t have to program it.”
Even our customers have been quoted in saying that the Eagle Cold Foil System basically won’t let you make a mistake as an operator. This saves you a lot of waste and downtime compared to other systems out on the market.
Eagle Systems also has a Cold Foil Certification program to ensure that you get the most out of your system while providing the most knowledge and training to your operators. The combination is powerful and has allowed all graduating customers to see gains in quality and productivity.
If you are looking for an easy and less complex inline cold foil solution for your sheet fed offset press, contact us here Eagle Systems. Mike and our other foil experts look forward to helping you create amazing foil applications that will leave a lasting impression with your customers.
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