Printing with a) Conventional Offset   or  b) UV Offset

Staticks® sheets are glued onto the backer by glue lines on each long side due to air blow. Do not cut the glue lines before printing. Offset printers who already work with plastics such as vinyl or polyester will find the material to be similar.

Use as small amount of ink, water and fountain solution as possible.
Allow the Staticks sheets/material to condition to the press room environment before printing. Use low tack inks for printing on thin polypropylane materials.

Air sheets properly prior to loading, run in short lifts of some 300 sheets if UV is not used. Position air blowers so that the air separates the sheets to minimize blocking. Separate manually first sheets if needed.

Heaters should be turned off and drying time should be increased. Excessive heat will cause shrinkage of the plastic film and will adversely affect the charge in film.
For UV Offset, adjust UV lamps to a minimum level that still cures inks but does not wrinkle the film.

Drying, Powders - Traditional Offset:
Use small lifts of some 250 sheets to help drying and to prevent offsetting.
Use no more offset powder than necessary prefably 30-50 micron grain size.
Drying should not exceed +35 C, takes 12-48 hours depending on colors used.
Offsetting may occur if stacks are too heavy or size of powder grain too small.

Extra air - if needed:
Use enough of air blow in feeding process to separate sheets. Glued side and lines are for air blow and sheets can be cutted in smaller size if air blow is available only on one side.
Air sheets properly prior to loading, run in short lifts of some 300 sheets if UV is not used.
Position air blowers so that air separates sheets to prevent blocking.
Use additional side blowers if needed. Position side air towards to rear or back of the stack, good max speed less than 6000  sheets per hour.
For traditional offset do not use IR dryers, the intensity of the IR lamps may cause the film to curl, expand, profile change due to excessive heat.

Static Eliminators
Do not use any antistatic devices including printing or handling, it will reduce the charge of the material.

Coatings
Do not use varnish or aqueous coatings, do not use any additional drying additives or drying pastes unless tested first.
Coatings and drying pastes may eliminate the static load and curl the material, check first with small quantity.

Recommendered Inks - please also consult with you ink supplier:
Traditional-Offset:
1) Siegwerk Folio     2) Sun Chemical Foils 44   3) Flint Group Novaplast

UV-Offset - please contact us also for ink recommendations
1) Hostmann-Steinberg (NewV Poly Series)
2) Sun Chemical (Suncure Starluxe)

Post-Press
Staticks® can be die-cut and kiss-cut, avoid narrow thin shapes which may curl away from the surface. Avoid sharp corners which may cause the film to tear. Scoring, perforating and direct mail inserting is also possible. Do not cut the glue lines for auto handling.
In dry climate, winter time, protect final sticker/poster from extra humidity when delivering it to clients, cardboard may shrink, plastic not.

Screen Printing
Printing should be done off-contact and nylon or stainless steel mesh can be used depending upon the print job. Drying should be done at room temperature. Air-drying the materials will not degrade the clinging properties. Drying should be done on horizontal drying racks. The product is most often backed with paper. Keep the attachment surface clean and free of fingerprints and dust.

Enamels can be used if they are slow drying and have been designed for printing on polypropylene. 

Epoxies have also been used successfully, REX series is a one part epoxy which has been used to screen polypropylene materials and Air Dry Epoxy (ADE) is another one part epoxy ink available from Advanced Process Supply.

Flexographic Printing
Flexographic printing can be done on either stack or CI-type presses with web tension between 0.33 and 0.5 lbs/in. Print speeds of between the 100-150 m/min, 350 and 450 feet/min are common in the industry. Adequate heat and good air flow are required in the dryer. Dryer temperatures of 90-120° C (200 to 250° F)  result in a web temperature of 50-60 C°  (120 to 140° F). It is good practice to check the actual web temperature using a surface pyrometer.

The material is charged before printing. Excessive heat should not be used as this will adversely affect the charge. Make test runs.

Guidelines For Graphic Design and Software for Staticks
Generally, larger-sized applications work better for Staticks Film than very small pieces, prefer min 5*5 cm. Staticks can be kiss-cut or dye-cut, but long thin protuberances should be avoided.
Max printable area on 650*480 sheet is 645*450 mm for bleeds and codes.
Consult your printing house repro for digital art work and software used.
Resolution for plastic to be sufficient - pictures 300 dpi, art pictures 1200 dpi, max amount of color in profile is 270% - curving may exist on more.

Staticks-Prints can be tiled to create very large images and will also stick
to itself so that clear Staticks Film can be used for overlays.
See also application ideas web-page

Programs and data format used by printing houses:
- ready made pdf, Indesign CS3, Illustrator, Freehand
- prefer - ready made pdf
- on cd, dvd, usb-stick
- pdf-file should include fonts, pictures, grafics, logos
- pdf-files should be the size reserved considereng needed cutting space,
  e.g. 3 mm, reslution 300 dpi, cmyk-setup, color cheme Euroscale coated
- magazine insert - pdf-file with right setup for publishing press-setup.
  Use Adobe Acrobat Distiller
- latest programs (eg. Adobe CS3) allow direct pdf-output

Silk Screen Printing
Silk screen printing puts down a heavy ink deposit which will cause the material to curl toward the printed image. This problem can be avoided by:

a. Solid blocks of color should be smaller then 2,5 x 2,5 cm (1"x1")
b. Solid areas of color should be 5 cm  2" inches or more from the edge
   of the film.
c. Use shading wherever possible.

Glow in the Dark" inks must be applied by silk screening. These areas should be kept as small as possible as the ink deposit is particularly heavy.
Typical resolution is 30 lines per inch. Trapping should be 0,8 mm (0.030 inches).

Flexographic Printing
Flexographic printers fall into two categories: label printers with web width capability of 40 cm (16") maximum and packaging printers with typical web widths of 100 cm (40"). Both types of printers can handle repeats of 60 cm (24"). In general, the label printers deliver a higher print quality than do the packaging printers. The typical flexo press can put down six colors in one pass.

1. Flexographic printing deposits less ink than silk screening, therefore solid areas can be larger. If color bleeds are used they should be half tones. Do not overcoat or undercoat the designs without first checking for curling. If these coatings are used, they should be screened back and as thin as possible.
2. Fluorescent inks can be printed flexographically.
3. Typical resolution is 130 lines per inch. Four color process is possible, as long as 130 line resolution is adequate. This is only true using the smaller label presses. Because the plate is wrapped around cylinder, the image must be corrected for distortion and adjusted for 0,38 mm (0.015 inch) trapping. We suggest letting the printer correct for dot gain trapping and distortion.
4. No water-based inks are recommended.

Magazine Inserts
Flexographic printers fall into two categories: label printers with web width capability of 40 cm (16") maximum and packaging printers with typical web widths of 100 cm (40"). Both types of printers can handle repeats of 60 cm (24"). In general, the label printers deliver a higher print quality than do the packaging printers. The typical flexo press can put down six colors in one pass.

- separate insert
- page inside with Staticks sheet
- on the front or at the back of magazine covers