Thermographic Printing - Thermography As Raised Print Process

Thermography As Raised Print Process

Thermography is also the name of a post print process that is achieved today using traditional printing methods coupled with thermography machines. Thermography machines consist of three sections connected by a through conveyor.

The first section applies thermographic/embossing powder, made from plastic resins, to the substrate (normally paper). The areas selected for raised printing are printed with slow drying pigment inks that do not contain dryers or hardeners so that they remain wet during the application of powder. This ink is dried and hardened later during the heating process.

The second section of the process is a vacuum system that removes excess powder from uninked areas of the substrate.

The third section of the process conveys the product through a radiant oven where it is exposed to temperatures of 900 to 1300 degrees Fahrenheit. The heating process takes on the order of 2.5 to 3 seconds. The substrate (usually paper) has a peak in IR absorption at the wavelength used. Through conduction from the paper, the powder temperature rapidly increases and starts melting. When the process is correctly adjusted, the center of the largest filmed areas reach sufficient quality level as the product exits the heater. The melted ink then solidifies as the product cools.

This process is sometimes produced using manual powdering. The substrate with the wet ink areas selected for the effect are dipped into the powdered polymer. The sheet is tilted back and forth, rolling the powder across the image. The excess powder is removed by raising the substrate to a vertical position and lightly tapping the back. The powdered sheet is then fed into a radiant heating system as above at a speed to achieve a quality filming. In the case of craft applications, the powder is then melted using a heatgun that blows hot air.

It is commonly used on wedding invitations, letterheads, business cards, greetings cards, gift wrap, packaging and can also be used to print braille text. It is even sometimes used in diploma printing as an attractive alternative to the more expensive engraving option.

Read more about this topic:  Thermographic Printing

Famous quotes containing the words raised, print and/or process:

    Modern tourist guides have helped raised tourist expectations. And they have provided the natives—from Kaiser Wilhelm down to the villagers of Chichacestenango—with a detailed and itemized list of what is expected of them and when. These are the up-to- date scripts for actors on the tourists’ stage.
    Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)

    The country of the tourist pamphlet always is another country, an embarrassing abstraction of the desirable that, thank God, does not exist on this planet, where there are always ants and bad smells and empty Coca-Cola bottles to keep the grubby finger- print of reality upon the beautiful.
    Nadine Gordimer (b. 1923)

    A process in the weather of the world
    Turns ghost to ghost; each mothered child
    Sits in their double shade.
    A process blows the moon into the sun,
    Pulls down the shabby curtains of the skin;
    And the heart gives up its dead.
    Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)