Energy curable, heat activated flexographic adhesives for die-less foiling
AssigneeINX International Ink Company
InventorsXIANG JUN LIU, JONATHAN B. GRAUNKE, ELI J. KENDRA, STEPHEN B. MITCHELL
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Abstract
Adhesive compositions disclosed herein can be applied to substrates using flexo-printing (via, e.g., photopolymer plate); cured to a hardened, tack-free state; and readily be rendered tacky on application of heat and pressure to accurately transfer foil to the substrates. An example adhesive composition includes a monomer component, an oligomer/resin component including one or more oligomers and one or more inert thermoplastic resins that are soluble in the monomers, and, where required, one or more free radical polymerization initiators.
Claims11
A method of transferring foil to a substrate in an image pattern comprising:
- providing a foil bearing web;
- providing a substrate for receiving foil from the web;
- applying an adhesive composition to the substrate in an image pattern through a flexographic printing process, wherein the adhesive composition comprises
- a monomer component comprising one or more free-radical curing monofunctional monomers;
- an oligomer/resin component comprising one or more oligomers, one or more inert thermoplastic resins, or a combination thereof, the oligomer/resin component being soluble in the one or more monofunctional monomers;
- and
- optionally one or more functional additives for curing the one or more monofunctional monomers upon exposure to UV, LED, or EB radiation;
- applying UV, LED, or EB radiation to the image pattern to cure the adhesive composition to a hardened, and tack-free state;
- and
- positioning the substrate bearing the cured image pattern against the foil of the foil bearing web and applying heat and pressure to render the adhesive composition tacky and transfer foil onto the image pattern.
-20. (canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.