16 June 2010

Drying time



Having spent a whole day at following Jerlov's print consultant Börje around to look at different printers and printing processes (a big thank you Börje! It was really kind of you to offer me this opportunity) I was left with new insights into things and a mix of surprise and awe at some of the processes in use today.

The processes look much the same as they did at the birth of offset printing and screen printing, hence I recogized just about all the processes as the same as I have done hands-on when I was doing fine-art-printing. It amazing though, how technology has refined and cleaned up the printing industry. Things like using vegetable based inks and a mixture of chalk and sugar to make a thin film that seperates each sheet as it dries in stacks on the pallet. Humidity and air temperature where also really imporant. It is amazing how paper is so sensitive.

Drying times were one thing that really got to and drove home the importance of giving the printers ample time to print things. On uncoated paper the drying time i approx one day. For coated paper it takes approx 2-3 days. And on thicker substrates such as board drying time may be a whole week!

As if that isn't enough I just read an article about the drying time of reflex blue, it amazing that anything gets done on time really:

http://www.paperspecs.com/mainblog/the-reflex-blue-blues/

The photograph shows a print-finishing-line so to speak. The pages are about to be sent along to be glue-bound, attached to a cover, and then trimmed.