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Artwork for Ribbon : Multi-Color Printing :

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Multi-Colour Printing :

Part of getting the most out of your Malahide Hot Stamping Press is understanding how our machinery can allow you to produce multi-colored hot stamped designs.

Malahide Ribbon Printing Systems.

Malahide Ribbon Printing Systems are different than many in the way we run our foil. Most presses run foil from side to side, with the flow of the ribbon. Malahide Ribbon Printing Systems run the foil across the ribbon (i.e.: ribbon runs east-west, foil runs south-north). This allows you to segment the colour of the ribbon by running different rolls of foil, of different widths up to a total width of 10". Using this process, precise 4 - 5 colour designs can be created to run and register at speeds of up to 7,200/hour.

There are two ways to run multi-colour foil set-ups:

Bands of Colour

As shown in the above diagram, by simply running different rolls of different colored foil across the substrate, one can easily produce segmented multi-colour prints.

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Multi-Colour Stepping

More complex to set-up are registered, multi-colour designs. These designs are distinguished from the 'Bands of Colour" method because they require one colour to print directly onto the top of another. This is achieved by stamping the ribbon multiple times in one pass.

Remembering that the print area is generally 10" long, taking the sample above, if one pulls the ribbon only 5" per cycle, it follows that in the 10" print area, one will have 2 opportunities to hot stamp a design onto the ribbon. By setting up each 5" side of the 10" die with a separate colour of foil, the printing process runs:

• Print Stage # 1 w/ 1st Colour
  next

• Advance Ribbon 5"
  (pulls it half-printed over to Print Stage # 2)
  next

• Print Stage # 2 on top of Stage # 1

Using this method, one can practically hot stamp up to a 4 colour designs (each colour 2.5" long).

Maximum design length per # colours :

An implication of using a multi-colour stepping process is that with every additional colour you add, the overall length of the design you can print decreases.  The chart below demonstrates the ratio between the # of colours and length of design.