Sleeve Application
Sleeves can be applied manually or by machine. Fully automatic applications work on an "endless tubing" method. The cutting system depends on line speed: low speed (<250 per minute) must be cut by guillotine knife

Shrink-sleeve Processing	Roll-sleeve Processing

Printing Methods
Klöckner Pentaplast films do not require pre-treatment for print adhesion, however the choice of ink system is important.

• Gravure printing is widely used because it allows you to print complex designs. It requires spirit ester inks, thinned with mixtures of ethyl acetate and alcohols.
• Flexographic printing is another option. Solvent-based inks require different ink resins, thinned with mixtures of ethyl acetate and alcohols. Water- or UV-based inks are applied directly to the film surface, after corona-treating the film prior to printing.
• Rotary offset printing uses paste UV inks consisting primarily of water and alcohol achieving high-quality resolution at high-speed output and low operational costs, after corona-treating the film prior to printing.
• Digital printing uses photographic quality images and is the ideal process for prototypes and short-run projects. It requires special coatings for ink adhesion.
• Drying Process has no draw back. Temperature settings depend on printing speed and the length of the drying zone.

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Tube Forming
When it comes to tube forming, shrink-sleeve and roll-sleeve processes differ. In the roll-sleeve process, the tube is created on a roll-fed mandrill and seamed by hot-melt, solvent, heat-bar, or laser processes. The tube is created directly on the labeling line. In the shrink-sleeve process, the tube can be formed either by gluing the seam or by ultrasonic welding, but gluing is widely preferred because of its faster processing speed.

For the shrink-sleeve process, the best glue-solvent mixture depends on:

• Solvent application/machinery
• Production line parameters, such as speed, solvent quantity, etc.
• Polymer
• Temperature of film, solvent, and ambient temperature

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Shrinking Process
The shrinking process can be controlled by a number of factors:

• Beam temperature of the infrared radiation in the tunnel
• Hot-air flow for hot-air tunnels
• Steam flow in the steam tunnel
• For best shrink results in steam tunnels, we recommend ~90°C [210°F] maximum temperature

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