Enhances selected areas of your print in a high gloss finish for instant impact
Spot UV Varnishing is a screen process application, whereby varnish is printed through a silk screen then cured by exposure to high-intensity UV light. The resulting coating gives a high-gloss finish which not only highlights key elements of the design, but also increases the sharpness and depth of the printed colours. This is especially effective in contrast with a matt laminated background.
We can also supply Matt Spot UV Varnish and High Build Spot UV Varnish (sometimes referred to as Braille Varnish or Emboss Varnish).
The Spot UV varnish image is created by exposing a film positive on to the silk screen (similar to making litho plates before the advent of CTP) but if you don’t have the facility to output films we can do that for you, just e-mail a pdf of your image to uvfilm@lancashirelaminators.co.uk
Tips to Get the Best Spot UV Varnished Job
It is our job to enhance the print our customers send us, and we always put our best efforts into achieving that end. However, sometimes we know that a job could have been just a bit better if only the customer had supplied it to us a little differently. So here are our top tips for getting the best job possible:-
Use less spray powder:
You wouldn’t throw dust on a door before painting it, would you? If the design of a job means you know you are going to have to spray heavily, allow time to run the job back through the press to remove the excess powder.
Give us enough bleed:
We need 12mm grip and 1mm at the other edges (but remember our side-lay is mechanical and can sometimes cause marks)
Take care with coatings:
We like the fact that machine seals and varnishes make printwork easier to handle without marking, however some do contain high levels of wax or silicone which make it very difficult to get a good bond. Speak to your coatings supplier if a coating is designed as a topcoat or finish coat, it should really not be used when a further coating is required, whether laminate or UV varnish. To take a further coating effectively, the surface tension of the print you supply to us should be at least 38 dynes/sq. cm.
Make sure the print is dry:
Sheets which are printed in dark colours on both sides tend to contain trapped, uncured solvents, which can migrate to the underneath surface of the print during the curing of the first side and then cause the UVvarnish to not take on the second side. This problem is exacerbated by the use of seals and varnishes which make the outer surface of the first side of the print hard enough to not mark when being backed up.
Send us a mock-up:
If we are working from a pdf that has been sent by e-mail or on disc or pen-drive, we have no way of verifying that the image we output is what you (or the end-user) require. Quite often a customer’s job will have been amended after the UV file has been created, or there will be a misreading from one RIP to another, so we always recommend that a customer sends a mock-up or some other form of confirmation of the UV image required.
Use the right materials:
Uncoated paper and board can only be Spot UV Varnished by using High Build varnish or by varnishing first with a Matt Spot UV Varnish, and both techniques are expensive and slow. Fanal pigments (as described above in Thermal Lamination) can leach out or bleach away and there is no solution except to use the laminate-able and varnish-able fanal-free inks which ink companies can supply.
Check first:
We are always happy to run test sheets to help you make early decisions and avoid expensive mistakes.
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