Consistent Film Performance Key To Success

The Bally Wulff group in Berlin, is one of the leading German suppliers of gaming machines.

The Bally Wulff group in Berlin, is one of the leading German suppliers of gaming machines.

Joachim Weber, the manager of the company's screen printing and graphics area of the company, explained one of the cornerstones of the business's success: "Our success in international markets means very short production and delivery times.

This has led to a dramatic growth in demand for the screen printed glass panels and emblem supports.

As a result we are continually confronted with numerous challenges in production, such as consistent high quality and near perfect registration." He added: "All of our designs and films are produced in-house as they are required to be sub-surface printed in reverse on the glass panels with UV inks.

The close viewing distance of the gaming machines requires us to print fine halftones, which can cause some problems.

The demands for reproducibility are also very high.

Depending on the need and also the success of a game, the numbers to be produced vary between 150 and 6,000 items and are often repeated." Weber explained that typically, 10, 12 or even 15 colours are printed on each panel so care is needed.

The high thread count of the fabric, at 150cm, is needed for printing UV inks but it can also cause some problems as the company is printing on to glass.

He continued: "As a result we use a considerable number of screens in a month, each of them over one square metre.

Precision is everything; precision in mesh tension, stencil thickness and flatness and print reproduction, as even the smallest deviation in the colour value will be shown up by the back illumination." Weber added that there is no other choice but to use capillary films if print jobs are to be uniformly repeated and the best quality obtained.

He emphasised: "The most consistent films are those of the Autotype Capillex range from MacDermid Autotype.

We have been using Autotype Capillex CP across Europe for more than three years now and find that this film best meets our needs".

Autotype Capillex CP photostencil has been formulated for very fine halftone and line printing, said MacDermid Autotype.

Its Controlled Profile technology is claimed to give it the low stencil profile and optimised Rz value that minimises the ink skipping and stacking problems that can so often plague UV printing.

Weber said: "Quite simply, it is easy to achieve the results we need with Autotype Capillex CP, as it guarantees fast set-up times, constant quality and reliability.

This way, we are in a position to satisfy the strict requirements of the international market and to supply quickly and reliably".

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