The overprinting of the foil with four colour process provides designers with new and exciting possibilities restricted only by the imagination.

In addition, the solution offers cost reduction on current two or three pass production techniques.

As the system is in-line on the printing press there are none of the costs or problems  associated with off-line post processing.

As the foil is printed in place it is possible to achieve most of the printing styles possible with ink including full sheet solids,small reverse outs, and a range of special half tones. The over-printing of the foil then allows for very special effects to be produced on a single sheet using only silver foil.

The process of laying down the pattern of foil is purely lithographic using a standard fitting lithographic printing plate produced by conventional means. The fit of the foil to ink becomes the same as the fit for ink to ink.

There are no stamping dies cost, make-ready time is the time taken to change the printing plate and is therefore dramatically lower than the old conventional technology.

Application speed is the normal speed of the lithographic printing press.

When foil is not being applied, normal printing with ink can be conducted with the time to change from foiling to printing being the time taken to wash down and ink up the unit. All of the embellishments possible with old technology can be achieved plus many more not possible with hot foil stamping.

The standard Foiltone™ module consists of a four axis unit having two unwind and two rewind shafts, each controlled by DDR servo motors to enable two webs of foil to run on press without being invasive to the press.

It is also possible to have more webs of foil to be run simultaneously or a single full width web depending on the application. The Foiltone unit has no mechanical connection to the printing press and there are only three electrical connections.

The foil web is driven by the direct drive servo motors controlled by a tension system. When foil is not being applied the units can be used for their original application without any mechanical or electrical change.

The module can be fitted to most printing machines in the 74,105, up to 162 format ranges. The positioning can be anywhere on the press depending on the desired finished effect.

The system allows for a specially formulated cold foil adhesive to be printed onto the sheet substrate on the first unit using a standard litho plate. Cold foil is applied at the second unit and passes between the blanket cylinder and the impression cylinder with normal printing pressure.

The foil adheres to the adhesive in the printed pattern with high resolution, including a range of half tones and full solid coverage. The Foilstop™ system ensures that foil is only run when the foil press unit is in impression thereby avoiding foil wastage during press start and stop routines.

A post-print application could see the module positioned on the last print unit and first coater unit. This will allow for a look similar to hot foil stamping where the foil is registered to the already printed surface. However, because no pressure is used there are no impression marks into the substrate and textured boards retain their texture, even after foiling.

 A preprint application could see the module on the first two units of the press allowing for ink to be registered to the foil or indeed the foil overprinted. Where the foil is overprinted the full range of CMYK colours can be achieved, including half tones. This eliminates the need to hold stocks of coloured foil as all colours can be produced by over printing with ink.

This also allows for a simpler layout of the printed sheet as effectively different coloured foils can be positioned adjacent to each other in the machine direction which is not possible with conventional methods of foiling in a single pass.

Conventional, hybrid and UV inking systems can be used.

Both installation positions allow for the high speed application of foil in patterns not attainable by conventional hot stamping means and without tooling costs. The whole process of offline foil stamping is also eliminated. Additionally, either position can allow single or multi-pass applications, therefore even a two colour machine can achieve any desired by multi-pass processing.

All designs and patterns which are possible with conventional hot foil stamping are possible with Foiltone™. Some jobs which are difficult with hot foiling, such as small font reverse outs are easily achieved with Foiltone™. Glue panels on cartons need not be foiled eliminating the need for scoring of these areas which is necessary with foil laminated boards.

The production of foiled half tones cannot be achieved by conventional means. The ability to do this with Foiltone™ can lead to new product designs not previously seen.

Full sheet coverage is difficult and slow by conventional means, whereas with Foiltone™ this is again achieved at line speed and can eliminate the need for high cost foil laminated boards in various applications.

A further unique application is the ability to print simple circuit boards to allow neon's to be lit on greetings cards.

Where the design calls for foil to be applied in distinct arears of the sheet for instance, on both edges, two webs of foil can be run, one in each area with only the foil width necessary for the coverage required.

This revolutionary application technique will allow for completely new design ideas to be realised in the areas of cartons, greeting cards, books and labels and in commercial print all with reduced cost.