Klieverik’s Belt Calenders at Printing United in Dallas - Performing Well Under Pressure

Image Courtesy of Klieverik

PRINTING United is a new event owned and operated by SGIA in partnership with NAPCO Media. It will launch in Dallas, Texas, October 23–25, 2019.

Focusing on the opportunities presented by the convergence of printing technologies and markets, PRINTING United will cover print and finishing technologies in industry segments from garment to graphic, packaging to commercial, and industrial.

Its objective is to convey all components of integrated solutions to satisfy virtually any client need.

Klieverik will be there in booth 7241.

Klieverik hope to welcome you to their booth where you can learn all about what their calendars can do through a live demo.

Textile Printing Of The Future

Transfer printing using sublimation inks or direct printing on PES textiles is a mature technology in itself and has established itself in many industries.

Other areas are following the trend to produce locally with a high degree of customized design and short delivery times.

Printers, inks, paper, textiles and calendars are available on the market in many high quality variations.

Nevertheless, Klieverik think that it is time to think about the next stage in manufacturing.

It must become more efficient and reproducible in order to be able to keep up in the coming years.

Wider – Larger – Thicker

At every new trade fair, each year, you can see that printers have more output.

However, higher speeds are only of limited use if printers still have to be shut down to change rolls or perform maintenance.

Producing wider is certainly a possible solution but not always easy to implement.

After all, the entire supply and production chain has to be on board.

Making better use of existing capacity is another option.

Because changing a roll takes just as much time on a small machine as it does on a large one, this is an important solution.

Larger rolls or the possibility to run the machine while changing a roll are very interesting here.

On Klieverik Calendars Jumbo rolls of textile and printed paper are used in front of the line.

 Controlled textile tensioning is used here as well as clamping bars as an aid for inserting the textile and paper.

There is a fabric accumulator at the outlet. This “catches the fabric” while the calender carries on producing.

An automatic cutting unit and a wrapper container within reach help the machine operator quickly change the finished roll, keeping the fabric accumulator small.

Fabric Lamination

Technically speaking, pressure is one of the distinct parameters, along with temperature and contact time, that you can change in your belt calendar to achieve the best outcome.

This applies when laminating two or more layers of textile using thermoplastic adhesives.

Klieverik’s LFC models apply two different kinds of pressures:

1.     A belt is stretched around the heating drum and the textile substrates run between them. This type of pressure on the textile is relatively low and ensures an efficient transfer of heat.

2.     A pressure roller inside the silicone belt applies a much higher nip pressure.

What is an example of laminated product?

If you’re laminating a foam and a woven fabric together, the thermoplastic adhesive in between must reach a specific melting point before it starts to bind the two substrates.

 In Klieverik’s  calenders, the belt will apply constant pressure, pushing the substrates to the heated drum, while the top layer – and the adhesive – are steadily warmed up.

When the thermo-adhesive reaches its melting point, the laminating pressure is applied.

It’s important to get this just right; if this pressure is too low, the thermoplastic adhesive will remain as a layer between the two substrates.

If there is too much pressure, however, the adhesive will be pushed too deep into the substrates and will not be able to establish the bonding.

Is it possible to laminate without a pressure roller?

The short answer is yes, but to achieve a perfect bonding, you will need much more heat and contact time to activate the thermoplastic adhesive, which will lead to higher energy consumption.