By Cassandra Balentine
Part two of two
Digitally printed flooring is poised for continued adoption in industrial settings. However, it generally involves several steps included pre- and post-treatment options.
Part one of this web series discusses pretreatment benefits and solutions. Part two dives into post treatment.
Addressing the Appeal
There are both decorative and practical reasons for a digitally printed flooring application to receive post treatment. In addition to abrasion and UV resistance, color consistency and accuracy are other considerations.
Resistance to abrasion and UV light are prime reasons for post treatment of digitally printed flooring. “There are inkjet inks that are hard and can be walked on, and there are inkjet inks that are rated for ten years of outdoor use. The question is whether these more specialist inks provide the color gamut required and—more importantly—at what price? Then there are other issues such as low metamerism,” says John Corrall, chairman, Industrial Inkjet Ltd. “Our experience is that the customer will want to see very accurate color matching, low metamerism—looks the same color under different lighting, and low price. And IKEA compliance if necessary. If an ink can provide all of this then they will probably be happy to apply an over varnish to add toughness or prevent UV fading.”
Mike Horsten, global business manager, InterioJet, Agfa, points out that in his experience, post treatment is mostly used for luxury vinyl tile UV printing directly on a board, or PVC foil. “We don’t have any equipment that is suitable for this technology as we have our larger Tauro printers already doing this job. The post treatment would be a UV varnish or a foil that protects the ink,” he states.
In any case, Dr. Anke Pankoke, head of marketing/PR, Hymmen, feels digitally printed surfaces need a post treatment. Otherwise, the décor is not protected. “To achieve different classes of abrasion there are different types of surface treatment available.”
Post Treatment
The post-treatment step for digitally printed flooring brings both decorative and protective benefits.
Oct2023, Industrial Print Magazine