When it comes to Research and Development, in most of cases, before carrying out trials on an industrial scale, new products or formulations are assessed in the lab. To have as reliable as possible feedback from lab tests, the industrial process must be mimicked as faithfully as possible.

This is also true when performing printability tests. AR metallizing makes therefor use of a Prüfbau, a device that mimics an industrial scale offset printer. The Prüfbau allows us to print at the appropriate speeds and emulates the physical properties of an industrial printer. It furthermore allows to stack multiple inks in one run.

Apart from a standard printability test, the Prüfbau is used to assess the adhesion and cohesion between the different layers of our products. After selecting inks with a certain tack (or stickiness) different types of failures can be induced, ranging from fiber tear in the base paper to removal of metal or coating layers.

Furthermore, the Prüfbau is used as a preparative tool for ink retention tests, as the performance of ink retention can depend strongly on the selected printing technique and their concomitant inks.

For similar assessments to the ones listed above, this device is also heavily used by the quality department to guarantee that the products from AR metallizing consistently exhibit the expected high performance levels.