Comparison of Foiling Qualities between Hot Foil Stamping and Sleeking Foil

The purposes of this project are to compare the foiling qualities between the hot stamping with heating die and the sleeking with digital printing, and to compare the adhesion properties and rub resistance on 4 types of paper; art-card paper, matte film laminated art-card paper, fancy paper and duplex board. The self-adhesive foil was stamped on the paper by pressing the relief lead die heated at around 110°C. The sleeking foil (no self-adhesive) was adhered on the paper by melting the toner of digital printing after passing through the laminator setting at 120-145°C. The same A4-sized test form was used for testing including positive and negative graphics in various sizes of alphabets, straight lines and curve lines, solid area, screen grids and logo patterns. The results showed that the art-card was the best paper for foiling due to the good coverage and adhesion. The fancy paper and duplex board could be applied better than did the laminated art-card paper which was poor in foil transfer and adhesion. The foil stamping with heated die was suitable for positive graphics which were sharper and deeper of line images. The foil sleeking with digital printing was suitable for negative graphics because the transfer and adhesion of solid areas were better, but the images were flat and had lower gloss value than did the hot stamping. The foil adhesion analyzed according to ASTM D3359-95 standard of the hot stamping on the art-card paper was slightly better than that of the sleeking. The rub resistance of both foiling was also tested by using a weight of 2 kg rubbing for 100 rounds, showing that 30% of hot stamping foil area was removed from the art-card paper while the sleeking foil was better in rub resistance because only 5% of foil area was removed.