Knowde Enhanced TDS
Identification & Functionality
- Technologies
- Product Families
Features & Benefits
- Ready-to-Use Product Features
- Characteristics
All color shades are brilliant with medium opacity. This ensures excellent lamination (except for FX 170 opaque white) with high outputs and allows the mixing of very pure color shades.
Ink Adjustment
The ink should be stirred homogeneously before
printing and if necessary during production.
Use as 2-component ink
Depending upon the substrate and the requirements, hardener can be added to the ink before printing. When using hardener / adhesion modifier, the processing and curing temperature must not be lower than 15°C as irreversible damage can occur. Please also avoid high humidity for several hours after printing as the hardener is sensitive to humidity.- Characteristics
Physically very fast drying; dries at 20°C ambient temperature within 10 min. ready for overprinting, at 50°C in a tunnel dryer (2 warm -1 cold section) within 30 - 40 sec. The times mentioned above vary according to the substrate, the ink film thickness, drying conditions and the auxiliaries used. When overprinting, an increased drying time is required due to the rewetting of the previous print layer. When printing both sides of cards, careful checks are necessary, so as to ensure adequate block resistance.Good final drying properties and a check for residual solvents in the printed ink film are essential for successful lamination, good overprintability, and high peel resistance. Here, “Wicket” dryers have proven to be most effective, due to the long dwell time of 10-20 min. in the tunnel. Too much residual solvent content in the ink generally degrades the laminating result.
Applications & Uses
- Applications
- Compatible Substrates & Surfaces
- Field of Application
Substrates
Mara® Flex FX /FXPP is suited for printing onto
• PVC films
• rigid PVC
• extruded ABS blanks
Since all the print substrates mentioned may have differing printability characteristics, even
within an individual type, preliminary trials are essential to determine suitability for the intended use.
Field of use
Mara® Flex FX is suitable for printing on single and multi-layered identity cards such as customer loyalty cards, club cards, bank cards, telephone cards, smart cards, or ID system cards. FX excels through particularly good laminating characteristics. FX can also be used in combination with other printing methods such as waterless or UV offset printing.
Mara® Flex FXPP is suited for the decoration of magnetic strips and is used as an alternative to overlay films for certain types of cards.
Attention:
FX 170 opaque white, and mixtures with the Metallics S 191 - S 193 are not suited for laminating.
Technical Details & Test Data
- Pre-reaction time
It is recommended to allow the ink/hardener mixture to pre-react for 15 minutes.
- Technical Details
Fade resistance
Pigments of excellent fade resistance (blue wool scale 6-8) are used for our ink series Mara® Flex FX / FXPP.
Stress resistance
After proper and thorough drying, the ink film is very flexible and laminable. Furthermore, its surface is resistant to scratching and bending. Due to the gloss levels required for good offset overprintability, the dry abrasion and rub resistance properties are somewhat lower. Mara® Flex FX shows good resistance against alcohol and finger sweat.Mara® Flex FXPP will meet the resistances required for credit cards after the lamination.
- Metallics
Metallics
Attention:
Mixtures with the Metallics S 191 - S 193 are not suited for laminating.
Metallic PastesS 191 Silver 15-25% S 192 Rich Pale Gold 15-25% S 193 Rich Gold 15-25% These Metallics are added to FX 904 in the recommended amount, whereas the addition may be individually adjusted to the respective application. We recommend preparing a mixture which can be processed within a maximum of 8 h since metallic mixtures usually cannot be stored. Owing to the smaller pigment size of Metallic Pastes it is possible to work with finer fabrics like 140-31 to 150-31. All metallic shades are displayed in the Marabu "Screen Printing Metallics" color chart.
AuxiliariesUKV 1 Thinner, fast 10-15% UKV2 Thinner 10-15% H 4 Hardener 10% ES Printing Modifier 0.50% UR 3 Cleaner (flp. 42°C)
UR 4 Cleaner (flp. 52°C)
UR 5 Cleaner (flp. 72°C)
SV 5 Retarder, fast SV 10 Retarder, slow Thinner is added to the ink to adjust the printing viscosity. For slow printing sequences and fine motifs, it may be necessary to add retarder to the thinner (max. 1:1). Hardener H 4 is sensitive to humidity and is always to be stored in a sealed container. Hardener H 4 can be added for increased resistance and adhesion. The mixture ink/hardener must be stirred well and homogeneously. The mixture ink/hardener is not storable and must be processed within pot life. Printing Modifier ES contains silicone and can be used to rectify flow problems on critical substrates. If an excessive amount is added, flow problems are increased and adhesion may be reduced, especially when overprinting. The use of ES may reduce the degree of gloss. The cleaners UR 3 and UR 4 are recommended for manual cleaning of the working equipment. Cleaner UR 5 is recommended for manual or automatic cleaning of the working equipment. To ensure good laminating characteristics, no other auxiliaries should be added to the FX.
Printing Parameters
All types of commercially available fabrics and solvent-resistant stencils can be used. The fabric recommendation for standard shades is 90-48 to 120-34, for metallics please refer to the chapter Metallic Mixing System. Laminating parameters The following laminating parameters have proven to work for PVC on the market.Laminating temperature: 140°C to 150°C Pressure: 1 ton for sheet sizes of 35x50cm
Laminating time: approx. 15 min
Packaging & Availability
- Range
Basic Shades 920 Lemon 922 Light Yellow 924 Medium Yellow 926 Orange 930 Vermilion 932 Scarlet Red 934 Carmine Red 936 Magenta 940 Brown 950 Violet 952 Ultramarine Blue
954 Medium Blue 956 Brilliant Blue 960 Blue Green 962 Grass Green 970 White 980 Black Transparent Shades
520 Transparent Yellow
536 Transparent Red
Press-Ready Metallics
191 Silver 195 Fine Silver 197 Medium Silver 199 Coarse Silver Further Products
170 Opaque White 903 Offset Base 904 Special Binder 910 Overprint Varnish
Mara® Flex FXPP
910 Overprint Varnish
913 Milky Matt Varnish
970 White Mara® Flex FX shades must not be mixed with Mara® Flex FXPP shades. All FX shades are intermixable. Mixing with other ink types or auxiliaries must be avoided in order to maintain the special characteristics of this outstanding ink range. All FX basic shades are included in our MarabuColorFormulator (MCF). They build the basis for the calculation of individual color matching formulas, as well as for shades of the common color reference systems HKS®, PANTONE®, and RAL®. All formulas are stored in the Marabu-Color Manager software. Due to the high amount of pigments contained, FX 170 opaque white cannot be laminated. Libra Matt LIM 170 can be used for signature fields.
Metallic Mixing System
Metallic color shades on ID cards are a core strength of screen printing. Thanks to the Marabu Metallic Mixing System including 4 silver shades with different pigment sizes, 2 transparent shades, and 17 FX standard shades almost any metallic hue can be mixed.FX 191 mesh 77-55 - 90-48
FX 195 mesh 90-48 - 100-40
FX 197 mesh 77-55 - 90-48
FX 199 mesh 43-80 All metallic shades mixed with FX 191 - 199 can be laminated and are storable for 1 year.
Storage & Handling
- Pot Life
Pot life
The ink/hardener mixture is chemically reactive and must be processed within 8 h (referred to 20-25 °C and 45-60 % RH). Higher temperatures reduce the pot life. If the mentioned times are exceeded, the ink's adhesion and resistance may be reduced even if the ink still seems processable.- Shelf Life
Shelf life depends very much on the formula/ reactivity of the ink system as well as the storage temperature. The shelf life for an unopened ink container if stored in a dark room at a temperature of 15 - 25 °C is:
• 2 years for FX 195
• 3.5 years for all FX/FXPP standard shades
Under different conditions, particularly higher storage temperatures, the shelf life is reduced. In such cases, the warranty given by Marabu expires.