Putting Ink on paper is only the start at RCS!! The real value of our service is the wide range of Finishing options we can offer allowing us to produce a huge array of products in house.
We are pleased to provide a short glossary of the processes involved here:
Gloss and Matt Lamination
Lamination is an ‘Offline’ process carried out after printing has been completed on Press. The printed sheets are fed through a machine containing a roll of very thin laminate film. The film is heated to liquefy a heat sensitive glue and then rolled on to the printed sheets. As the composite cools the sheets are left with a Gloss or Matt Finish depending on the laminate used.
Matt lamination gives the finished printing a soft 'satin' finish that is smooth to the touch. Gloss Lamination gives a smooth shinny surface. Please note laminated surfaces are not suitable to be written on. Lamination is most commonly used on our Full Colour Business Cards.
Coating
We generally seal all the printing we undertake using a neutral sealer varnish. The sealer is a fast drying coating which allows the printed work to be cut down or otherwise finished more quickly. Being a neutral varnish it does not alter the surface look of the sheets, however the coating units at the end of our presses can also be used to apply gloss varnishes as used on our Handouts.
Hole Drilling
Drilling is carried out using a specially designed hollow drill bit which allows the cut centres of the circles to pass up the shaft. We have several drill diameters 3mm. 3.5mm or 6mm. Drilling is often requested where a finished job is to be placed in a Ring Binder or to be used as a garment tag.
Creasing
Creasing is carried out using our Heidelberg Cylinder Letter Press. This machine is now more than thirty years old and no longer has nay vestige of its letterpress print head. It has been converted to be a Cutting and creasing machine. It is a frustration that in our up to the minute factory where few machines are more than five years old this is by far the best machine for this process with no modern day equivalent!!
As sheets are pulled in to the machine they are pushed with high pressure against a forme which can have either cutting or creasing rules depending on what is being produced. When creasing, a permanent flattening of the sheet along the crease line makes it easier to fold and much less susceptible to cracking.
We do not fold any material over 150gm without first creasing. With 150gm material we strongly recommend creasing before folding especially if there is colour running across the fold line.
Folding
Folding is carried out using our high speed MBO folding machines. The folders pull in flat sheets which are fed in to a series of plates set to accurately measure the paper the fold position. Rotating rollers then fold the sheet before pushing it into the next folding plate and so on. In this way a huge number of different folds can be produced including A4 to A5, A4 to 1/3rd A4 (Z Fold) or Flap fold etc.