K Laser Technology, a global manufacturer of holographic and metalized substrates, welcomed nearly 40 attendees to its Cold Foil Design Lab open house in Sarasota, FL, USA. The company debuted the 1,500 square-foot space with educational sessions, technology demonstrations, and networking on February 23, 2023.

Multiple industry experts discussed the benefits of K Laser’s technology in allowing labels and packaging to pop off the shelf with eye-catching graphics. In addition to Curtis Ju, creative director, K Laser Technology, and Gary Bibler, director of creative design at K Laser Technology, the company was joined by Jeff Peterson, executive director of the Foil & Specialty Effects Association (FSEA), Mike Weyermann, Northeast regional sales manager for Landa Digital Printing, and Kent Wolford, sales director labels, North America at Xeikon.

Ju, who designed the concept of the lab, cited several goals for the company when building the facility. “We want to introduce K Laser as a global leader in the holographic technology and solutions space with a dedicated portal to service for designers, brand owners, and the entire printing industry,” said Ju. “We’re ensuring designers can effectively work with our holographic materials, and our team at the Design Lab comprises significant expert knowledge. Our goal is to work with customers, and provide on-site visits, mockups and prototypes. This lab is useful for designers, brand owners and print owners, allowing them to save time and resources.”

“We’re doing all the hard work for you at this lab,” stated Nicole Rivera, director of administration and marketing, K Laser Technology. “You don’t need extra manpower because we’re handling all the prototypes and mockups. We’ll do the R&D for you in this space, and we’ll help you become more competitive and more efficient. We have a creative team to help you and your clients, so anything foil related come see us.”

At the event, Peterson explained the differences between various embellishment technologies such as cold foil, hot foil stamping, and digital foiling. For example, hot foil stamping relies on heat and pressure to release the foil to the substrate. Run lengths can range from small to very large, and converting can be done off-line or inline – which is notable for roll-to-roll label printing. Due to the tooling required, disadvantages include tooling costs, more setup and make-ready, and the process is more costly for smaller and medium-sized runs because of the tooling.

Meanwhile, the cold foil process involves a conventional or UV adhesive that goes down first before the cold foil sticks. The converting can all be done inline, and typically within the first few flexo stations of a press. The foil can be overprinted inline, and run lengths tend to be on the higher side, especially for labels and packaging.

“K Laser has a lot of different colors and holographic options for customers to choose from,” said Peterson. “You can create hundreds of different metallic colors that can show through a silver foil, for example. This technology is commonly used with labels, packaging and folding cartons.

“Cold foil has really come a long way,” he added. “In today’s world, K Laser has created foils that can run at very high speeds, and it’s continued to grow in popularity. It’s very difficult nowadays to tell the difference in quality between cold foil and hot foil. Cold foil can be done completely inline, which is a huge advantage. Make-ready is very low, so the setup time is much faster with cold foil.”

When getting started selecting a process, common questions to ask include: Will the job have multiple metallic colors? Will the job have foiling or embossing? What stock will be used? And how long is the run length?

Weyermann and Wolford joined the event to explain how K Laser’s technologies can be optimized with Landa Nanographic printing and Xeikon’s digital printing, respectively. Landa, which will be expanding its packaging offerings in the future, has seen success printing with K Laser’s Viridian Eco-paperboard. For Xeikon, Wolford cited the opportunities of printing digitally with K Laser’s materials.

“Different applications have different solutions that support them better, and that’s dry toner or UV inkjet,” explained Wolford. “And we’re one of the only companies out there to offer both – we make the ink, the toner, and we offer the services to help customers.”

K Laser’s Bibler discussed numerous best practices for label designers. From layers to opacity, flood coat to registration, K Laser’s goal is to help ensure the final product is exactly what converters and brands envision.

“We want to work with designers in the beginning stages of a design project and guide them with some methods to achieve what they want to do,” said Bibler. “We always want to be true to the brand colors while allowing for attention-grabbing effects that really draw in the viewer’s focus. We take into account a lof factors such as the detail of the artwork, line weight, thickness, how much foil to use, pattern, opacities to be used, negative space and more. We have the opportunity to provide designers with a prototype and a mockup.”