Surge in demand? Shortage in supply? What is going on in the cushion backing for corrugated post print?
Cushion mounting materials for corrugated flexographic post print increased the performance and printing quality significantly. Early materials to the market have been the poron®, better known under the trading name r/bak® from Roger Corporation and the CyComp® material sold by Dupont.
In the last couple of years materials such as polyethylene foams, well know from double adhesive foam tapes, new suppliers came in. Polyethylene has some benefits such as much lighter in weight, close cell structure and special surfaces for easy mounting compared to the heavier polyurethanes. Biggest benefit of PU compared to HDPE (high density PE) has always been the life time, but this benefit reduced over the years due to a reduction in run length on press.
A lot of corrugated printers have moved from PU to HDPE foams because of its better handling properties, especially when large presses such as the Bobst Masterflex or the Goepfert Ovation or Impression are used.
Something new seems to happen, apparently there is a shortage in availability of CyComp® and r/bak®. Which means a further accelerator for products such as Innovabak or Innovalux as HDPE foam materials with or without carrier sheet in PET, mylar® or PVC.