Metallic Decorating

Metallic Transfer Decorating, the Sustainable Choice for Print & Packaging

June 11, 2024

By Steven Schnoll, Schnoll Media Consulting

Sustainability is becoming increasingly important for the packaging world, including cartons, labels and more. Sustainability is not just a buzzword but a core part of the packaging industry value chain. Today, consumers, brands, packagers and governmental regulators are heavily focused on the environment and the demand for sustainable packaging solutions.

In the highly competitive retail marketplace, brand owners know that consumer attitudes are vital in purchasing decisions. Creatively designed packaging structures create a First Moment of Truth (FMOT) in purchasing decision-making. For brand organizations to thrive, creating dynamic packaging is paramount. Realizing this, Consumer Packaging Goods (CPGs) manufacturers turn to innovative technologies to help their packaging stand out. This includes metallics and other specialty effects for print that can transform and influence a consumer’s purchase decision.

Sustainability Education

Let’s define the words “repulpability” and “recyclability” regarding paper and packaging. Repulpability refers to the ability to convert paper back into pulp, whereas recyclability generally is about the capability of a substrate to be processed into new paper or paperboard. Repulpability is a critical characteristic of paper products that are intended to be recycled. When recycled, paper is mixed with water and turned into a slurry. The slurry then is screened to remove contaminants, and the resulting pulp is used to make new paper products.

It is a rapidly evolving area where CPGs and consumers are concerned but remain confused about sustainable packaging. Actual sustainability performance will depend on which element is prioritized. Sustainable packaging demands less use of natural resources, making repulpability very important (vs. managing natural resource depletion). Municipal Recycling Facilities (MRFs) also are critical in the packaging supply chain. How they process printed materials with metallic effects is essential to creating a more sustainable future. Packagers and brand companies want to learn from experts about significant research and the efficient and feasible recycling process for metallic transfer processes.

FSEA Studies Recyclability

In 2021, the Foil & Specialty Effects Association (FSEA) sponsored a sustainability study conducted by Georgia Tech’s Renewable Bioproducts Institute to demonstrate that paper and paper boards with foil-stamped metallic transfer foils can be repulped. Georgia Tech researchers tested a 12 pt coated, one-sided card stock with 50% up to 100% metallic transfer coverage. The conclusions:

75% of metallic transfers could be repulped with very low rejects.
The aluminum in the metallic transfer foil could be broken down into small particles and were removed from fibers during screening.
The sample sheet demonstrated similar physical strengths to recycled paper fibers.
It is feasible to repulp the paper that included the metallic transfer foil as it is done in standard recycling settings.

More recently, FSEA has taken a further step and has unveiled its newest study – Recycling of Fiber-Based Materials with Transfer Metallic Decoration. The study was commissioned by FSEA and was conducted by the Van Dyk Technology Center. The testing at Van Dyk, one of North America’s leading providers of comprehensive recycling and sorting systems, included 20 samples of eight different products. The following were the conclusions from the testing:

The eight folding carton and greeting card samples were tested at the Van Dyk Testing Center to mimic various functions found in MRF sorting plants in a laboratory setting.
All eight samples of folding cartons and greeting cards included an estimated 25% up to 75% coverage of transfer metallic decoration.
The summary of the test results for each of the eight fiber-based transfer metallic decorated samples demonstrated that 100% of all samples were sorted to be included in the recycling stream. None of the metallic decorated samples were sorted and destined for landfill.
Brand owners, Print Service Providers (PSPs) and designers have testing conclusions that transfer metallic decoration is most likely being recycled by MRFs.
The test results of the Van Dyk sorting study, with the conclusions from the FSEA Repulping of Foil Decorated Paper study, indicates that fiber-based transfer metallic decorated materials are recyclable and currently are most likely being sorted by MRFs to be included in the recycling stream.

(Both of the above studies/tests are available through FSEA.)

These findings will help packagers meet their sustainability goals without compromising their designs and branding initiatives. Customer expectations constantly are evolving. Consumers want to know that packagers are thinking about the environment as much as trying to make a lasting impression that generates a sale. Forward-thinking brands recognize the significance of ensuring sustainability, and now research clearly illustrates that the repulpability of metallic transfer foils achieves those evolving expectations.

Evolving Brand/Consumer Perspective

In January 2023, the non-profit member-based organization Two Sides commissioned a global survey study of 10,250 people from the independent research company Toluna. Two Sides findings stated that “55% of consumers surveyed prefer paper packaging over plastic.” This is a significant change in attitudes toward printed paper-based packaging. Respondents felt paper packaging is better for the environment than plastic and glass.

In an interview with Ben Markens and Brian Westerlind, who manage the Paperboard Packaging Council, Markens shared “that the ‘bling’ in folding cartons that employ metallic transfer materials creates a great value add for packaging companies selling to brand owners.” Markens pointed out “that while the vast amount of printed folding cartons have no metallic foil decorating, the majority of winners, like high-end beverages and cosmetic packaging (in their recent association competition) utilized foil decorating very effectively.” Markens continued with a significant potential issue for international packagers, “even though US packages are heavily invested in sustainability, the European Union is creating higher standards for sustainability than the United States.”

As brand leaders began to craft sustainability strategies and experiment with different metallic foil applications, they needed answers from suppliers. Diamond Packaging of Rochester, New York, is a leading packaging converter focused on green initiatives. Diamond Packaging realizes its sustainability actions can profoundly impact the industry and the environment. In a recent interview with Eric Longnecker and Dennis Bacchetta, the two made it clear through the Diamond Packaging Greenbox initiative that they are “empowering our brand customers with creative metallic design transfer capabilities that meet or exceed customer expectations for recycling folding cartons.” Diamond Packaging is committed “to focusing on sustainability throughout the entire operation.” They believe the company’s commitment to sustainability in their operation makes them more attractive to CPGs to seek them out as a supplier.

During an interview, Longnecker shared that “examining the scientific impact of foil transfer is an ongoing mission.” Bacchetta stated that 40% of all the folding cartons the company produced for customers utilize metallic foil transfer processes. Diamond Packaging has created a fact sheet called “Decorative Foil by the Numbers,” which takes a closer look at the consumer and environmental issues related to metallic foil in packaging. Its facts include:

The Value of Foils: Perception Research Services did a study in 2004 that showed that decorated foil packaging had an 80% higher appeal and brand awareness. This was supported by an FSEA study that found that foil had a 44% better chance of attracting consumer attention.
Recyclability of Foil: The Georgia Tech and Western Michigan research studies validate this premise.
Literally Splitting Hairs: The aluminum foil layer is less than .05 microns, a fraction of the width of a human hair.
Zone Coverage: Another way to analyze this fact is to take a jumbo roll of foil weighing 440 pounds and covering the length of 2.4 football fields. The amount of foil on that roll weighs 1.043 ounces and measures .66 cubic inches in volume, about the same as the tip of one’s thumb.
Carbon Neutrality of Paperboard: The American Forest and Paper Association and American Wood Council clearly state that paperboard is carbon neutral.

Attracting Consumers

As stated, consumers are focused on brand identification (FMOT). Metallic decorating is an excellent example of creating special effects on printed substrates that attract consumers to a specific brand. The power of using metallic effects, whether hot, cold or digital, is a significant brand identifier and attraction for consumers.

Chris Leary, a US distributor for Gietz and Vinfoil, shared an incredibly detailed presentation designed for packaging and metallic transfer processes. Leary illuminated the value chain for metallic cold foil decorating in this document. The presentation highlighted the value proposition and the “de-inkable and repulpable characteristics.” It also stated, “72% of consumers are influenced by product packaging, and 36% would consider avoiding a brand that isn’t actively trying to recycle packaging.”

Glorious Gaming is a dynamic, growing company producing computer accessories for gamers. Its products are colorful and exotic in their design. Therefore, according to Chris Wilson, the company’s packaging engineer, “We needed packaging that would be ‘eye-catching’ to our potential customers.”

The company did a great deal of research and determined that metallic transfer technologies met its packaging expectations. While its creative designs drive customers to purchase products, Glorious Gaming also wanted to make sure its packaging would be sustainable by being repulpable and recyclable. The FSEA Georgia Tech research built a strong confidence in using metallic foil decorating.

Working Toward the Future

Karen Kromat of Case Paper, a leading distributor of transfer metallic substrates, believes that “metallic substrates present a genuine growth opportunity for the printing industry.” While issues still have to be addressed concerning the plastic adhesive liners that are not recyclable, municipal recycling centers can successfully recycle vast quantities of metalized packaging products. Case Paper is committed to helping make its metalized transfer substrates as sustainable as possible while recognizing that many municipal recycling centers are rejecting plastic adhesives while accepting transfer metallic decorated recycling products.

A sub-committee of FSEA’s Sustainability Committee is working with MRFs to ensure that metallic transfer foil packaging is recycled correctly. The big question in front of the committee and for recycling facilities is ‘where does the decorated packaging material go?’ The goal is to have MRFs carefully test transfer metallic decorated packaging with many organizations to facilitate the best recycling processes. Frank Kelly, ITW ShineMark, sub-committee chair, said, “This is an ongoing process and FSEA is committed to finding workable solutions.” The goal is to increase MRF operations’ efficiency while simultaneously creating more recyclable and repulpable by-products.

Conclusion

FSEA is committed to assisting brand owners, converters, printers and consumers to develop the most dynamic, growth-oriented and exciting metallic transfer decorating methods for the packaging supply chain. Innovation and sustainability in packaging entrepreneurship are core values of everything it does. Helping the the industry design new environmentally friendly business models with dynamic metallic transfer embellishments while fostering entrepreneurial ecosystems around the globe will never be compromised.

Metallic Decorating and Sustainability

March 12, 2021

By Jeff Peterson, executive director, Foil & Specialty Effects Association

When I have presented at tradeshows and conferences on behalf of the Foil & Specialty Effects Association (FSEA), I’ve told audiences that it wasn’t too many years ago that when a brand owner or printer wanted to include a metallic decoration on printed material, the only real choice was hot foil stamping.

Today, there are many other choices in the marketplace, including cold foil transfer, toner-based digital foiling and polymer-based digital foiling, as well as pre-metallized paper and/or board.

Although many of our FSEA members have had concerns about the emergence of other metallic decorating processes – especially those who have relied on more traditional hot foil stamping – what actually has happened is that the addition of these new processes has helped market and showcase the use of metallic decorating, creating more activity for all the different techniques. In addition, as I will explain in more detail throughout this article, each type of metallic decorating process has advantages and disadvantages, and, in most cases, fits specific applications.

Metallic decorating and sustainability

Before we discuss metallic finishes in detail, I want to address the sustainability issue with metallic decorating processes. There continues to be confusion with brand managers and consumers who want to include all metallic finishes into one category. As our industry is aware, there is a huge difference between transfer metallic foil processes and foil laminated board/paper in terms of recyclability. We must educate brand managers that hot, cold and digital foils are applied through a transfer process and the plastic film carrier is not applied to paper/board. With foil laminated board, the metallic finish is applied to the board along with the plastic film, creating a more difficult product to recycle or repulp.

FSEA recently commissioned a new study entitled “Repulping of Foil Decorated Paper.” The study demonstrated that transfer foil decorated paper or board does not create problems in the recyclability/repulpability of paper or board in a common repulping process. Again, it is important that we educate those who ask about the difference in these processes and promote transfer metallic processes as a sustainable choice when selecting a metallic finish for printed materials. If readers are interested in the new study, contact me for a copy of the report.

It has been suggested – and I am in favor of developing a plan as an industry – to begin using the word “transfer” when selling and discussing the use of transfer foil processes such as hot, cold and digital foil decorating. In other words, FSEA members and others would begin to refer to it as hot transfer foiling or hot transfer metallic, rather than hot foil stamping. Cold foil would be referred to as cold foil transfer, and digital foiling would be digital foil transfer. A strategic plan to begin identifying transfer processes so they are not grouped with foil laminated paper/board can help in the education process to distinguish between the two. FSEA will be providing more details on this and other sustainable solutions in the coming months.

Hot foil stamping (hot transfer metallic)

As discussed earlier, hot foil stamping has been the conventional way to apply foil for decades, and it still is the most popular choice of metallic decorating worldwide. By far it is the most versatile process when applying foil – meaning it has a much broader range of paper stocks it can work on; it encompasses the broadest range of foil colors and adhesives; and it provides the ability to create finished decorated looks that other foil processes cannot, including foil and embossing in one pass and refractive (micro-etched) patterns onto the surface of the foil. It also provides the greatest array of equipment choices in the marketplace to foil stamp different sizes of sheets and substrate choices.

The disadvantage of hot foil is the cost of the tooling – the foil stamping dies (engravings) needed to apply the foil. With both cold and digital foil processes, there are virtually no tooling costs to apply. However, the tooling cost is only relative to the size of the foil job; although, if the run length of a job is small, it can be a significant cost. Hot foil stamping also is a secondary process that happens once a sheet is printed. This can add time to the job and, of course, costs.

Cold foil transfer (cold transfer metallic)

Cold foil transfer for sheet-fed applications is not new by any means, but it has become more popular for many applications due to the advent of better foil products that run faster and keep a metallic sheen when they are applied. Improved adhesives and technology in cold foil transfer machinery also have been a part of growth in recent years.

The main advantage of cold foil transfer is in its elimination of a secondary process. Cold foil can be applied in the first two stations of an offset press, and then the additional stations on the press can apply CMYK over the top of the foil, creating virtually any color under the rainbow. Cold foil also does not have to utilize tooling (dies). It is an excellent choice for projects where significant foil coverage is required. In those instances, cold foil transfer is a great alternative to foil laminated board, where the entire sheet has a metallic finish. In most cases, white opaque ink is needed for certain areas on the sheet (especially with folding carton work), adding an additional station and printing plate needed on the press. In addition, white ink is notorious for being difficult to work with. Cold foil transfer allows the areas that need to be white to be “knocked out” of the foil design, eliminating the need to use white ink.

From a disadvantage standpoint, cold foil transfer does not provide the full versatility of hot foil stamping as it relates to the paper stocks. Although there has been some success recently with cold foil on uncoated stocks, it is most effective on coated papers. Cold foil also is not usually the best choice when foil is required only in specific areas of a design. Because the foil is running through the press at high
speeds, there is less control of the foil. If the design doesn’t call for a large usage of foil, hot foil stamping may be a better choice.

Both hot foil and cold foil transfer processes are better choices for medium- to larger-sized runs, mainly due to the set-up time required with cold foil and the higher tooling costs of hot foil projects. Smaller runs often are better suited for digitally applied foil.

Digital foiling (digital transfer metallic)

Digital foiling processes have caused some confusion in the industry because there are two processes identified as digital foiling – one which uses printed toner as the adhesive for the foil and one that uses an inkjet-applied polymer as the adhesive. FSEA and its Foil Cheat Sheet (which was produced in cooperation with PaperSpecs) has identified the two processes as toner-based digital foiling and polymer-based digital foiling. Let’s take a look at each type.

Toner-based digital foiling

This is a simple two- or three-step process utilizing a rich black toner from a digital printing press (not inkjet) as the adhesive and then using a heated lamination process to adhere the foil to the toner images. This process can be referred to as “sleeking.”

A key advantage of this process is the lack of any tooling or dies needed to create the foil image, making it a great choice for shorter runs or prototypes. Because a digital printer can be used to print out the images that will include foil, every sheet can be personalized or include different information in foil without adding costs. Personalized invitations or gift cards are a great application for toner-based digital foiling. In addition, using a silver metallic foil, the foiled sheet can be sent back through a digital printing press where all types of metallic hues can be created by printing over the top of the foil layer.

The primary disadvantage of toner-based digital foiling is that it is not a feasible option for larger runs of foil. Because it takes multiple steps to create an image, it is best suited for shorter runs and would not be recommended for any type of large-run application. It also is limited to mostly coated stocks or stocks specifically created for digital applications.

Polymer-based digital foiling

There now are specific machines on the market today that can apply a polymer through an inkjet process to a printed piece; then the foil adheres to the areas where the polymer has been applied. Adding a thicker layer of adhesive also allows for the foil to be raised above the paper level, providing an embossed look to the foiled image. Sensors on the digital decorating inkjet press can ensure registration of the print and polymer adhesives. Some systems in the marketplace apply the polymer and foil in one pass and others apply the polymer prior to the foil being laminated in a process similar to toner-based digital foiling.

One advantage of this process – as with toner-based digital foiling – is that dies or plates are not needed to apply the foil; instead, it is done through an inkjet process. As with the toner-based process, personalization is possible using foil where this is not a feasible option for hot or cold foil processes. Another advantage of polymer-based digital foiling is that a clear polymer (coating) can be applied in a separate pass over the foil or in other areas on the printed piece, offering specialty spot coatings and foil in one design to create spectacular looks for all types of printed materials.

The process produces spectacular work, but it is suited for targeted application types. One of the disadvantages of polymer-based digital foiling is that it is best suited for small- to medium-sized runs – it is not set up for a 50,000- to 100,000-sheet run. This type of foil decorating also is not recommended when applying large areas of foil due to how the adhesive is applied (digital inkjet). Because of this limitation, it is not commonly overprinted with 4-color process. And, as with toner-based digital foiling, there are limitations on paper stock – coated stocks or stocks designated for digital printing are best suited.

Foil substrates

There still are many applications, especially in the folding carton arena, where foil laminated or foil transfer paper/board is popular. Foil laminated board often is used for very large runs where the carton or sheet has heavy coverage of a metallic finish.

The obvious advantage of using a foil laminated substrate is the ability to create the needed metallic finish in one pass on an offset press without the use of a retrofitted cold foil unit or foil stamping the sheet in a separate process. This can provide cost savings for very large runs where the metallic finish is used throughout the design of a carton or label.

However, there are several drawbacks to using a foil laminated substrate. First, the cost of the material can become quite expensive. It can be more cost efficient to add cold foil inline on standard SBS stock for heavy coverage or to foil stamp in a second pass when the metallic finish is to be added in specific areas only, especially in medium to large runs.

In addition, when using a foil substrate, there usually are areas that need to have a white background, especially on cartons and labels. In those cases, white opaque ink must be applied, which means a separate station on the printing press must be used to apply it. As mentioned previously, white opaque ink is not easy to work with and can cause many challenges on press.

FoilCheatSheet_cover — The FSEA Foil Cheat Sheet identifies the two digital foiling processes – toner-based and polymer-based.

Last, but certainly not least, is the sustainability issue with foil laminated substrates that was raised earlier. The Foil & Specialty Effects Association has invested in two separate studies and will be conducting more in the future to demonstrate and reinforce that transfer foil decorated paper and board do not create problems in the recycling/repulping of paper and/or board in a common repulping process. This includes transfer hot foil, cold foil and digital foil processes. This does not include foil laminated products, since plastic film is included with the metallic finish. This is a key difference between the processes and must be considered when determining which metallic decorating process should be used in the production of a metallic finish.

Selecting a metallic finish for printed materials is an entirely different adventure than it was several years ago, with many factors to consider. It is important to look at all factors involved to choose the right process for the right application. FSEA is available for consultation when there are questions. It’s a jungle out there!

Jeff Peterson, FSEA executive director, has been involved in the foil industry for more than 30 years. He has written numerous articles for FSEA’s official magazine, PostPress, and other industry-related publications. He also has conducted seminars at print industry events, including GRAPH EXPO, PRINTING United and Odyssey Expo.

Much of the information found in this article is summarized and illustrated with foil decorated examples in FSEA’s Foil Cheat Sheet. This half-sized guide is available through FSEA by visiting www.fsea.com.