Sleeking with Albyco

Sleeking is the application of a high-gloss color foil on printed matter with the help of toner. This application is a superb addition to business cards, brochures or luxury family printing.

Sleeking, step-by-step:
In short: To apply the sleeking foil to a print, it is first laminated. The laminated print is then printed again, whereby the surfaces to be sleeked (eg a text) are provided with black toner. It is then sleeked, not with lamination foil, but with sleeking foil. By heating the print, by the heated laminating roller, the toner will stick. As a result, the sleeking foil will adhere to the laminated print and the result is a strikingly beautiful print with clear glossy foil text or image!

Now that we know globally how this process works, we would like to show you in detail how we can quickly and easily achieve these surprising results.

The layout in 5 layers!

We use five layers for the layout. We create the file for the first print job in full color/CMYK, just like any other standard print job.

And then laminated on one side. The prints are laminated with a Silky Touch lamination foil that is suitable for sleekening. In some cases, other laminating foils can also be used.

And now let’s sleek!

The roll of sleeking foil is placed on the laminator. The sheets to be sleeked are fed into the machine. We see that the sleeking foil is brought into contact with the print under pressure. Due to the heat of the laminating roller, the black toner with text will become sticky and the sleeking film will adhere to the toner. The carrier with the sleeking foil is wound up. If the temperature rises too high, there is a chance that the surface of the laminating foil itself will also become slightly sticky, causing “speckles” of foil to become visible.

The sheets come out of the machine automatically, provided with the striking sleeking foil, and are ready for further processing such as cutting, creasing, folding, etc.

Sleekingfilm is available in no less than 8 different colours:

Back pressure of the film roll

For a professional result it is important that the counter pressure of the film roll is not too tight or too loose. Here we show how the roller pressure ensures the best result. If the roller pressure is too tight, stripes will appear on the foil print. The best result is achieved if the foil on the hot roll has a honeycomb structure.

Positioning the sheets on the laminator

Because the laminator automatically pulls the sheets in and takes care of the short pieces of overlay between the sheets, it is important that this is set correctly. We are happy to explain this, so turn on the sound!