The influence of pigment proportions and calendering of coated paperboards on dot gain

Dot gain is called Tone Value Increase (TVI). Low dot gain and rounder dot shape are important properties to obtain a good print. Dot gain is a measure of how much extra weight a given percent dot or tone has gained on the final printed substrate by comparison to the actual dot area on a press plate. Dot gain value depends on many factors. The interactions of paper, ink and press conditions are important determinates for a good print. In addition, the pigment coating process and calendering conditions have a significant effect on the printability of paperboards. Pigment coating formulations including mineral pigments, binders and additives improve the gloss, brightness, opacity and smoothness of the paperboards. As a result, print quality of paperboards increase. A uniform paperboard surface is needed to obtain a high quality surface smoothness after the coating process. High surface smoothness improves the uniformity of the dot shape and size. Pigment coating formulation parameters; pigment selection, binder selection and binder level influence print quality. The aims of this study - pigment selection and ratio - are to determine the effect on dot gain in lithography printing. To this aim, base paperboards were coated using five pigment coating formulations which included different combinations of kaolin, calcium carbonate and titanium dioxide pigment with a styrene\n-butyl acrylate copolymer binder using a bar application. After coating, the samples were air-dried overnight under TAPPI conditions. Then, half of the coated-paperboards were calendered. Tone scales from 1 to 100 % were offset printed using black ink on the uncalendered and calenderedcoated paperboards. Then, from the printed tone scale, the tone area values were measured with the Gretagmacbeth Spectrolino spectrophotometer. These values showed that pigment coating improved the surface optical and physical properties of paperboards. After calendering, the roughness values of coated paperboards decreased. In addition, the obtained dot and line sharpness on calendered-coated paperboards were better than on uncalenderedcoated paperboards. However, the dot gain values of calendered-coated paperboards had fewer dot gains than uncalendered-coated paperboards. It was established that the variation of pigment proportions in the coating formulations had no significant effect on dot gain.