C…

 

C1S PAPER  Abbreviation for coated one side paper.

 

CAD/CAM  Computer Assisted Design/Computer Assisted Makeup or Manufacturing.

 

CAKING  The collecting of dried ink upon rollers and plates.

 

CALENDER CUTS  Defects caused by creasing or cutting of the web of paper during calendering due to wrinkles in the web.

 

CALENDER FINISHED A term applied to any paper with a surface glazed by means of a calender stack.

 

CALIPER  The thickness of paper, usually expressed in thousandths of an inch. (mils).

 

CAMERA-READY  Copy which is ready for photography. See artwork.

 

CARRIER  Sometimes used to refer to the liner material of pressure sensitive labels. Also a term sometimes used to describe the stock to which two layers of adhesive are applied on a double adhesive construction.

 

CAST COATED  A high-gloss enamel finish.

 

CAST COATED PAPER  A paper, the coating of which is allowed to harden or set while in contact with a finished casting surface.

 

CAST FILM  Plastic sheeting manufactured by the casting process, as opposed to the extruding process.

 

CAST VINYL  Vinyl sheeting manufactured by coating a liquid vinyl acetate or similar ester onto a casting paper and curing in a heated oven.

 

CATALYST  A substance which has the capability of initiating or accelerating the speed of a reaction between two or more substances when introduced into their presence.

 

CAVITY  Usually refers to the engraving on a rotary die cutter that die cuts a single shape.

 

CELL  A small engraved or etched depression on an anilox roll that carries the ink to the plate.

 

CELLULOSE  Fibrous substance of wood, cotton and other vegetable matter.

 

CENTIGRADE  A scale of temperature which features 0 and 100 degrees as the freezing and boiling points of water. Also called Celsius.

 

CENTIPOISE  One hundred of a poise; a unit for measuring viscosity.

 

CENTRAL IMPRESSION  A press with a number of printing units around a large cylinder which serves as the impression cylinder against which the substrate rides.

 

CERAMIC ANILOX ROLL  Engraved inking roll used in flexographic printing. New techniques in manufacturing allow for vastly improved anilox roll performance and life.

 

CHALKING  A form of coating deterioration characterized by the formation of a loose, chalk-like powder on the film surface.

 

CHARACTER A single group of bars and spaces which represent an individual number, letter or punctuation mark.

 

CHARGE  Usually refers to the degree or type of electrical property carried by a substrate.

 

CHECK DIGIT  A digit within a symbol whose value is based mathematically on other characters included in the symbol. It is used for the purpose of performing a mathematical check to ensure the accuracy of the read.

 

CHECKING  The presence of hairline cracks in a varnish coating, a lacquer coating, a film or in an adhesive coating.

 

CHEMICAL CURING  The setting or curing of an adhesive, coating or sealer brought about by the addition of a catalyst or accelerator.

 

CHEMICAL RESISTANCE  The resistance of a pressure sensitive label to the deteriorating effects resulting from exposure to chemicals under specified conditions.

 

CHILL ROLL  Metal roll or drum cooled internally with water, etc. Often used after the press dryer to cool the printed web prior to die cutting, rewinding, etc.

 

CHOKE  An image who’s edged have been pulled in slightly from those of the original. The image area remains essentially the same except for a narrow strip of reduction around its perimeter.

 

CHOKES AND SPREADS  Overlaps of overprinting images to prevent color fringes or white borders around image detail due to slight misregister during printing.

 

CHROMATIC SCALE  The colors of the spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet.

 

CIRCUMFERENTIAL REGISTER  See running register.

 

CLARITY  Degree of clearness.

 

CLAY COATED  A term used to describe a paper with a clay coating on either one or both sides.

 

CLEAR AREA  A required clear space, containing no dark marks, which precedes the start character of a symbol and follows the stop character. Also known as quiet area.

 

CLEAR COAT  A coating that protects the printing and the surface of a pressure sensitive label from abrasion, sunlight, chemicals, moisture, or a combination of these.

 

CO-EXTRUSIONS  Film produced by more than one extruder through a common die. Films have been made with as many as 13 layers.

 

CO-POLYMER  Two or more mixed monomers which, when polymerized, yield a complex product having properties different from either simple polymer alone.

 

COATED PAPER  General tem applying to all papers which have been surfaced coated with pigments.

 

COATING  In printing, an emulsion, varnish, or lacquer applied in-line or off-line, often over a printed surface to give it added protection.

 

COATING WEIGHT  The weight of a coating per unit area, such as lb/1,000 square feet, lb/ream or grams/sq meter.

 

COBWEBBING  A filmy, web-like build up of dried ink or varnish that appears on the doctor roll or on the end of the impression rolls.

 

COD  Cash on delivery. Customer must pay in full at time of delivery. Shipper retains title until carrier obtains remittance. Why is this a flexo term?

 

COHESION  the internal strength of an adhesive mass; resistance to flow, and resistance to failure in the adhesive when labels are removed or are under stress. See cohesive strength.

 

COHESIVE FAILURE  The mode of failure wherein the adhesive splits, leaving some residue on the labeled surface and part on the label.

 

COHESIVE STRENGTH  A measure of that property of an adhesive which resists forces parallel to the surface, i.e. resistance to adhesive splitting.

 

COLD CRACKING  The breaking or shattering under stress of plastic coatings that have become brittle due to lowered temperatures.

 

COLD FLOW  The tendency of a pressure sensitive adhesive to act like a heavy, viscous liquid over long periods of time. Such phenomena aw “oozing” or “increased in adhesion” are the results of this characteristic.

 

COLD TEMPERATURE ADHESIVE  An adhesive that will enable a pressure sensitive label to adhere or stick well when applied to a cold substrate, often in cold ambient temperatures.

 

COLLATING  Assembling in proper order.

 

COLOR CORRECTION  Any method such as masking, dot-etching, re-etching, and/or electronic scanning used to correct for color errors in process inks.

 

COLOR FASTNESS  That property of a pressure sensitive label to retain its color in normal storage or to resist change in color when exposed to light, heat or other deleterious influences.

 

COLOR KEY  A series of colored films used to check individual colors and stripping. When overlaid in printing sequence it will produce a multicolored image. A color key is limited to yellow, orange, dark blue, magenta, cyan, black, white, gold, brown, green,, red, beige and any combinations thereof. Basically a photographic positive of the separation negatives in general color.

 

COLOR MATCHING  To duplicate the hue, value and intensity of a given color sample usually be blending appropriate elements.

 

COLOR PERMANENCE  See color fastness.

 

COLOR PROCESS  A reproduction of any subject where the colors are separated by any method utilizing at least the three primary process colors: yellow, magenta, and cyan. Using halftone plates to produce intermediate colors and shades. Line work and screen work can be utilized.

 

COLOR PROOF  A printed or simulated printed image of each process color (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) using inks, toners or dyes to give a simulated impression of the final printed reproduction. Color proofs are now most often generated by computer.

 

COLOR RETENTION  The property of a color to resist fading or other deterioration on exposure to light.

 

COLOR SEPARATED ART  See pre-separated art.

 

COLOR SEPARATION  The process of separating colored originals into yellow, magenta, cyan and black printing negatives. Mostly done on computer controlled scanners.

 

COLOR STABILITY  See color fastness.

 

COLOR STATIONS  Each printing section of the press or set of rollers used to print each individual color.

 

COLOR TRANSPARENCY  A full-color photographic positive image on a transparent support from which color separations are usually produced. Can be viewed with the aid of a lighted color transparency viewer.

 

COLORANT  The color portion of an ink; may be a pigment, dye, or a combination of the two.

 

COMBINATION PLATE  A single engraving which includes both line and halftone.

 

COMPATIBILITY  The ability of ink, film, substrate and/or solvents to function together in an acceptable manner.

 

CONDENSED TYPE  Proportionally narrow or slender typefaces.

 

CONDITIONING  Process of subjecting material to specific temperature and humidity conditions for stipulated periods of time.

 

COMFORMABILITY  The ability of a pressure sensitive material to yield to the contours of a surface (curved or rough). See flexibility.

 

CONSISTENCY  Usually refers to the general body characteristics of an ink or other coatings.

 

CONTINUOUS CODE  A bar code or symbol where the space between characters (intercharacter gap) is part of the code.

 

CONTINUOUS LABEL  Fan-folded labels manufactured from a continuous web of label stock which is not cut into units prior to execution. Continuous labels are mostly used for data processing applications.

 

CONTROLLED RELEASE  A release level greater than that provided by an unmodified release coating.

 

CONTROLLED RELEASE ADDITIVE  A material added to silicone release coatings to create the desired higher release level.

 

CONVERTER  Refers to that type or manufacturer who produces plain or printed rolls, sheets, bags or pouches, etc., form rolls of film, foil, or paper, including pressure sensitives.

 

COPIER LABEL  A label designed for overprinting by a plain paper photocopier.

 

COPY  Any furnished material, manuscript, pictures, artwork, etc.) to be used in the production of printing.

 

COPY PREPARATION  Directions for desired size and other details for illustrations, and the arrangement into proper position of various parts of the label being prepared for production.

 

CORE  A tube on which paper, film, or foil labels are wound for shipment. Also the metal body of a roller which is rubber covered.

 

CORE HOLDER  Device for affixing core to shaft; core chuck.

 

CORE PLUGS  Metal, wood or compressed paper plugs which are driven into the paper core of the finished roll to prevent crushing or other damage to the core.

 

CORNER RADIUS  Describes the arc or curvature of the die blades where they meet so that they can impart a rounded corner to a die cut label.

 

CORONA TREATING  An electrical discharge which is used to raise the critical surface tension of low or inert substrates thereby enhancing printability.

 

COUPON  Removable label either supplying information or having redeemable value. They may be either pressure sensitive or non-pressure sensitive.

 

COVERAGE  Ink or coating mileage; the surface area covered by a given quantity of ink or coating material. In flexography, the extent or degree to which a base material is covered, colored, or hidden by an ink or coating.

 

CRACKING  See crazing.

 

CRAZING  The appearance of a network of small cracks in a varnish coat or a plastic face stock.

 

CREEP  The lateral movement of a pressure sensitive label on a surface due to low cohesive strength.

 

CHROMALIN  One-piece color proofing for four color process.

 

CROP  To eliminate portions of the copy (indicated by crop marks).

 

CROSS DIRECTION  The direction across the web. Papers are weaker and are affected more by changes in relative humidity in the cross direction than the grain direction.

 

CRUSH CUT  A cut made by a rotary blade in contact with an anvil or base roll.

 

CRUSH SCORE  See score.

 

CRUSHED CORE  Core that gives way and becomes out-of-round either from too much tension for a bump.

 

CSA  Canadian Standards Association. Canadian association similar to Underwriters Laboratories.

 

CURE  To change the properties of adhesives, coatings or inks by chemical reaction. The “curing” of inks used high intensity UV lamps whereas the “curing” of rubber requires considerable heat and pressure. “Curing” is achieved by condensation, polymerization or vulcanization.

 

CURETIME  The time/temperature combination required to bring about the desired level of cure.

 

CURING TEMPERATURE  Temperature to which an adhesive, ink or coating is subjected to for curing.

 

CURL  The tendency or material by itself or in a laminate to bend or partly wrap around the axis of one of its directions. Curl is often caused by humidity or improper tension.

 

CUT  An expression commonly used to designate an engraving or photographic print. Also to dilute and ink, lacquer, varnish, etc. with solvents or with clear base; to thin.

 

CUT-OFF  In web printing, the cut or print length corresponding to the circumference of the plate cylinder and/or die cutter; repeat length.

 

CUT RULE  Steel rule blades designed to cut materials being produced on flat bed die cutting equipment.

 

CUTS  The number of rolls slit from a master roll.

 

CYAN  A subtractive primary color which reflects blue and green light and absorbs red light.

 

CYLINDER  In flexography, most rollers in the printing press are called rolls with the exception of that upon which the rubber plates are mounted, and the one which receives the impression, and these are usually referred to as cylinders, i.e., plate/print cylinder, impression cylinder.

 

CYRELL  Du Pont’s trademark for photopolymer plate material.