Surface treatment and printing properties of dispersion-coated paperboard

The effect of two commonly used surface treatment techniques (corona and plasma at atmospheric pressure) on the printing and barrier properties of dispersion-coated (containing wax) paperboard was evaluated. A fairly intense corona treatment led to an undesirable increase in the WVTR-value. A less intense corona treatment preserved the WVTR-value to a great extent, but the printability remained at an unsatisfactory level. With plasma treatment, the water vapour barrier was not impaired, and the printability of the plasma-treated dispersion-coated (wax-containing) substrate was good. It is suggested that a better result using corona treatment may be obtained by optimising the power and controlling the time between the treatment and the printing, although this was not investigated here.