ORAFOL has been in Australia for 25 years, but its most impressive growth has come in the last six. With plenty of potential still for expansion, the APAC region is a key focus for ORAFOL. Its advanced tape systems will be high on the priority list for 2025, particularly following the specialist appointment of Rhonda McAllister as National Markets Business Manager – Advanced Tape Systems.
While flexographic labelling and printing represent a new market for Rhonda, she has been involved in the tapes and films sector in other industries for many years. She is currently working with test sites pre-release, awaiting the arrival of the new ORAFLEX® 118 series of cushion mounting tapes in late April.
“Tape is an interesting product, because it’s not very exciting to look at and is often overlooked or underappreciated,” Rhonda says. “But when you consider what they do, a good tape is really worth its weight in gold.
“High-quality plate mounting, splicing, binding and transfer tapes are fundamental to ensuring fast job set-up and change-over in flexographic printing, and to enabling precise, consistent results on label and packaging work. In other areas, like binding, tape is literally what holds the whole job together.”
ORAFOL produces a wide range of adhesive tapes, including specialty plate-mounting solutions for flexographic printing, foam, splicing and transfer tapes, double-sided tapes and tapes for an ultra-high bond.
“Globally, our advanced tapes are some of ORAFOL’s most well-regarded products, and now we want businesses in Australia and New Zealand to enjoy the same benefits their counterparts around the world have been enjoying for many years.”
The options for the label and packaging market are impressive, including the ORAFLEX® range of plate mounting and cushion mounting tapes for flexo label printing, and the ORAFLEX® Solid tape range for mounting photopolymer or rubber plates for flexo, letterpress and label printers.
“The design of the ORAFLEX® cushion mounting tapes, with their core of high-density PE foam combined with acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesives, are engineered to ensure optimal handling and increased reusability for flexographic printers,” Rhonda notes.
“This multi-layer construction means they perfectly absorb vibrations during the printing process and have a high tolerance to pressure changes, delivering consistent, precise results across even the longest print runs.”
“The pressure-sensitive adhesives used are resistant to the solvents typically used in flexo printing, and are available in different levels of hardness – soft, medium and firm – and with a range of adhesion levels to suit different applications – high adhesive force to the plate for the 6-series tapes, medium for the 5-series and low for the 3-series. Users can choose the level of hardness, tack and repositionability, and even linear dot gain, to best suit their particular application.
“The ORAFLEX® Solid range is designed to give excellent plate stability while still allowing the user to reposition and demount the plate without distortion,” Rhonda adds. “And, they remove cleanly after use, without leaving any residue on the sleeves and cylinders.”
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