A new centre on a covered area of 3,500 sqm including 500 sqm of offices employing forty people, and whose main activity consists in receiving large widths of rolls of foils and to cut them at the size and length required by customers. Walter and Peter Kurz, the owners, have wished to recall all the commitment they had for this French entity whose administrative and sales offices are still located in the heart of Paris, close to the Place de la République. A historical but also economic commitment since Kurz France remains currently the Group’s largest subsidiary in Europe.
4,000 people!
It may be recalled that the Kurz Group currently has nine production facilities located in Europe, Asia and the United States, employs some 4,000 people, has 23 subsidiaries and 70 representations and/or sales offices worldwide. To note also, that the Kurz Group owns companies like PolylC, specialized in polymer electronics, Hinderer + Mühlich, a manufacturer of hot stamping dies and stamping tools, Baier, a manufacturer of stamping machines and OVD Kinegram AG, the global leading manufacturer of optical security elements against counterfeiting and falsification of identity documents and banknotes.
New holographic and cold transfer foils
The company has recently expanded its range of holographic hot stamping and cold foil range with a new design series featuring lens motifs. These diffractive foils emulate the refraction properties of optical lenses and simulate an extraordinary spatial depth. The lens motif with the special depth effect is available in many different versions. The range includes lens motifs in a wide variety of sizes, as single images or continuous designs, in geometric figures like ovals or rectangles, as well as water drop or heart shaped lens, etc.). There are also designs with oil drops, air bubbles or foam bubbles, and lens shapes that can be combined with other special designs, for example a reptilian pattern.
To note again, a new cold transfer foil for UV Offset printing, a foil, which according to Kurz, will set a new standard in terms of quality. The cold stamping foil called Luxor / Alufin KPS-OP provides consistently good results. When it is necessary to apply foil to large areas, the cold foil will achieve uniform coverage. Conversely, when filigree details are required, KPS-OP will produce a high edge definition transfer. Even fine rasters are easy to implement. While it is possible in principle to transfer glossy metallic layers as a raster using the cold-foiling technique, adequate results have only been obtainable in the past for coarser rasters.
The cold foil KPS-OP was developed for UV offset printing but is equally suitable for conventional offset printing. It generally adheres equally well to conventional and UV-cured adhesives, and can be overprinted with conventionally drying as well as UV curing inks and lacquers.
“KPS-OP embodies a great deal of development work and accumulated know-how”, explains Dr. Ulrike Plaia, a product manager at Kurz. “We have put many years of intensive research into cold foiling technology, in close collaboration with machine, adhesive, ink and rubber blanket manufacturers. This new cold foil grade is the result of the cumulative experience we have gained. The users of this product have confirmed that it delivers an excellent print result and a very high gloss level, in particular on flat surfaces. it is uncomplicated to process.”
The Luxor/Alufin KPS-OP cold foil is a silver-coloured foil. It can be used to produce a wide variety of metallic colours when overprinted. However, the film can be produced on request in other colours. There is also an identical cold foil grade with a selection of holographic designs.
Against counterfeiting
Finally, Kurz engineers have improved their diffractive authenticity feature, Trustseal. They have equipped their OVD (Optical Variable Device) system with new technologies that can only deter the best counterfeiters.
This includes not only the lenticular technology and relief and contrast effects, but also hidden features that only become visible at specific viewing angles or under very high magnification. Thanks to the design flexibility and high functional potential of the Trustseal technology, it is possible to continuously integrate new security features into the OVDs, thereby creating an unfamiliar and ever increasingly difficult barrier to counterfeiters.
Hence, the new PM Premium technology offers an extremely high level of counterfeit protection. PM Premium is a range of products in which a simulated surface relief is combined with further diffractive elements with transparent areas. The process of partially metalizing image elements poses manufacturing challenges that can only be overcome with specialized know-how.
