CHAPTER 1

CONTINUOUS STATIONERY FORMS & PRINTING PROCESS

1. INTRODUCTION

Continuous stationery (UK) or Continuous form paper (USA) is paper which is designed for
use with dot-matrix printers and line printers. Other names for continuous stationery
include fan-fold paper, sprocket feed paper, burst paper, tractor-feed paper, and pin feed
paper. It can be wood free uncoated paper (single ply) or carbonless copy paper (multi ply).

Continuous paper is perforated transversely at regular intervals with a line of small slits
which form a tear edge that defines the top and bottom of each page. When unfolded into a
flat continuous sheet, this slit perforation closes up to allow the printer to print across the
perforated edge without stopping or jamming. The paper is fed vertically through the printer,
with the edges of the continuous paper forming the left and right edges of the page. The paper
is also punched longitudinally along both side edges with 5/32-inch (4 mm) diameter
engagement holes at a regular 1/2-inch spacing. These holes engage with sprocket wheels or
toothed belts, which push or pull the paper through the printer. The holes can either be of a
serrated edge pattern (older production machinery) or with smooth plain edges (New
Generation production method).

Better quality continuous paper also includes additional longitudinal slit perforations
alongside the engagement holes, allowing the large holes to be torn off the printed page,
allowing a general approximation to cut-sheet paper typically used in a press, typewriter, or
other sheet-fed printer. File or ring binder holes can also be added to the main body of the
form to allow for storage once the form has been divided in to individual sheets.
 Fig. Different types of continuous stationeries

Advantages and disadvantages of continuous stationery forms:

The use of continuous stationeries simplifies the work of office employees and increases their
output. When invoice forms are printed and bound in pads the typist is required to interleave
the invoice forms with carbon tear off a set of forms, feed them in the machine and remove
the carbon after the typing work. In this process a lot of time can be saved.

Continuous stationeries are of 3 types like single stub-type, fan type or (Z type) and
continuous semi-strip. In single stub-type stationery forms are printed in the form of
continuous roll and there are no perforations and forms are form off by a metal cutting edge
after use. In fan fold stationery the forms are divided from one another by perforations both
horizontally and vertically. When number of copies opened, it looks like a fan and thus called
fan fold stationery. In continuous semi-strip, bottom sheet of each sheet is attached to the
following set by perforations. This is used with or without carbon paper.

Advantages

The use of machine has necessitated greater use of continuous stationery because its use
brings efficiency to the small, medium and large scale business units. The various advantages
of continuous stationery are:
(a) When continuous stationery is used it is not teared from the pad and the clerk need not
inter leave the carbon, so it saves time and money. As a great deal copies can be prepared
at the- same time, it saves time.
(b) It increases the organizational efficiency.
(c) With the use of continuous stationery the user does not feel tired.
(d) It helps in speed use of accounting machine and addressing machine.

Disadvantages

(a) After the operation of continuous stationery, it is very difficult to make alterations and
corrections.
(b) It is not economical and therefore small firms can- not afford for its use.
(c) In friction of forms it will amount to a great deal of spoil.
 (d) The last copy become faint and thus brings difficulty in reading.
(c) These are not prepared & used by ordinary staff and so trained staff is necessary.

Printing process for continuous stationery printing:

The substrate for continuous stationery forms is either paper or adhesive papers. So the
printing process adopted is offset printing. The forms should be in continuous in nature
therefore paper should be fed in the form of roll or web and the printing process must be web
offset printing. Web offset printing can be done using dry offset printing, wet offset printing,
rubber printing and by means of imprinting.

WET OFFSET PRINTING:

Wet offset printing is one which uses dampening system to distinguish between image and
non image areas. Positive plates are made use. Image and non images areas are in the same
plane. Image areas are applied with ink from form rollers and non image areas are wetted
with the dampening solution.

The work flow in Wet offset Printing

 Salesman –gets the customer requirement.
 Preparation of a rough layout.
 Typesetting, ruling, editing of image or text-composing.
 Prepare a negative –through camera
 Prepare a positive –contact printer
 Prepare the paste up.
 Expose the plate.
 Printing-Proof generation
 Get the customers approval.
 Do necessary correction-if any.
 Print Planning and scheduling the job
 If any corrections are suggested by the customer, do the changes in the negative.
 Repeat the process till proof is approved by the customer

Wet offset Printing -Steps for plate making:

Positive are placed upon the positive working plates and exposed through the UV light.
Non image areas, which are penetrated by exposed light gets weaken and image areas which
are not exposed, will adhere to the base plate. On developing the non image areas are
removed by the developer. Thus image and non image areas are physically separated.
 Fig. Offset Printing Principle

“Cylinder gap” or “Lock up”

It is an important consideration while going for web offset printing. There is a small gap,
called “cylinder gap” or “lock up”, which is not available for printing. This gap must be
considered while designing the image area. “Lock up” gap either divided into halves, half at
the top and half at the bottom as shown in the figure below.

Fig: Cylinder gap

 Fig: Cylinder gap or lock up

DRY OFFSET PRINTING:

Dry offset printing does not use dampening solution to separate image and non image areas.
The image and non image areas are not exactly in the same plane. Image areas are raised. It
uses polymer plates. Plates are exposed through negatives. Image areas get hardened by the
exposure. Non image areas, which are not exposed, get dissolved through the developer.
While printing dampening is not used as the image areas are raised from the non image areas.

Advantages of wet offset printing

Finer screening can be used. Solids can have a finer grain to produce more consistent
color.

Fig: Dry offset Nylo (Polymer Plate with metal backside)

Fig : Polymer plate for Imprinting / Rubber printing

Advantages of Dry offset:
Plates last much longer than wet offset plates, they can be reused for lakhs of
impressions. They are for long run jobs. As water / moisture is not used, more tolerance
in case of OCR (optical Character reader) /OMR (Optical magnetic reader) forms.

Rubber Printing:

Rubber plates are used as shown in figure above. This is letter press printing where image
areas are in mirror. So the impression is directly on the paper or substrate. Images in
rubber plate are raised as that of dry offset printing therefore dampening system is not
required to separate image and non image areas in the rubber plate.

Steps followed for making Rubber Plates

1. Get the customer requirement.
2. Rough layout is prepared- salesman.
3. Image, text and composing is done .
4. Develop the negatives.
5. Proofs are developed- proofing press.
6. Get it approved by the customer.
7. Do the corrections in the negative, if any.
8. Once the approval is done,
9. Prepare the negative as per the printing size,
10. Acid reactive metal engraving is exposed by this negative.
11. Engraving is etched in a etching chemical.
12. After engraving is ready, press the matrix material under pressure and temperature
on this engraving to form a mold.
13. Rubber material is pressurized under heat upon this mold,
14. Rubber is deformed and subjected to post exposure in order to give hardness.
15. This rubber plate is ready for mounting on the press.

Disadvantages of rubber plate printing

This process limits fine line screening; it is difficult to reproduce large areas of solids and
half tones. Also a heavy concentration of vertical and horizontal rules cannot be produced
in rubber plate printing

Imprinting

It is similar to that of rubber printing, but it is used to print a small text on the stationery,
which is constant text. It may be a prefix, a code or a missing figure to be included in the
stationery. The plate is made up of polymer material and image is raised as rubber printing.
Image plate is fixed by means of adhesive tapes. Most of the time imprint is done in the
numbering unit itself using the same ink fountain, which is used for supplying ink for
numbering machines.
Rotary web offset Machines

Rotary web offset machines are special offset printing machines, made for printing
continuous stationeries. Apart from offset technology these also inbuilt with dry offset
printing, rubber printing, letter press printing, numbering, punching& die cutting, perforating,
folding, sheeting and roll to roll converting attachments. The rotary web offset machines are
made such that the printing units can be removed from the structure and a new unit can be
inserted at the desired printing unit. Due to this provision the latest web offset printing
machines are equipped with UV printing & drying attachments, Flexo printing attachment
and also with variable data printing devices mounted onto the machine.
The number or printing units will vary as per the requirement of the printer and some
machines are having maximum of 10- 12 units for printing conventional inks along with
special security printing features.

A rotary press normally has all its printing units in the horizontal direction instead of stacking
one upon the other, as shown in the figure below.

Fig: Five color Rotary web offset Printing press , Muller marteini,

The Classification of Rotary web offset machines for continuous stationer printing

The rotary web offset printing machines for continuous stationery printing are classified into
two major types; they are Single roll & Multi roll web offset printing machines.

Single web Press

Single roll rotary web offset operates with only one reel or a roll of paper and produces one
part at a time. In case, if a multipart stationery is to be printed with different types of papers
for 1st part, 2nd part and so on then each type of the reel is to be mounted on the machine and
it must be run with particular type of plates and machine settings. For four part continuous
stationery with four types of papers, the single roll web press has to be run four times with
different papers and with each part’s printing plates. After all parts were printed, these
different parts are collated into multi part stationery in a machine called, Collator. While
collating the individual parts are subjected to crimps, which make the stationery to undergo
locking with other parts. At the delivery end of the collator, single multipart stationery is
produced. Therefore multi part stationery is not possible to produce online in a single roll
web offset and it is done offline, i.e., by feeding these individual printed, punched, numbered
and perforated parts in a collating machine. The figure below shows a four color, single roll
rotary web offset printing machine with folder unit attached at the delivery end.

Fig. Single roll rotary web offset printing machine

Fig. Cross sectional view of a Single roll rotary web offset printing machine

In the cross sectional view of a single roll rotary web offset printing machine as shown
above, there are two wet offset printing units, where web from first printing unit to second is
turned using a turner bar. After offset printing on front and backside of the web, the web
enters into a rubber printing unit, where a rubber plate, having mirror image is mounted on
the plate cylinder. This rubber plate receives ink from a ink fountain and prints directly on the
web passing through it. Once the rubber printing is finished the web is directed into a
numbering and imprinting units. Both of these units are supplied with same ink fountain and
the printing is directly on to the web, so the image on the numbering machines and on the
imprinting plate should be mirror image. Both rubber printing and imprinting processes are
similar to letter press printing and there is no requirement of dampening system as the images
on these plates are raised one.

Once printing is over on the web or paper, it passes through a punching station, in this
punching station there is a pair of male and female die, each die has got a set of individual
punches and its counterpart. The punches are located such that for every one inch two
punches will be produced in the stationery. i.e. for a continuous stationery of form length 12
inch will have 24 punch holes on its left and right edges. The punching pressure can be set by
means of pressure setting knobs on the machine. Pressure setting is very important to have a
proper punching impression on the stationery. If paper pieces are retained by these punches
or there is no proper punching has taken place then these stationeries will not pass easily in
digital printers and they result in paper-jam and thus produce wastage of the stationery.
These punches are required mainly for feeding the continuous stationery in digital printers
and for collating in a collator machine, in case if it is a multi part but printed in a single roll
web offset printing machine. Some times for finishing operations such as hologram, hot foil
printing and embossing, the stationery should be provided with punches so that it can pass
through the holographic & embossing machines which require the stationery to be in the
continuous forms rather than cut sheets.

There is a one more punching unit in the rotary web offset as shown in the figure above,
where a special punch and die is used to make punches of custom made, i. e. for producing
punches or holes on the stationery for filing the documents in office files.

The web after getting punched at the punching unit, enters into a perforation unit. The
perforation can be done along and across the direction of the stationery. Vertical perforation
or along the direction perforation is done by means of perforation wheels, which are mounted
on wheel holder and projected on the web. These perforation wheels can be adjusted for
different pressure and for different position on the web and locked in the desired location.
There are different types of perforation wheels are available ranging from micro perforation
to a broader range.

A horizontal perforation for each fold is a must to convert the continuous web into folded
stationery. This horizontal perforation or cylinder perforation is done by means of a set of
blades which are mounted on a cylinder, having same diameter as that of printing impression
cylinder. The blades are horizontally fixed in the slot provided on these cylinders by means of
nut and bolt mechanism. Here also a variety of perforations can be done by using different
ranges of the perforation blades.

In the delivery unit there are three different attachments available for a rotary web offset.
These attachments are named as Sheeter unit, Folder unit and roll to roll unit. When web roll
passes through all the printing, numbering, punching units and finally comes out of the
delivery unit, it can have either in the form of a continuous folded form or cut sheets of
standard size or again in the roll form.
When Sheeter unit is fixed at the delivery end, the unit has a rotary cutter, which rotates
continuously and converts this continuous printed web into a desired size of cut sheets. This
type of finishing is used for documents which are fed to laser printers, where the stationery is
required in the form of cut sheets. e.g. OMR sheets, A4 size documents, Marks card etc. Here
horizontal perforations are not required on the web, since stationery is not folded here.

If the delivery end of the rotary web offset printing machine is connected with folder unit, the
continuous web will be converted into continuous folded forms or Zig Zac forms by the
folders. The horizontal perforations are must for this type of output. Punches (sprocket holes)
are required for continuous zig-zac forms as they will be fed through the printers, which
require punch holes to drive the stationery through their printing head.

In label printing industry, the printed web is required to supply to the end users in the form of
small rolls. In such cases, the continuous web is again converted into reel form, by winding
unit mounted at the delivery end as shown in the figure above. This huge printed roll is
finally mounted on to a separate slitting machine, where a number of slitting wheels are
mounted in the path of web. The big printed roll is converted into small rolls by the winding
& unwinding unit of the slitting machine and continuously slitted into number of small rolls.
In another case where if the total printing units required for a job is more than whatever
printing units available in the web offset, then blank roll is printed with the available printing
units in first pass and the roll is winded into reel form at the delivery. After printing these
available colors, the reel is removed from the delivery unit and again mounted on to the
feeding shaft of the same web offset. Now the remaining color units are made ready and over
printed on this preprinted roll. Now at the delivery any type of the attachment can be joined
to convert into the final product form.

e. g. Continuous stationery is required in the zig- zac form to the end user (customer). Total
printing units required for this job is front four colors and back side four colors. But the
printer has a single roll web offset machine which can print only four colors. In this situation
the printer will print the four colors on one side and he will convert the blank roll into one
side printed roll, by means of roll to roll attachment. After completing roll to roll, the
preprinted roll is removed from the delivery of the machine and it is mounted on the feeder
shaft of the web offset. Now the pending work is to print the four colors on the back side and
converting it into Zig –Zac form. For this folder unit is attached at the delivery of the
machine. Four color plates for the backside printing is mounted and preprinted roll is fed to
the printing unit, to print on the back side. When this printed web moves through the
punching, perforation unit and folder units, it will be converted into continuous Zig - zac
folder forms. While printing on the front side all punching, perforation units are kept
disengaged condition, since it is converted into roll form. But when the second print is done,
this is the final round, so all punching, perforation and numbering units are engaged for
printing

Multi Web Press

In a multi roll web offset machine there is a provision to mount more than one web reels and
each web path has its own printing, punching, perforation, gluing and imprinting units. When
all these different parts have been printed and finished, a carbon paper is inserted in between
these different parts and finally at the delivery end, multipart stationery is thus produced. The
collating is done online in a multi roll web offset machine and entire printing finishing is
done in a single pass.

Different grades of paper reels can be mounted in different reel stands. Based on the printing
and finishing requirement, impression of any printing, punching, perforating etc units can be
switched ON / OFF in the web path. Multi roll web offset printing machines are used for long
run jobs and at the maximum eight parts of paper and seven carbon rolls can be mounted and
produced in these machines. At the delivery end multi parts can be produced either in the
form of continuous forms or cut sheets, where all the parts are held together by means of glue
or the crimps.

Machine Numbering in web offset printing

In web offset printing machines, numbering on continuous stationery is done either by
mounting numbering machines or by mounting a digital variable data printing head on the
web offset in the path of web flow.
In Machine numbering or mechanical numbering, different numbering boxes or machines are
mounted on a circular ring, which is then mounted on a numbering shaft. This numbering
shaft will run at the offset printing speed, since all printing, numbering, punching, perforating
units connected to the same motor or driver shaft.

(a) (b)
Fig. Numbering ring a) solid type and b) split type
 Fig . Numbering cam for web offset machines

Fig: Numbering machine Cam for sheet fed machines

Numbering Ink and printing

Numbering ink will be in the paste form, which is more viscous than any offset printing ink.
Numbering ink is supplied from an ink fountain roller to the numbering machines. It is
possible to have different digits of numbering to print. Some customer may ask for six digits,
some for seven digits etc. The each digit in the entire number is printed with separate wheel,
e.g. if the required number is seven digit, then seven wheels are mounted in each numbering
box or machine. Since numbering is letter press printing, numbers will be in the mirror image
on these wheels. So numbering wheels contact directly on the paper and number is printed on
the web. Different colored inks can be used for printing these numbers for the security
purpose. Numbering machines are available with different numbering fonts. Commonly used
numbering fonts are Times roman, Arial, Gothic, E 13B, Bar code, etc.

Working of numbering machines

Based on the numbering positions on a form, different numbering machines are mounted on
the numbering shaft. The mounted numbering machines will engage with the cams, when
impression is switched ON. The movement of the cam and the rotational movement of the
numbering machines make the wheel to change the number continuously, during machine
run. This results in continuous numbering on the web.

Numbering is the last operation

In any continuous stationery printing, numbering is kept as the last operation, if any multi
pass printing is to be done on the stationery. This is to reduce the wastage and from the safe
printing point of view. If numbering is done in the first pass and there is a second pass for the
stationery in the same or other printing press, in such case any damage or wastage that
occurred during the second pass, will spoil the good numbered form, which cannot be sent to
the customer, This results in the cancellation of that particular form. To avoid all these
confusions, numbering, as it is unique for each forms is done as the last operation.

Straight and convex Numbering

There are two different types of numbering. This classification is on the basis of the direction
of mounting the numbering machine. They are Straight numbering and convex numbering.
If the numbers are printed on the stationery in the direction of the web , then it is called
convex numbering. On the other hand if the numbering is done across the web direction it is
called Straight numbering. The numbering machines are different for each of these types. In
staright numbering all the wheels will be having same diameter, where as in the convex
numbering the middle most wheel will be having larger diameter and it reduces uniformly to
the both ends. This is provided since numbering is done along the web direction and the
curvature of the wheel should be same as that of the impression cylinder. Also in straight
numbering all the wheels in a numbering machine contact the paper at the same time. But in
case of convex numbering each wheel has its own contacting time with the paper as it is
along the web direction or perpendicular to the length of the impression cylinder.

Straight Numbering

Convex Numbering

Fig . Printed sample with straight and convex type numbering

 Fig. Different types of numbering machines

Fig. Shows the variation in the numbering wheel diameter for a convex numbering machine

Fig. Straight numbering machine with uniform numbering wheel diameter

Numbering font reference chart

Fig. Chart showing different font for numbering and their specifications

Fig. Bar Code numbering machines

 Fig . MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) numbering machines

Perforation in Continuous stationery printing

Perforations are used on a laser form when a portion of the form needs to be detached from
the rest. Perforations are classified by bursting strength and type. The bursting strength is
referred to as "ties per inch" or TPI. The type of perforations is horizontal or vertical, which
can be full or partial.

Ties per Inch

The tie or tab is the part of the perforation where the paper does not get cut, but remains
intact to "tie" the paper together. The ties alternate with cut areas to form the perforation. The
tied areas of the perforation are usually narrower than the cut areas to allow for easier
detachment of the sections separated by the perforation. The proper TPI to use is generally
determined by the type of form and the function of the perforation on that form. For laser
forms, a micro perforation is most commonly used for the following reasons:

 It consists of 50 to 72 TPI which are very small in width allowing the paper to burst or
detach easily without noticeable residue remaining on the sheet.
 The micro perforation provides a smooth flat perforation which allows the form to lay
very flat. A flat perforation allows the sheet to run through the laser printer without
jamming.

There are times when a micro perforation does not work well on a laser form. If the form is
on a heavy weight stock, it is hard to control the cutting depth of the perforation. Using a
heavy weight stock may result in a perforation that does not properly detach. You should us a
perforation with less TPI when using heavy weight stock. If you are unsure of which TPI to
use, you should discuss your options with your supplier.

Perforation in Rotary web offset Printing

Perforations for continuous stationery forms are made using perforation wheels or by making
use of cylinder perforation blades. Perforation wheels are fixed in the wheel holder and
mounted directly parallel to the direction of the web path. So a wheel perforation is used for
making vertical perforation only. The number of perforations that can be done on the same
web is limited by the gap required to mount these blades.
Wheel perforation or vertical perforations

Wheels for perforation are available with different TPI (Ties per inch), so that based on the
customer requirement and the type of the paper, a particular perforation wheel with known
TPI can be selected. Wheel perforations can be continuous or jump type in nature. The
impression for these perforations is set by advanced vacuum pressure system in the web
offset, which releases the perforation action, when the web flow is stopped. To produce a
jump perforation, wheel holders are driven by a timing gear or the cam, which makes the
perforation impression ON and OFF at the set time interval, thus producing a jump
perforation.

Fig. Principle of vertical or wheel Perforation

Perforation wheel Perforation

Holder wheel

Fig: Perforation wheel and its holder assembly

Fig: Wheel for vertical perforation

 Fig: Litho perforation blades or tapes

Perforation Types

Fig: Showing the difference in vertical and Horizontal Perforation ( both continuous and
jump perforation )

Horizontal or cylinder perforation

Whenever perforation is required across the web, to fold the continuous printed stationery or
as a special requirement, horizontal perforation or cyliner perforation is used. In cylinder
perforation instaed of wheels , perforation blades are used, these are metal plates with teeths
running through out its length. These blades are mounted on a perforation cylinder by means
of nut and bolt mechanism.

Perforation cylinders are special type metal cylinders manily used for inserting perforation
blades in their slots. The size of a perforation cylinder is same as that of a impression
cylinder. The maximum number of blades that can be inserted in one cylinder is fixed, bsed
on its design. This perforation cylinder is mounted above another impression cylinder. The
gap between blade cylinder and impression cylinder is adjusted by moving them close or
away from each other. The paper web passes in between these two cylinders and pressure is
applied on the web, which undegoes perforation.
Fig: Perforation cylinder mounted with perforation blades

Fig: Different perforation blade profiles

Fig: Working principle of horizontal or cylinder perforation

The gap between the each perforation can be changed based on the availability of the
perforation cylinders. In some cases more than one set of perforation cylinders are used to
produce more number of perforations very close to each other on the same form. As shown in
the figure above, two sets of perforation cylinders are engaged for perforation on the same
form.

Fig: Perforation with different ties per inch (TPI)

Factors that determine the selection of Ties per Inch (TPI) for forms perforation

1. Grammage of the paper or board:

As the grammage (GSM) of the paper substrate increases, the substrate becomes stiffer
and may brittle. That is when the GSM increases the paper is treated as board, where it
loose its flexibility. This increase in stiffness makes the substrate difficult to bend or fold,
as we do for continuous stationery form. This implies that the resistive area for the form
to fold is more as the GSM increases and to make ease fold of such heavy substrate, in the
perforation, more area should have pierced with the perforation teeth / blade and lesser
area should be there to hold the forms intact. Therefore perforation blades with higher
teeth ratio , i.e. 4:1 or 5:1 is used, where first digit represents the portion broken and the
second digit shows the paper portion that is intact with next form.

3: 1
Micro Perforation 4: 1
perforation Perforation

Fig; Continuous Stationer forms with different folding perforation

 2. Strength of the paper substrate (brittleness)

When the paper becomes more and more brittle due to loss of moisture content, the
tensile strength in the paper becomes low. In such situations where paper is brittle in
nature, in the perforation, more area should be available to hold the forms together
and less area should be broken buy the perforation teeth. For this it is better to go for
1:4 or 1:5 perforations. If sufficient strength is not there in the folding perforation,
then paper may undergo web break due to the impression pressure at various printing
and perforation units.

3. Number of impression on the form after its perforation

The perforations which are provided in continuous stationery forms at the folding are
have to be sufficiently strong enough to withstand various impressions and motions
that the form will to undergo during web offset printing and later in finishing stages.
For a continuous form after it has been offset printed, it may required to pass through
variable data printing printers, hot foiling machines and for embossing / numbering
machines. When such type of post operations are involved the continuous form
undergo a huge impact and tensile loads. The perforation is planned on the basis of
these considerations.

As a special case to give better strength to the continuous stationery form at the
folding perforation, the perforation teeth are made blunt by means of grinding / filing
the teeth with a flat file. By doing so the blunt teeth will not penetrate the forms and
continuous web will be folded only at this position without perforating, which
increases the bursting strength of the stationery at the folding perforation.

4: 1
4: 1 Perforation
Perforation
with blunt teeth

4. Speed of printing :

When the printing speed increases the pressure on the perforation is also increases and at the
folding section there is a minimum time available for folding the stationery. In this condition
to have a better folding at a higher speed perforation should be an average. i.e. 1:1 or 1: 2 are
recommended for papers with GSM ranging from 80 to 120 and for above this , for board 1:3
are preferred.

5. Web tension in the paper reel:

 A uniform web tension is required in the reel of the paper for proper continuous
stationery printing. If there is no sufficient web tension, then that means the paper is
not having sufficient strength. In this case perforation may vary from form to form
and it is not possible to run the web offset at higher speed. A medium perforation is
better for such low tension web.

6. Number of printing units used for printing on the form:

In continuous stationery as the number of printing units or impressions increases there

will be a huge impact or pressure will be applied on the web paper. If there is
perforation, then since this portion of the web is already pierced with the perforation
blades, paper will be very weak and chances of web break will be more. So it is better
to have fewer ties per inch in the perforation blade, which gives more strength to the
web perforation. (Fewer the ties per inch means less piercing and more gap between
the each teeth)

7. Finishing required

After completing web offset printing if the continuous form is to be fed to a hologram
or embossing or digital printing machines for finishing in off line then again there is a
excessive pressure on the form perforation. So normal tendency is to grind the
perforation teeth of the blade at some portions so that paper will be folded at that spot
and do not get perforated, which in turn increases the bursting strength of the paper or
reduces the excessive web break. This is commonly followed for paper and pulp
boards which are brittle in nature.

(a)

(b)

Fig. (a) Horizontal perforation blade without deface of the teeth (b) Horizontal perforation
blade with grinded teeth for folding of the continuous forms