How to remove oxy dry from film?

Hi everyone,

We send our rolls of film to be printed on but we always have issues with the amount of powder on the films, and the printing companies not wanting to print on it. The powder clogs up the printing plates and powder goes everywhere, and it's just a huge problem for them. Today, the printers sent our film back to us and said they won't print on it until the powders been removed. This is basically impossible for us but we urgently need the film printed so we have set a roll of film up on one of our machines and we have cloths and air hoses attached, trying to wipe the powder off, and blow the powder off. I've spoken with our supplier numerous times, but their powder spraying capsule doesn't have many settings so it can't control the excess powder. Does anyone have any ideas on what we could do to remove the powder? I had some thoughts about static electricity, but I'm not sure where to go with that idea. Any ideas of something we could attach to the machine that would really attract the powder to it? 
Any help would be super appreciated. Thank you.

Can you try either another printing or another film roll producer?
Does your film roll producer have any industry contacts for the type of film you need?
(or vice versa, does your film roll producer know any printer companies that they align with)
 

Change suppliers... I'd look for a supplier that does the printing.

Thanks for your replies. Unfortunately we can't change suppliers. The film is supplied by our parent company in another country. it's specially formulated to shrink under heat and we are the only company in Australia who can supply it. We have tried to sway our customers into using different films that we supply (also heat shrink) but nothing compares to this specific (powdery) film. It's perfect for what they need, but the printers cannot print on it. We also do single colour printing here, and we need to clean the printing plates often, but we manage because we're used to it. We've been through so many printing companies who give it a go, but then after a while, refuse to do it anymore because of the powder. I'm mainly just looking for suggestions on removing the powder. We've trialled a non-powdered version, but unless it's corona treated, the ink adhesion is poor. But once the film is corona treated, the film becomes too sticky to unwind and too sticky to run through our machines. We are currently working on an anti-blocking agent to help with the stickiness, but these experiments with recipes have been going on for literally years. We really just need to find a solution to remove the powder. Thanks for your help anyway. If anybody finds this post in 2 years time, and has any suggestions, please comment as I imagine the problem will still be there.

Sounds like the R&D hasn't evolved adequately yet. The temporary solutions I can think of are to reverse engineering from a known printable film or to buy from outside suppliers until your company can quickly generate various formulae to test on.

From what you described, I suspect the surface tension of film is too high after Corana treatment. I have got no idea of what film you use, a good PET for print & lamination should have >40dyne/cm of surface tension. The voltage and intensity of Corona discharge need to reach that number. But if the treatment process is overpowered, the film surface becomes too energised and attract much tiny particles (dust, powder) by electrostatic and by chemical polarity.