logo
  • Login
  • Register
  • Home
  • News
  • Products
  • Knowledge Bank
  • Community
  • Insights
  • Showcase
  • Drupa
  • Fespa
  • Awards
  • Reports
  • Events
  • Jobs
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • International
    • India
    • Druck & Medien
    • MENA

News Categories

Applications
Awards
BPO
Briefings
Business
Contracts
Direct Mail
Events
Environment
Investment & Installations
Labels
Packaging
People
Print Buying
Product News
Publishing

Product Categories

Consumables
Design
Digital
Equipment manufacturers
Me & My
Post-press
Pre-media
Presses
Star Products
Substrates
Technical Features
Wide-format
Printweek special supplement

Marketing Technology Report 2023

  • News
  • Products
  • Community
  • Insights
  • Showcase
  • Awards
  • Jobs

Search


Sponsored Content

The future for sheetfed offset?

Sponsored
Sponsored Content by Jamie Neill
14 February 2022
Equipment manufacturers
The UV curing process is instantaneous
The UV curing process is instantaneous

GEW's Jamie Neill gets under the hood of UV LED curing technology and looks at its place in sheetfed offset printing and its relevance to today’s commercial printer looking to streamline production and free-up cash flow.

Conventional print production in the general commercial sector has not changed dramatically for decades. Machines are faster, makereadies are shorter and press automation is greater, but what has still not changed is the ink.

No matter how fast a press is, and how fast a job can run it still sits on the floor drying once it has been printed, sometimes for several days. All this investment is made to essentially produce more work-in-progress (WIP), which in turn requires more production space to store. To many this seems counter-intuitive, as surely it would be better to be able to process the printed job immediately?

Many printers have found the solution in UV LED curing, either specified from new or retrofitted to an existing machine. However, if that is the answer, why has it not been uniformly embraced within the industry? A significant factor in this is the common perception that UV LED inks are expensive, and this can be enough to end any interest in researching the technology. What is often overlooked are the overall raw costs of a printed job. Substrate is typically 50-70% of the total job cost, machine time is 15-20%, etc. The typical ink cost is usually only 3% of the total job cost, on average.

There are alternative means available to deal with conventional inks. However, the most commonly used techniques have their own problems. Spray powder is wasteful, messy and creates many problems in the downstream process, such as clogging rollers and plates in finishing. Machine sealing still requires time to dry and creates additional job cost that cannot be recovered, while altering the appearance of the surface of the substrate, if only slightly.

A third option is to apply an aqueous coating to seal and protect the printed surface. However, this requires the press to be configured with an inline coater, often with a long delivery extension. The press will also need to be equipped with infra-red and warm air dryers, which adds a huge capital expenditure cost, compounded by the ongoing daily cost of running an IR/WA system. In many cases coating units are employed only to seal the printed surface and add no value to the printed job. The energy consumption of a UV LED system is a fraction of that of an IR/WA system, operating costs are typically up to 40% lower for LED.

No spray powder is required In the UV LED printing process, which eradicates the associated contamination, cleaning time and loss of productivity. Furthermore, UV LED inks do not contain harmful VOCs.

UV LED systems can retrofitted to existing machines with minimum downtime

UV LED printing transforms the production environment by creating a cleaner factory, while increasing production speed and capacity. It uses less energy and less space than a conventional drying system, and ultimately reduces waste in all areas. The downstream process is simplified as marking and scuffing are eradicated. One of the strongest arguments to counteract that of higher ink costs is the positive impact that UV LED has in significantly reducing the number of costly reprints which are rendered necessary by issues in the printing process.

As the UV curing process is instantaneous, the cured sheet will stay as bright and sharp as the moment it was printed, there is no dry-back or set-off. Severe dry-back is a common cause for job rejection, particularly when printing onto uncoated and recycled substrates. As we know, conventional mineral or vegetable oil-based inks dry back into the surface of the substrate to create faded images after a period of time, and this is not evident during or immediately after a customer press pass. This change in appearance is often only raised by the dissatisfied customer when the job has been finished and delivered.

Immediate curing also enables UV LED printers to easily work with added-value substrates such as Metpol, mirror board, PTE, plastics, foils and film.

However, at he end of the day its simple economics: the sooner a project is out the door, the sooner the client is wowed by the job then the sooner the payment lands in your account – UV LED curing just makes good business sense, talk to any user.

GEW UV LED curing systems can be retrofitted to almost any make and model of press. The company has an experienced engineering and design team who ensure seamless integration with all sheetfed offset machines, such as Heidelberg, Komori, KBA, Manroland and RMGT.

For further information, technical and contact details, visit GEW’s dedicated sheetfed offset webpage: www.gewuv.com/uv-curing-applications/sheetfed-offset-printing

 


About the author
Jamie Neill is GEW's Sales Manager - UK & Ireland. He has a BSc (Hons) in biomedical science from the University of Warwick and before joining GEW he worked for medical device specialist Sarstedt Group.

 

 

 

Equipment manufacturers Equipment suppliers Presses Sheetfed Print buying Business
Equipment manufacturers

Printweek welcomes informed debate, but please read our House Rules before posting

Have your say in the Printweek Poll

Related stories

May: UV LED is a "win-win"

Empress continues to impress with UV LED

Sponsored

Sun Chemical releases 'class-leading' offset inks

'Our customer is demanding...'

Grafiche Antiga: GEW UV LED opens up new possibilities

Sponsored

Latest comments

"Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this Jo, and PrintWeek! Please feel free to get in touch with the Howden Print Team to arrange your own Free of Charge Cyber Micro-Penetration Test to help..."
Luke Wildey profile image

View comments for: Printers urged to check exposure to cyber crime

"I never quite understand the statements such as "achieved such a positive outcome for this well-established business". The established business unfortunately failed and no longer exists, a..."
Set Off profile image

View comments for: Peterborough printco sold in pre-pack

"Genuinely sorry to read this."
Mitesh Chouhan profile image

View comments for: Peterborough printco sold in pre-pack



Up next...

Protocols being strengthened

Software Circle hit by suspected payment fraud

News by Jo Francis
22 May 2025
Business
'Precision and reliability'

EBB sets up new publishing wing

News by Jo Francis
22 May 2025
Print buying
The company's management team with the five pouchmakers
Continued investment

Bakers ups BakPac capacity with double Galaxy Packtech install

News by Richard Stuart-Turner
22 May 2025
Investment & installations
Stora Enso will retain a 15% ownership in the newly formed company
"Committed to building a stronger Stora Enso"

Stora Enso to divest 12.4% of Swedish forests for around £760m

News by Richard Stuart-Turner
22 May 2025
Business
Printweek

Printweek is the premier website for the print industry

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertising/Feature List
  • Subscriptions
  • Awards
  • Jobs
  • Reuse permissions
© Copyright 2025 Mark Allen Group
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookie policy
  • Terms & conditions
  • Cookie Settings