Coating & Curing Get Crucial

In an era of shorter runs and quicker turnarounds, plus buyers' demands for higher quality and more eye-catching graphic treatments, on-press coating and curing is quickly becoming both a crucial production tool and a competitive necessity.

Sheetfed commercial printers, striving to gain workflow benefits while meeting customers' heightened expectations, are well aware that in-line processing technology is an ideal way to apply a high gloss or final matte finish while quickly moving jobs from the pressroom to the finishing area. What's more, printers coating on 40" presses are being joined by those operating 28" presses.

The most common method in use is applying an aqueous coating, but newer coatings that can be applied on press and hardened (cured) by an energy source (in most cases, ultraviolet or UV light, but also electron beam energy) offer even higher levels of gloss, durability, and rub resistance.

Attracting the most interest these days is in-line UV hybrid coating on a sheetfed press. Here, sheets printed with semiconventional inks are exposed to UV light in one or more interdeck curing units, then overprinted while in what has been described as a "semi dry trap" condition with a UV-curable, polymer-type coating that, depending on formulation, can add a high gloss, a matte finish, or metallic appearance, as well as a protective layer.

"What's driving the growth of UV coated jobs is the demands of print brokers, designers, and print buyers to have their jobs printed on nontraditional substrates," explains Bill Bonallo, president and chief executive of Technotrans America Sheetfed Division, a supplier of integrated coating systems.

Bonallo adds, "At one time, printers would print products such as videocassette cartons, then apply a coating or varnish using an off-line process. Now they can print and coat in line on a UV-equipped sheetfed press. Another example is printing on plastic and other nonporous substrates, which has always been extremely difficult using traditional ink; with UV curing and hybrid inks, it's very manageable."

In the past year, one of the most dominant aspects in this field has been the ready availability of an array of new hybrid UV inks.

"Three years ago, only one or two ink manufacturers offered a hybrid product," says Keith Tap, vice president of technical services for Grafix North America, another system supplier. "Today nearly every ink supplier is on board with a product, and that's revolutionizing the industry."

An early innovator was Sun Chemical Corporation, which began developing specialized energy-curable UV inks more than 40 years ago. More recently, Sun Chemical helped to develop hybrid ink products and now markets its own HyBryte hybrid ink for the UV coating process.

"We see a tremendous amount of growth in store for the hybrid UV coating process," reports Tony Bean, manager of energy-curable inks for Sun Chemical. "Why? Because special coatings, especially UV, produce high gloss, which equates to high quality in the minds of print buyers, plus coatings provide excellent product protection. Finally, coating eliminates any need to laminate."

HyBryte MAX has been available for two years, but, says Bean, the product really took off at the Print 01 show in Chicago last fall. "Five major sheetfed press manufacturers were running hybrid UV coating at the show, and four were using our ink," says Bean.

Another ink supplier, Flint Ink, is anticipating growth of 10% this year for its Gemini hybrid product, which it introduced at the Graph Expo 2000 show.

Says Eric Yelsma, Flint Ink's marketing manager, "The hybrid ink market is really taking off and it's a pleasant surprise. The technology allows a printer to spend less for press equipment but get the UV look. Some of our customers also find that hybrid provides a good entry point to eventually switch to full UV."

BASF, manufacturer of K+E inks, has marketed its NovaBryte hybrid ink for the past year. "Printers like the flexibility that hybrid offers," explains Mike Hamlin, account manager of the printing systems business unit for BASF. "With a pretty small investment, they can UV coat on press to enhance product appearance and protection."

"Before hybrid inks, it was possible to apply a UV coating but it was risky and complicated," says Michael J. Barisonek, sales and marketing vice president for Epic Products International Corporation. "With hybrid, printers don't need all the UV lamps and special combinations."

For the past year, Epic has been marketing its on-press CoatTech anilox system, which meters a precise, uniform volume of coating—aqueous, UV-curable, or metallic—to the plate cylinder. The system is designed for use on offset printing units and tower coaters.

Nicoat, which manufactures aqueous, UV, and specialty coatings primarily for use by high-end commercial printers, continues to see a growing market for coating despite the soft economy.

"There are still many shops new to coating, for example, mid-size shops with 29" presses," says Mike Lauesen, president of Nicoat. "The economy has hurt some printers, especially at the high end, but we showed higher sales in 2001."

Some system suppliers concentrate on special applications or types of equipment. For example, Prime UV designs systems for high-speed web offset (publications, brochures, magazine covers, etc.) or wide-format flexographic printing (folding cartons and packaging), as well as industrial applications (furniture and flooring) and custom-coating lines.

New hybrid UV systems have been installed in a number of sheetfed pressrooms in the United States over the past year.

Dynagraf Inc., a Canton, Mass. sheetfed and web commercial printer located 15 miles south of Boston, chose the CoCure system from Grafix North America for its 40" Mitsubishi eight-color, installed last April.

Reports John Fuller, vice president of Dynagraf, the area's largest privately held printer, "We're so pleased with the added benefits of the new press and the CoCure system that we plan to add a 10-unit Mitsubishi perfector, also with CoCure, this summer."

Already, he adds, rising customer requests have boosted the number of UV-cured jobs by 30%. "Our clients and our press operators love the hybrid process; we're achieving gloss levels that reach the mid-90s."

Hoechstetter Printing, a $35 million sheetfed and web operation in Pittsburgh, has been running an eight-color 40" Heidelberg Speedmaster CD 102 press equipped with CoCure since October. The firm is one of 13 companies in the Wallace Group running UV-equipped machinery.

Says Jim Ford, vice president of manufacturing, "We're already seeing more demand for the CoCure process, which works very well and gives great results. A recent job for a nationwide restaurant chain involved 750,000 menus that needed both high gloss and protection."

Previously, Hoechstetter had sold UV printing but had had to ship jobs to Ohio for the coating, a process that could take four days. Now those jobs can be printed in house and in line.

Last June, Hatcher Press, a general commercial trade printer, installed a new Speedmaster CD 102 six-color with coater and extended delivery, equipping it with a hybrid UV curing system from Technotrans America/IST. The shop, located in San Carlos near San Francisco, also operates four-, six-, eight-, and 10-color Speedmasters.

"Installing this press helped us regain control of all our work," says Jeff Stancil, vice president. "Before, we had to send jobs outside for UV coating, yet we knew there was a market for this, especially among packaging clients that are always looking to dazzle."

Hatcher Press, which 15 years ago became one of the first printers to adopt aqueous coating, is pleased with the UV coating operation, although managers wish that the changeover period could be shortened from 45 minutes.

On the other hand, they note, the UV coating capability has opened up new markets. "We can now print on unique substrates, such as styrene and plastics, that gave us nothing but grief before," says Stancil.

Grafix North America, which helped to develop the CoCure process that it now markets, reports nearly 60 installations of the system in less than two years. "At Print 01 in Chicago, every major press manufacturer was running some form of the hybrid UV process," says John Stout, president of Grafix North America.

He adds, "It's a tough market right now selling presses that cost two or three million dollars, but we think that's an easier sell with our system because CoCure allows printers to get work that they couldn't touch before. They can do great work on uncoated papers for annual reports, produce fine art printing, and print on styrene, plastics, and lenticular screens."

Meanwhile, the Technotrans America Sheetfed Division, the exclusive North American supplier of IST Metz UV systems for sheetfed applications, jumped from an initial hybrid installation at Edward Enterprises in Honolulu to several more sites along the West Coast. The installations include Color Graphics in Seattle, Premier Printing in Portland, Ore., and Hatcher Press.

Technotrans equipment is currently displayed at Heidelberg, KBA, Komori, and Mitsubishi equipment demonstration rooms in the U.S.

"We are a single-source solution provider," says Bill Bonallo. "Although UV technology is a high-growth market segment, it's only a portion of our complete product line. We also supply our Alpha and Beta series systems for temperature and dosing control of ink and fountain solution and coating circulators; Ink.line management systems for feeding ink from cartridges, drums, or totes; Ecoclean solvent recovery systems; and thermal dryers for ink and water-based coatings."

"Also," he adds, "we realize that, as important as our IST Metz systems are in UV and hybrid UV curing, it's application expertise that puts it all together on the customer's floor. For this reason, we specialize in on-press training and have coating and litho experts on staff."

Another system supplier is Fuchs-DeVries Inc., the exclusive distributor in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico for the DeVries line of shortwave infrared dryers, hot-air knives, exhaust systems, and UV dryers. About 90% of its orders for drying or curing systems come from press OEMs; its installations include Quad/Graphics, Pewaukee, Wis., and FCL Graphics, Chicago.

"We're seeing more interest from commercial printers," says William Fuchs, president. "Smaller shops express interest but step back when they find out the cost because they know they can send jobs out for gloss or UV coating. Large commercial printers, packaging and label shops, and specialized operations are more committed to installing our equipment."

Later this year, Fuchs-DeVries will introduce a conditioner system designed to check coating viscosity and maintain temperature.