UV Cures the Blahs

Exciting results using energy-curable inks and coatings, combination hybrid/aqueous configurations, high-gloss hybrid systems, and even newer matte/gloss hybrid innovations are pumping new life into print and print production and revitalizing the sales of eight-page multicolor sheetfeds today.

Aggressive commercial printers are joining their packaging counterparts in adopting dedicated or hybrid ultraviolet (UV), infrared (IR), and/or thermal systems to pursue higher-margin jobs, single-pass VOC-free productivity without delays for back-up printing, attention-commanding production on a variety of unique and non-porous substrates–-and that elusive but essential business aim, competitive advantage.

"Everybody wants UV," says John Santie, sheetfed marketing manager for Mitsubishi Lithographic Presses, who adds that orders are jumping 20% to 30%, driven both by the success of printers that already have UV and those that want to add the capability.

"At Heidelberg, we're seeing year-over-year growth in UV exceeding 10%," reports John Dowey, vice president of product management/sheetfed. "This is considerable given the current economic environment. Worldwide, more Heidelberg presses are installed with UV curing than any other press make."

Adds Douglas Parker, sheetfed product manager for KBA North America, "Proactive printers are very keen to capture the many benefits of UV technology today, with many using the unique ink and coating effects to carve out specialized niches. We've been very successful at configuring presses that no one else can provide."

Since 2002, says Parker, KBA has shipped more than 100 sheetfeds in all sizes equipped with hybrid systems.

All of the press manufacturers are developing or installing energy-curable systems, either dedicated UV-only configurations or hybrid systems that also allow use of oil-based inks.

As for suppliers of radiation and UV curing systems, the major firms serving the U.S. sheetfed commercial and packaging industry include Air Motion Systems, Golden, Colo.; Grafix LLC, Burr Ridge, Ill., part of Grafix GmbH of Stuttgart, Germany; Nordson UV, Amherst, Ohio, a division of Nordson Corporation; and Technotrans/IST Metz of Germany, whose U.S. headquarters is in Corona, Calif.

Air Motion spent three years developing the Peak UV System, which it demonstrated at Graph Expo and Converting Expo 2003 last fall on a 40" six-color KBA Rapida 105 perfector. The configuration, which included three UV interstation modules and three end-of-press modules that can be interchanged at will across all six color units and end-of-press positions through a series of UV docking ports, was shipped to Merrill Corporation, St. Paul, Minn., after the show.

At the show, Air Motion announced that it had granted KBA worldwide rights for the production, further development, distribution, and servicing of its dryer systems on Rapida presses.

"On our way to reaching 100 hybrid UV installations," reports Keith Tap of Grafix LLC, "we put a new system on a five-color 40" sheetfed in MAN Roland's showroom last month near Chicago and this month we're putting UV on two four-page KBA Rapida 74 presses, plus AGI Media is adding our system to a Speedmaster 74. At the upcoming Drupa show in Germany, Sakurai will feature our equipment on its new 750 model."

He says about seven out of 10 prospects today ask for a combination of solutions that includes infrared, hot air, and hybrid UV. "Grafix specializes in this approach by offering system components that are easily interchangeable and that interface with the OEM press operator console, adding centralized control of all dryer operations from a common screen," he explains.

Nordson UV, which has manufactured energy-based curing and drying systems for a variety of industrial applications for 30 years, now has more than 7,000 systems installed worldwide. The company markets such systems as the four-reflector QuadCure lamphead; AquaCure, a lamphead designed for applications requiring a drastically reduced heat output on the substrate; and CoolWave, a microwave-powered UV curing system.

At Drupa, Nordson plans to introduce a smaller, quick-start lamp system. As Martin Peter-sen, Nordson UV national sales manager, explains, "Today's systems require that UV lamps be shut off during blanket washing, but our new lamp will not have to be shut off completely, which minimizes the restart delay."

Technotrans/IST Metz has joined with Heidelberg in Germany on a development called Cool Cure, which utilizes an inert atmosphere to improve UV curing. The technology, available only on Speedmaster equipment, is retrofittable on 40" CD 102 sheetfeds back to Drupa 2000 press models.

"By replacing oxygen with nitrogen in the curing area, we greatly enhance the efficiency of the cure," explains Bill Bonallo, president and chief executive of Technotrans America/Sheetfed Division. "This approach requires much lower power output, minimizing heat to the substrate, which is crucial for temperature-sensitive, non-porous materials such as foils, Mylar, synthetics, regular and lenticular plastics, and even lightweight label stocks. In my view, this proven concept is best suited for specialty shops printing on these types of substrates on a consistent basis."

Technotrans/IST Metz also has joined with Heidelberg to develop Instant Start UV, a system that, says Bonallo, is available on CAN Open-equipped Speedmaster presses but will be available on other press brands in the future.

Press manufacturers are predicting a wave of UV-equipped sheetfed sales in the next six months.

Heidelberg USA already has what it calls a "blue chip" list of well-known, award-winning printers operating UV-equipped Speedmaster presses, including Anderson Lithograph, Los Angeles; Graphic Press, Inc., City of Commerce, Calif.; The Hennegan Company, Florence, Ky.; Sandy Alexander Inc., Clifton, N.J.; and Williamson Printing Corp., Dallas.

Challenge Printing Inc., a privately held 412-employee sheetfed printer in Eden Prairie, Minn., relied on Speedmasters to enter the UV print market in 1998 as part of a diversification strategy. "We were a commercial printer for our first 11 years but I sensed that the field was becoming oversaturated," says Bob Lothenbach, president and founder. "UV printing comprised our initial expansion; we've since added flexography, plus packaging and point-of-purchase."

Last year, he adds, UV printing constituted just over 10% of sales, which he thinks will climb to 15% this year. Lothenbach explains, "Most work, for local and national point-of-purchase clients, includes lenticular printing, plus holographic and cling-type substrates for various applications. We also produce backlit signage for restaurants and financial institutions, and packaging printing on paper and plastic substrates. Clients either need substrate durability or they like the versatility of different effects achieved with UV on paper or plastic."

Challenge Printing claims to be the largest sheetfed house in the Midwest and fifth-largest in the nation; along with a 64" seven-color, it operates 10 Speedmasters in various sizes and configurations, two of which, a six- and a seven-color, are equipped with full UV interdeck systems.

"Both of these presses use the CPC 24 Image Control scanning spectrophotometer, a closed-loop system that does an excellent job of controlling color," reports Lothenbach. "The seven-color, equipped with Heidelberg's new Preset Plus vacuum belt feeder, does an outstanding job feeding plastic substrates as well as paper. We can run our most difficult lenticular work on either press because each holds registration and color very well."

He concedes that adopting UV printing required a learning curve: press operators had to learn how to run with the proper amount of UV energy, how heat affects fit and registration, how to achieve the right ink adhesion levels on plastic substrates, how to control static when handling plastic substrates, how to prepare color curves, and so on.

KBA, which has become very active in developing on-press innovations, introduced a unique in-line coating application at Graph Expo 2003 that allows the printing of both silk matte and gloss elements on a five-color press fitted with a single coater plus delivery extension.

Hybrid inks are applied in the first four towers; in the fifth unit, oil-based inks are offset-printed in the areas that are to have a silk matte finish, omitting the prospective high-gloss elements. The full solids UV coatings react with the oil-based ink to create a matte-gloss finish but remain unaffected over the hybrid ink and maintain its high-gloss properties in hybrid-inked areas.

"Since the color registration set in the printing units doubles as coating registration, there are virtually no limits to product design and applications," explains Michael Eichler, manager of KBA North America's demonstration and training center in Williston, Vt. "Eliminating costly and complicated spot coating forms makes this production method extremely competitive on price."

The developer of this unique application method is Jürgen Veil, manager of KBA's printing center in Radebeul, Germany. KBA, in printing its 2004 calendar on a Rapida 105 five-color, made extensive use of this method and other innovations, including Sun Chemical's HyBryte inks and standard oil-based Pantone ink.

"Our method of combining HyBryte inks with conventional Pantone 651C offset inks and Vegra UV varnish is a new departure," notes Eichler. "We achieve unique high-gloss spot varnish effects even with full-solid, end-of-press coating, while select areas interact with the UV coating to attain a matte finish that looks and feels like plastic. Until now, such effects could only be achieved using print-through processes such as screen printing, which is economical only for short runs."

Three years ago, Color Ink, a 100-employee firm located in Sussex, Wis., near Milwaukee, installed a 41" Rapida 105 six-color with extended delivery and a Grafix LLC in-line hybrid UV curing system: two interstation lamps, a three-lamp UV final dryer, and infrared/hot-air system. "Our traditional market was eroding, so we installed the new press and UV system to be able to serve more nationwide customers, such as department stores and home renovation firms, and produce a broader product mix," says Jay Zawerschnik, vice president and general manager of Color Ink.

"In just one year," he adds, "our plastic printing rose 30% and packaging production grew 10% to 15%, much of it the result of being able to handle up to 49-point stock."

Color Ink also moves jobs through faster because the ink is cured instantly. Says Zawerschnik, "We can deliver jobs within one day; our competitors typically take five days."

He adds that Color Ink is exploring its own type of "hybrid" jobs, putting finished UV-printed jobs through its Hewlett-Packard HP Indigo 3000 digital press for on-demand work. "We're printing 700,000 to one million pieces of this type of work," he says. "The Rapida is booked solid, three shifts a day."

KBA officials also note a showcase installation at Process Displays, a large Minneapolis printer of point-of-purchase and oversized graphics. There, an eight-color Rapida is believed to be the nation's largest UV press, capable of handling sheets up to 47×64".

Komori America Corporation also is seeing an increase in requests for UV, says Doug Schardt, sheetfed product manager, who adds, "This spring we're installing a Lithrone 40LS in our showroom equipped with UV lamps. Commercial printers asking for unique configurations want to set themselves apart and become more efficient at particular jobs, say, laying down opaque white, then putting ink on top of that. This is an ideal application for UV."

A six-color 40LS press, equipped with a Spectral Technology UV unit installed by Nordson UV and a flexo-type anilox coater, went into production in December at Cultech, Inc., Edison, N.J., a $20 million printing company that provides high-end suppliers with retail cartons for ladies' cosmetics, fragrances, and beauty aids.

Cultech, which specializes in the production of Mylar-laminated cartons with mirror-like quality, previously used an off-line UV coater or a UV press varnish to achieve high gloss levels in two passes, but now uses the new press for in-line production of gloss, matte, and pearlescent finishes using DuPont Cyrel plates or strippable (cut) blankets on nearly every job.

Says Vincent Cundari, Cultech general manager and manufacturing vice president, "Not long ago, our typical job size was 3,900 sheets, but over the past 18 months our volume has really increased, with typical jobs running for just 30 minutes. This requires very quick makeready, fast job changeover, and one-pass production, which the LS40 press accomplishes beautifully. We also reuse makeready sheets, so our waste rates are very low."

Cundari says Cultech ships to clients throughout the U.S., Asia, and Europe; a sister company in Japan operates two production facilities there and also ships all over the world.

"The seven-o'clock design of MAN Roland presses is uniquely suited to accommodating UV lamps," says Christian Cerfontaine, marketing manager for MAN Roland. "In fact, this has become kind of a standard feature for our packaging customers and can always be retrofitted to our existing presses."

One printer that added labels and printed packaging to its mix is General Press, a 65-person, employee-owned firm based in Natrona, Pa., 25 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. While it still produces brochures, catalogs, annual reports, and art prints, the company has become an expert at printing OPP films for patch, full-wrap, convolute, diecut, and in-mold or blow-mold labels, as well as holographic and metallized stocks.

"Our first products were Pillsbury slice-and-bake cookie containers," recalls president James V. Wolff, "but we soon guessed that this type of production would come to the U.S. in a big way. Now we're using our Roland 700 eight-color to print light-gauge plastic butter tubs and yogurt containers. We're quoting jobs all over the world."

The Roland perfector, rated at 15,000 sheets per hour, is equipped with full Roland RCI and CCI controls, auto plate loading, auto blanket wash, in-line anilox coater, infrared and thermal-air dryer, and interdeck and end-of-press UV curing modules.

The press, which features ionized air units to minimize static, can deliver in-line spot UV capabilities; automated digital blanket cutting allows production and register of even difficult outlines.

UV has been popular for some time but now it's really gaining momentum, according to John Santie of Mitsubishi Lithographic Presses. He says, "UV gives much more dramatic results compared to conventional printing. Ink cured by UV energy doesn't get absorbed into the substrate but sits up on top, which really enhances the gloss or matte finish."

Mitsubishi's showcase plant is Identity Graphics & Printing, a three-year-old, 51-employee shop based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., which two months ago installed a 40" Diamond 3000 six-color press with Nordson five-lamp system with interdeck curing.

Earlier, the company performed off-line coating on equipment from UV Research.

"We cater to a nationwide clientele," says John Wohlford, co-owner along with Ames Friedman. "About 20% of our jobs are nightclub post cards and flyers that require UV coating. We use UV for its quick-drying benefits as well as for its aesthetics. We operate another six-color with tower coater, but we'll likely replace it with a Mitsubishi press with in-line UV to keep up with demand."

The major UV suppliers have been developing new configurations and working with press builders on installations.

The KBA press delivered to Merrill Corporation is also capable of aqueous coating as a result of a unique hybrid configuration: an Air Motion Peak IR/TA (infrared/thermal air) drying system mounted in the extended delivery is integrated with the UV system and operated via a single touch-screen, with intuitive graphical controls and run-time and performance information.

Air Motion also offers Cool Impression, a cylinder cooling system for UV applications involving heat-sensitive substrates; Air Guide, a pneumatic sheet-knockdown system (its first product); and Clean Impression, a system designed to keep UV ink residue off impression cylinders.

All UV modules are identical and interchangeable, notes Hans Ulland, vice president of sales and customer relations for Air Motion, so users can easily and quickly change the positions to meet job requirements.

System suppliers are making progress in completing field installations. Reports Keith Tap, vice president of operations for Grafix LLC, "We've done very well marketing versatile components that allow printers to reach a number of market areas, including conventional and hybrid UV conversion; developing energy-efficient systems; and offering application and after-sale technical support."

As for Technotrans/IST Metz, Bonallo reports, "We have strong relationships with all the major press suppliers worldwide, but particularly with the German suppliers. In the U.S., we're proud to have our equipment in the showrooms of Heidelberg USA, KBA North America, Komori America, MAN Roland, and Mitsubishi Lithographic Presses."

In addition, a number of companies provide individual components or serve specialized segments.

For example, Aetek UV Systems, Romeoville, Ill., a division of American Ultraviolet Company, markets UV Genie, a high-performance curing system designed for flexographic and lithographic printing and converting. Lamps, available in widths from 9" to 27", are said to deliver 50% more peak irradiance to substrate while reducing web temperatures by more than half.

Also, Fuchs-DeVries, based in Mundelein, Ill. and founded as a supplier of shortwave infrared drying systems, now offers hot airknife systems to dry water-based coatings, systems for web and ink-jet drying, and the TSM drying system, introduced last April, which is supplied with a single control cabinet and system-matched components. More than 40 TSM systems are installed.

Says president Willie Fuchs, "We like to work with printers and OEMs on innovative solutions and look forward to one-of-a-kind or first-of-a-kind applications, like Mitsubishi's new tandem press at packaging printer Boutwell, Owens & Co. [Fitchburg, Mass.], which involves conventional and hybrid printing with water-based or UV overcoat, or another Mitsubishi, an eight-unit sheetfed in Fort Worth, configured to put down four colors and coat perfector, then another four colors and coat."

Fusion UV Systems, Gaithersburg, Md., plans to demonstrate live UV ink-jet printing at a radiation technology exposition taking place in May in Charlotte, N.C. The system, which could permit imaging onto plastic, board, laminates, paper, and metal, features Xaar 500 ink-jet heads and Fusion's high-powered PC-1 curing lamp.

Last month, Jetrion LLC, the ink-jet division of Flint Ink, announced six-color, pigment-based UV ink-jet inks, featuring low temperature and low viscosity, to permit lower-cost drop-on-demand applications on non-porous substrates.