FEATURE Drying, Curing & UV The costs of LED inks and curing systems
are likely to come down and both will perform better. Today LEDs are a more expensive alternative, but if current trends continue, they will become an attractive proposition in the future. Considering that label converters will not want to duplicate their ink stocks with special LED-compatible formulations and have to master a new production process, demand for arc lamp systems will continue to grow.
...Continued from page 14 This reduces the non-production energy consumption significantly and can make LEDs an attractive energy saving alternative. The second important consideration is lifetime cost efficiency. Reliability and HALT (highly accelerated life test) testing of LED arrays carried out in the GEW development lab have conclusively indicated a potential service length of over 20,000 hours even in adverse conditions, about seven to 10 times longer than that of an arc lamp. With similar power usage and efficiency, the unwanted heat produced by LEDs is also similar to an arc lamp. However, with LEDs most of this heat is absorbed by the heat sinks behind the light source, and in general only UV radiates down towards the substrate. With an arc lamp, both UV and heat are
radiated in all directions and special reflectors are required to return the UV to the substrate. LEDs produce a narrow band of high intensity long wave UV, compared to the broad spectral output of arc lamps. This can penetrate thicker, heavily pigmented inks much better than UV from arc lamps, and helps support higher running speeds in what have traditionally been difficult applications. Converters can more reliably tune the power of the array to their requirements and control the UV output and product quality of their process more accurately than ever before. In an industry where flexibility and speed is important, LEDs are a solution today for the cutting edge and specialist applications and are a future solution for all applications when efficiency, power and costs are key.
Rae continues: “At GEW we believe that the simplest solutions are the best. LEDs are the most straightforward and most effective solution for some printing applications, particularly for inkjet printing. We are committed to working with ink manufacturers to explore and develop the opportunities for LED curing in all sectors of the industry, but we remain equally committed to building on the strengths of proven, viable technology. GEW offers its customers experienced and objective advice on whether LEDs or arc lamps are best suited to their production scenario. “Everyone at GEW has worked hard to
ensure that its first 25 years in business have been successful and prosperous. Delving into the future of UV curing technology is bound to be a challenge. GEW has the skills and the resources to meet that challenge.” GEW (EC) is headquartered in England, with subsidiaries in the US, Germany and India, and distributors worldwide.
T: +44 (0)1737 742850 /
www.gewuv.com One printing ink for two processes
Printing ink manufacturer, Zeller+Gmelin GmbH, launched its new CombiFlex YSR-X55400 UV-curing opaque white at the Labelexpo Europe 2015 exhibition in Belgium last year.
As the name already suggests, it is equally easy to process both in
UV-flexo printing and in UV-screen printing. With solid areas, the ink layer is smooth and uniform, but even with fine lines, an accurate print is also guaranteed. The new development is an ink that is already adjusted to be
ready for printing and is fast curing, with very good opacity and a very high degree of whiteness. It is silicone-free, so that in practice it can be used not only as a standalone printing ink, but it is also suitable as a first down white and can be overprinted with printing inks in other processes.
It can be combined with finishing processes, such as hot or cold foil stamping and can even be subsequently marked or printed in thermal transfer printing. The opaque white also offers high scratch resistance and good adhesion to films, paper and metallised substrates. For the application of CombiFlex YSR-X55400 by screen printing,
screens by major suppliers such as Stork, Gallus Screeny or Kocher+Beck may be used. In flexo printing, the opaque white can
16 February 2016
be applied using anilox rollers within a line-count of 100 to 140 lines per centimetre and with a pick-up volume in the range of eight to 14cm³/m². According to a printing ink manufacturer from Eislingen, Germany, the first practical applications of the product have delivered excellent results for whiteness, opacity and gloss.
T: +44 (0)1708 899091 /
www.zeller-gmelin.co.uk www.convertermag.co.uk
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