Drying, Curing & UV UV breaking ground in tinplate production
Hoffmann Neopac has been using UV technology since 2002. Michael Wagner, COO of the company, and production manager Urs Mauerhofer, explain the benefits achieved by using UV curing, from their UV provider, IST Metz
M
etal is a packaging material for the future. Branded companies often use
metal packaging if a product is to be well protected with a high quality presentation. It is sustainable, as it is 100 per cent recyclable without any loss of quality. With a high quality finish, it ensures a high level of attention from consumers. Packaging has been Hoffmann Neopac’s
core business for more than 125 years. The tinplate containers manufactured in Thun (Switzerland) for the food, tobacco and confectionary industry are defined especially by the decoration, Michael Wagner explains. The intervals in which the marketing departments of the customers present new designs are getting shorter all the time. For certain products, it is usual for the templates to change twice a year. Decorative elements, eg. matt/gloss effects, are increasingly in demand.
UV TO ACHIEVE THE OPTIMUM Over 20 years ago, the company decided to reject traditional thermal curing when it installed its first multi-colour printing press and equipped the new facility solely with UV curing. IST Metz was established as the supplier for this. The decisive features when selecting the
UV system include the variable performance setting. As the energy input can be controlled effectively, production with a minimum of curing performance can be achieved wherever the combinations of ink and varnish will allow. The space required is also significantly lower compared with thermal curing. In modern machines, even
and ghosting effects. A varnish tower is installed next to the offset print works in the second print line, which has an additional IR drier with a hot-air-knife system. According to Urs Mauerhofer, with the integrated flexible varnishing unit, dispersion coatings can also be applied and cured inline.
in compact models, these are often 20 metres in length. Ultimately, at today’s usual printing output, adequate curing and cooling zones are to be ensured for up to 8,000 boards an hour. The UV system proves to be significantly more economical even in terms of service and repair costs. The positive experience made with the
system led to a complete changeover to UV printing in 2007. A second machine, a Roland 900 series sprint model, was equipped with UV technology from IST Metz as part of the expansion. “The combination of technical versatility and our many years’ experience with UV printing enables a very flexible production process”, says Urs Mauerhofer. “It is a fundamental condition in order to actually achieve all the effects that our customers offer”. Both printing presses have a double stack in the delivery. The lower stack means less bonding pressure, thereby eliminating the risk of marking-off
‘VISCO-ELASTIC’ PROPERTIES The extrusion of metallic packaging, which in some cases is combined with mechanical expansion for complex and unusual can shapes, presents the ink layer with a major challenge. It cannot be too brittle or too flexible to prevent the ink from breaking or ‘bleeding out’. Exactly the right dose should therefore be used to cure the inks and varnishes.
Michael Wagner describes the challenge: “Our aim throughout the production process is to manage the properties of the ink systems in such a way that we are always able to manufacture new cans, which meet the ink quality requirements, particularly around narrow radii”. The company has devised the necessary expertise to do this over many years.
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February 2019
convertermag.com
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