Case Study
Customer case study - Grafiche Antiga: UV LED opens up new possibilities
P
rinting house Grafiche Antiga has an enviable client list, producing print and 3D point-of-sale for a range of leading brands under the Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy umbrella, including Bulgari, Versace, Ralph Lauren and Michael Kors, among many others. The business was formed in 1968 by the four Antigas brothers, Silvio, Franco, Carlo and Mario, and now employs some 200 people at six sites across northern Italy, with its headquarters and key production facility in Treviso, near Venice. Amos Michielin is Grafiche Antiga’s Press Manager, with responsibility for all print production output from the Treviso plant. He describes how the nature of the company’s client base has led them on their path to investing in UV LED technology “Our customer is demanding, very demanding. As a result, we’ve always been very careful to keep a close eye on technological evolutions in the world of printing. UV curing was one such innovation that we could not ignore, as it allows us to do things that we simply could not do without it.”
Grafiche Antiga’s high-end work requires them to constantly push the boundaries of what is possible, using state of-the-art printing techniques and technology to achieve exceptional results. As Michielin explains “With LED, we can now print every type of project for our customers, for example we can print with high gloss varnish, with whites on natural papers, we can print on laminated paper, with one pass, with the white in first unit and four-colour on. We can print on PVC, in one face four-colour and white, black, every type of project, no problem.”
Having also worked with conventional mercury arc UV systems, Michielin was aware of the sustainability benefits of curing with LED UV, as he explains “Today our customers pay more and more attention to the environmental impact of our work. Curing with LED has a significantly lower impact, both for emissions of ozone and for energy consumption, when compared to a conventional UV system. Greener printing is so important to our customers, and UV LED gives us an advantage by enabling us to offer this.” He adds “Further to this, because the energy consumption is so much lower than before, it is an investment that pays for itself
very quickly, in just a few years.”
Following a period of thorough research into the UV LED curing market and a number of potential UV suppliers, Michelin narrowed his focus down to GEW. Having been introduced to the UV supplier through Fornietic, GEW’s exclusive distributor for the Italian market, he decided to visit the company in England before committing to a final decision. He comments “When I went to visit GEW in London, I saw the organisation; not only the lamps and the system, I
saw the buildings, I saw the people, the technicians, and I had no doubts.”
Once the buying decision had been made, Michielin put GEW in direct contact with the press manufacturer, Koenig & Bauer. The two parties worked closely to ensure a successful UV system integration with Grafiche Antiga’s new Rapida 105-5+C machine. Michielin comments “They communicated together immediately and they gave me the result that I wanted. The LED UV system is a
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March 2024
www.convertermag.com
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