Drying, Curing & UV An emphasis on innovation


IST METZ, a name synonymous with drying solutions in the printing industry, has been recognised in the TOP 100 awards which evaluate the innovation management of medium-sized companies


environment for innovation and gives employees scope to be creative and imaginative so that the business remains at the cutting edge. It employs staff with inventive talent and


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it provides an environment that gives the 350 employees the means to effectively reach project implementation. One family focused initiative is its "parent-child office" which allows employees to continue to work even when they face a care crisis; their children play in the same room as them at a painting table or in the craft corner. It is that emphasis on remaining relevant


and forward-thinking that makes the company’s UV Days, an open house held every two years, so popular. This year it attracted over 40 exhibitors (suppliers of inks, coatings, rollers, chillers etc) and about 1,400 visitors. It reflected the diversity of its drying systems and excimer technology which today has applications as diverse as water purification on tankers through to coatings on floors and furniture. But print remains as core to the business as it has been for the past 40 years. It is continually developing products and


this year announced the launch of the LED SCR product for narrow web presses. The key feature of LED SCR is that it dries only in the areas where it is needed and it operates


42 September 2019


hristian-Marius Metz, managing director, says that the company tries to create the right


at 26°C where other systems run at much lower temperatures and need more chilling. Both these features minimise energy usage. IST developments target some very specific changes in the industry. There has been the rise of the web-to-print market. This online or e-commerce style print service responded to increasing demand for quick and easy print ordering, Amazon style. It means that this type of business (and by implication even competing narrow web and packaging businesses) need to produce work faster than ever. Dry sheets off the end of the press has become a coveted technology which has fuelled the rise of UV, LED-UV and LE-UV solutions. At the same time public opinion


regarding environmentally acceptable and sustainable solutions is reaching fever pitch. This means brands must prove to customers that they use green products so print suppliers across the board need to have good environmental credentials. Often they are a prerequisite to tendering. This has increased interest in LED which uses much less energy than lamp-based UV drying solutions. Barriers to adoption, such as limited inks selection and ink migration issues, have been broken down. That, coupled with IST’s ability to retrofit units in the field across a wide range of presses is driving up the level of sales enquires. Retrofits could become more popular in what is a challenging market. At the recent


FINAT European Label Conference 2019, the organisation’s managing director Jules LeJeune reported a slowdown in European label stock volumes and label sales. In 2018 label stock volumes in Europe finished just under 7.5bn sq m, 1.4 per cent ahead of 2017, a reflection of increasing uncertainty in light of Brexit, the US-China trade dispute and political uncertainties in the Eurozone. “Having a wide portfolio of options for


narrow web and packaging applications (whether produced using flexo, letterpress, litho or digital) and for various volumes means we can be an honest broker and help printers find the right drying system for their applications and markets,” says Simon Mitchell, joint managing director of IST (UK). “We are very happy to talk to converters about the different options and to undertake pressroom audits to see what could be done to help them optimise the quality of their work and the speed of turnround.” Drying is not just a cure (pun intended)


for existing work but can also open up new creative applications for a printer moving forward. In a period of challenge a stand-out finish can be key to securing new sales. All UV options sets ink by polymerisation and that gives work an aesthetic lift, a high gloss, and makes it abrasion resistant.


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