Advantages of UV Flexo Inks
UV flexo inks provide new supplys with full safety to consumers. Working with UV lamps, UV ink reaches speeding production with less curing energy. UV curable photoinitiators and UV Lamp efficiency have great advance in past years since its faster in curing with lowest energy consumption around 45%. Eg, for a 8 color flexo printing press with 600mm width, running at 200m/min, uses 80KW/h for UV curing, meaning UV is the most eco-friendly ink process in term of energy consumption.
Flexo Printing Machine with UV ink, more environmental friendly. UV curable ink are odorlss, solventless, no VOCs and do nto need explosion proof presses, storage areas and manufacturing practises. It is reduce the risk for the health of the consumer. Waste is reduced as UV inks do not dry on the plate. Long runs, starts and stops create substrate waste but UV ink is instantly ready for printing. UV inks are 100 percent solid, ink properties are not affected by evaporation and a shelf life of six months for mixed inks is common, meaning waste from stored inks is greatly reduced compared to solvent or water-based inks.
With the new UV inks come enhanced ink transfer properties as well as faster reactivity to UV curing, meaning speeds over 200m/ min are achievable. Plus: new HD and flat top dot technologies in flexo plates greatly enhance UV flexo characteristics, reduced dot gain (comparable to offset), deep image contrast (comparable to gravure), 80 lines/cm screens (comparable to gravure), consistent print quality during the run (and during the year), independent from temperature conditions and operator skills (unique to UV flexo) and a predictable standardized print result in repeat jobs independent from the operator (unique to UV flexo).
A new generation of presses has been launched in 2010-2011 by several in-line narrow and mid web press manufacturers. The higher cost of UV inks is compensated by deep digital automation and efficient part handling to produce high-quality short and medium run packaging, with the lowest running costs in the market. Traditional packaging converters are still not fully familiar with the efficiency and sustainability of in-line UV flexo presses. Educational articles and technical information are a recommended instrument to grow the overall awareness of UV flexo possibilities for the packaging converting industry.
The new generation of in-line UV flexo presses is taking advantage of the limited number of variables of the UV flexo process, such as no ink evaporation, which allows for digital flexo servo automated adjustments. Repeatable, predictable and digital set-up waste of less than 20m are becoming the norm among several in-line UV flexo press manufacturers.
New servo technologies for short web paths on over-dimensioned chilled drums (less than 10m web path for an eight- color press) allow for accurate registration on any web printable substrate, including LDPE and the most difficult applications. Register performance and press flexibility are comparable to CI flexo presses while keeping the advantages and accessibility of in-line presses.
Digital flexo fully automated adjustments, convenient handling of parts (lightweight, easy to remove and install) and the equal height of printing units drastically reduces set-up times. A realistic overall set-up time of 10 minutes (and 20m of real substrate waste) per packaging job (including 1-2 spot colors ink change) has no equal comparison with other press configurations in the packaging industry, such as CI flexo, in-line gravure and offset.
Digital automated set-up and production adjustments, in combination with the inherent stability of UV inks, require fewer skilled and less expensive operators in the printing process, meaning the operating cost of the new generation of presses is reduced. In addition, print quality can be reproduced digitally with limited dependency on operators’ skills. Highly predictable waste levels, set-up and production times, repeatable standardized digital productivity and quality are possible.
From Internet
Print Series Team
3 March, 2012
