This article appeared in Issue 2: 2017 of Specialist Printing Worldwide. To download content and subscribe,
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Rich Dunklee and Laura Maybaum discuss why they believe UV-LED is the ink of the moment
Print companies are now appreciating the significant ROI gained with UV-LED curing
The uptake and popularity of UV-LED curing ink has been increasing over the past decade to a point where we can now say it is the ink of the moment. Businesses specializing in inkjet, screen, and narrow-web printing have embraced LED (light emitting diode) curing technology for its lifecycle cost, environmental, and versatility benefits compared to mercury lamps can, and have, created outstanding graphics and displays as a result.
Printing companies, previously deterred by the initially higher price tag of UV-LED printers or retrofitted systems compared to those with traditional mercury lamps, are now appreciating the significant ROI available from their purchase.
UV-LED inks are now viable for most commercial applications
While the price of lamps and equipment has not declined, their energy output has increased, making it a more viable replacement for a mercury curing unit. Studies have suggested that LED systems use 65 to 75% less energy than mercury lamps - indeed, most can be connected to a standard electrical current without the need for an expensive transformer.
Much of the efficiency in LED lamps is because almost all of the energy emitted is used for curing. With mercury arc lamps, a great deal of the energy emitted is lost to the unneeded output in visible spectrum or to IR output. With a reduction in heat and ozone production when compared to mercury vapor lamps, expensive ventilation and air handling systems are no longer required - and the cost and environmental considerations of lamp disposal are considerably decreased.
Lower Energy and Reduced Overheads
With UV-LED, expensive ventilation and air handling systems are no longer required
Moreover, LED lamps can last more than ten times as long as mercury lamps and, with no warm-up or cool-down time necessary, they are only on when they need to be. Lower energy use and emissions levels and lamps that are replaced and, therefore, disposed of less frequently also reduce overheads in the long term.
All this adds up to a gold - or green - star for printers who embrace the equipment. These come from the many end users and government regulations increasingly concerned with environmental friendliness and impacts on the health of machine operators.
The use of standard electrical current and no requirement for ventilation systems also means a greater freedom in where UV-LED curing units can be placed within a pressroom. This makes for greater workflow efficiency and accessibility for businesses with smaller or inflexible premises.
Studies suggest that LED systems use 65 to 75% less energy than mercury lamps
Additionally, LED lamps impart far less heat to the printed surface than mercury arc lamps, allowing for a greater range of substrates to be used. Thinner, most heat-sensitive materials typically prone to shrinking or warping are now viable for commercial applications, from graphic display and packaging printing to industrial, label and container printing, potentially saving money and allowing for more creativity with output.
Significant Quality Improvements
UV-LED curing inks are now "the ink of the moment"
Printers are, importantly, also seeing significant improvements to the quality of their work following the switch from mercury vapor to UV-LED inks, from more vibrant colors and sharper dots to better folding and lamination results. Print companies have also noted the faster turnover of output in general, with time saved each day with the new equipment. Both long and short production runs can be considered too, thanks to the lack of warm-up time.
Hardware efficiency has certainly increased dramatically, and while it continues to develop, ink developers such as Nazdar Ink Technologies are working to overcome the few deficiencies that remain. For instance, LED systems continue to have a lower lamp power output - especially the cheaper lamps typically found on small inkjet machines. Because of this, Nazdar has formulated inks that compensate for the reduced lamp power. Many types of analogue printing equipment use UV-LED to pin the image between each color print before completing the process with a traditional mercury vapor lamp at the end; Nazdar has developed products to create the best results using multiple cure methods.
LED lamps can last more than ten times as long as mercury lamps
There are also complementary products - the Nazdar UV-LED curable range includes overprint inks that provide a backing color or a protective clear surface on banner materials, clear inks for decorative, first-surface texture effects on credit cards, high-gloss overprint varnish for labels and tags, imprintable coatings for use over water-based, solvent-based, and UV-curable inks for labels, and more.
ISO-Certified Facility
UV-LED inks still have the potential to grow with industry requirements
Nazdar has been manufacturing UV-LED curing inks for flexographic, screen-printing, and inkjet systems for almost a decade in its ISO-certified facility, but there are always new formulations to develop and improvements to performance and capabilities to be made - and that's part of what makes the technology so exciting. The industry is always moving; there are new print-heads, more resilient substrates, and faster printers being designed, and UV-LED inks still have the potential to grow with them. They are the hot inks of 2017 (without the high temperature lamps) but with room to evolve for the future.
Rich Dunklee is Global Market Segment Manager of UV Inkjet Inks and Laura Maybaum is Global Screen Market Manager at Nazdar Ink Technologies.
To learn more about Nazdar UV-LED curing inks, visit the Nazdar UV-LED Inks page.