The bright lights of revolution

UV-curing technology has been causing much excitement in the last few years, so much so that it is easy to think of it as a relatively young invention. However, the technology we speak of—the use of specific ranges of UV light to immediately ‘cure’ or solidify inks—has been around for as long as the earliest inkjet printers—the first of which was patented in 1951. Recently, however, with the advent and growth in popularity of wide-format, the potential benefits of the technology for sign-makers are becoming starker. And with LED-UV technology maturing every year, allowing for impressive energy and time savings on top, this could be the revolution sign-makers have been waiting for.

Rob Goleniowski, business manager, sign and graphics at Roland DG, explains the dizzying benefits of the technology, which are currently proving so seductive to the wide-format and sign-making industry. He says: “The main benefits have to be material flexibility, which couples with the range of applications that UV can be used for and the fact that you can print onto flexible, roll-to-roll, and rigid materials. If you take a traditional flat-bed for example, being able to print directly to the board can take steps out of the work-flow process when com-pared to printing on vinyl on a roll-to-roll machine and mounting.

“It’s all down to the way that the ink is cured. With a solvent or eco solvent printer, the ink needs to ‘bite’ into the material and be dried by heat. With UV technology, as you are curing from above with lamps or LED lamps, you can print onto thicker materials, like rigid boards and things which heat wouldn’t be able to penetrate, and then you can cure it directly onto the surface.”

Goleniowski continues, highlighting the flexibility of UV curing presses and how they are starting to open up different markets for sign-makers. He says: “We also have UV print and cut machines. Our LEC series, for example, is being sold heavily into the packaging market and the proofing market. The reason for this is that they can print directly onto the substrate that people are actually going to use as the end product, so you are able to make a very accurate proof or mock-up extremely quickly.

“However, with a VersaCAMM, for example, you would have to print onto a vinyl or paper or something that will be similar but not the same as the end product. That’s where the advantage comes into it.



“Historically, proofing jobs has been done with water-based Epsons and HPs and Canons. You have limited substrates that you can use and extremely high running costs in terms of white inks. With the LEC series, those costs are not an issue.”

Rapid growth

Another central player in this sector that is experiencing exponential growth is Agfa Graphics, which has recently launched its  Anapurna M3200i RTR, a heavy duty, 6-color (CMYKLcLm), 3.2m wide roll-to-roll UV-curable printing system. The M3200i RTR produces indoor and outdoor applications on flexible media such as fabric, canvas, and vinyl. The dual roll option also reportedly makes it possible to simultaneously print jobs on two rolls of the same media type, each up to 60" wide.



This follows on the launch of the much heralded Anapurna M2050i earlier in the year, which boasts a 75 percent productivity bump on its predecessor and the ability to carry out dual board printing.


“The Anapurna M2050 gained re-cognition as the best-in-segment hybrid printer,” says Willy Van Dromme, marketing manager wide-format Inkjet. He adds: “The new i-version with enhanced productivity and quality, at an unparalleled price point, underlines our commitment to this market. The print quality, features and option set are state-of-the-art and make it a very consistent and reliable production device.”

Lighting the way

Roland is equally bullish about the sector’s future and has put its full faith in the emerging technology, lauding the extra benefits they can offer.

Goleniowski explains: “Roland doesn’t do the old halogen lamp systems. With LED systems you have a lower running cost—as they don’t require much electricity, they are quite cheap to run. And as there are no warm up costs or set up times—they’re either on or they’re off—it means that you can start production extremely quickly, so you’re getting a better use of your machine time as well.

“Also, because they are colder running and the inks cure at lower temperatures, it means you have more flexibility over substrates again, so you can use more heat sensitive materials, which you wouldn’t have been able to use with other systems, for example shrink wrap films.”

Another benefit of LED technology is its environmental impact. Whereas a metal halide UV lamp can consume up to 1.2kW, a UV-LED unit only consumes around 80W, including a cooling fan. The old lamps also run very hot, between 600 and 800 degrees, whereas LED lamps are cool running. If the cost of the LED lamps, which are drastically more expensive than metal halide, also be aware that the old lamps need replacing every six months, whereas LEDs will work for five years without needing replacement. This obviously means less waste and a far more efficient machine.

Goleniowski acknowledges the environmental savings this technology can provide, but is far more emphatic about how this translates financially, saying: “I wouldn’t say the environ-mental aspect is going to be the most important thing when someone is considering an investment. It is a factor for some people more than others, but at the end of the day, people are out there to make money. So the main consideration is how reliable and how long-lasting it’s going to be and how cheap it is to run. That fits hand in hand with UV technology.”

Bui Burke, vice president of sales at Screen Europe, also champions UV curing technology when it comes to wide-format printing. In essence, he argues, UV curing is simply a superior system to solvent or aqueous machinery for a few important reasons.

He says: “The two prerequisites of a practical printing machine is that the ink has got to stick to whatever you’re printing on to and it’s got to dry when it’s on there. That tends to be the biggest differentia between these kinds of systems.”

When it comes to signage or wide-format printing, the substrate is often the most important part, something which Burke identifies as one of the greatest benefits about this technology for sign-makers: “UV curing technology supports the general statement that, ‘it sticks to anything’. Whereas with a water-based printer, if you were to print onto a non-treated diabond panel, a piece of glass or shiny plastic, it would not stick or dry, you can just rub it off.

“With a wide-format flatbed printer, a lot of what you’re printing is rigid panels. It does then give you a lot more diversity. That’s really where Screen is coming from with UV printing.”

Burke adds: “For external signage, for example, if you’re using dyes and suchlike your signage can start to fade and the elements, the wind the rain, will affect it. UV inkjet however has a tremendous resistance to those things, it is very practical for outdoor signage. Generally speaking you don’t need to laminate it, put UV filters on it or anything. You’re effectively printing with colour plastic.”

External signage is not the only thing UV seems to be a cut above the rest, according to Burke, but something that calls on a by-product of the quick-drying aspects of the technology. Burke explains: “Because every product must be finished, go through post-processing, cutting, handling, packing, and loading into transport and particularly if it’s for retail applications, people don’t want things in their shops that smell. For an outdoor sign, it wouldn’t matter so much, but if it’s going in-doors in a shop, that’s a different matter.

“Drying is not just about whether it’s tacky or sticks to your fingers, it also has an effect on the odour. For other systems, whether they are solvent- or aqueous-based drying is one of the processes you have to factor in after the printing has taken place, whereas with UV you cure it rather than dry it.”

Too good to be true?

As faultless as the technology sounds, there are certainly some downsides to UV technology and the way it currently stands in the market. For Goleniowski, that is almost exclusively to do with the price tag. He says: “I think the main drawback is the fact that the technology is more expensive. Whether that’s down to the fact that the technology is much newer, or that the components themselves are more expensive, I’m not sure.


“However, the way to look at it is that it’s the difference between a petrol and a diesel car. You buy a diesel car and though it’s more expensive, you know in the long run you are going to get more miles per gallon and a better return on investment.

“What I would also say is that you are not necessarily going to find that a UV flatbed or printer which is going to do everything you need to do. In some respects you want to be adding that into your portfolio alongside an ecosolvent print and cut machine, for example, to give yourself the flexibility. Sadly, there is no one machine that will do absolutely everything. Not yet anyway.”

Burke agrees that a UV wide-format printer may not be the ideal choice for every sign-maker, and perhaps requires a bit of thought before shaking hands on a deal at the next Sign and Digital UK. He explains: “It depend so much on what your business does. If all you produce is flexible signage and flexible substrates you want to print from a roll, you’ll be looking for certain qualities in the machine and flexibility of the ink. The latest UV inkjet inks are very flexible—especially the ones we use—but that is something the business manager would have to decide.

“However, if you’re only doing indoor banners, like exhibition signage, you might decide that you can find a low cost solution or printer that can give you want you want productivity-wise.

“At Screen, we make high productivity machines. Therefore, if you are printing more products quickly, you’ll have a lot of stuff hanging around drying. If you’re in a high productivity situation, it’s a big plus that each panel is ready to finish the moment it’s printed.”



Like Goleniowski, Burke understands that the initial investment costs an awful lot more than an entry-level non-UV press, but, he says, if it is right for your business, it returns as quickly as it takes: “Once you’re being judged on output, the cost gets negated by the quality when you get to a certain level.”

What Burke does not agree with are the relative extra benefits of LED UV technology. Though Screen previously manufactured a wide-format flatbed using LED technology, he says users found that it was not a machine suitable for high productivity.

Burke says: “When you’re laying down solid areas of colour, with reasonable amounts of ink, and you’re still trying to get 150sq m/h, the machine which used LED curing would drop down to 13sq m/h.”

Also, he says, the curing is not always as successful and fast as promised: “In some applications that’s not an issue—an outdoor sign will eventually cure—but for others, it is undesirable when the product tends to be tacky and it tends to still smell. We certainly experienced that with our LED curing.”

“Where we’ve found LED technology to work best is on our high speed label press, where the LEDs are used to ‘pin’ the ink, so the ink is dropped onto the substrate, its LED cured to stop it spreading and to finally cure it there’s a proper LED curing lamp in the machine that cures it properly at a speed of 150m sq/h.”

A canvas to the imagination

Taking all this into consideration, one undeniable benefit of UV technology, with each new substrate potentially opening up another avenue, is the ability for a business to expand into different (and sometimes unexpected) markets. Inktec has done just this, by attracting the attention of international artist Jeffrey Kroll, who used a Jetrix T513 (the current model, KX5, was launched earlier this year) to create large-format, multimedia artworks which he displayed at his recent Strata exhibition.

Kroll’s work is ground-breaking as it mixes traditional fine art with various modern digital technologies. To create his pieces, Kroll paints onto canvas, photographs it with his smartphone and reproduces the painting on the Jetrix printer, before painting over the reproduction, creating a very unique and textured overall effect.

O Factoid: The use of ultraviolet light as a curing mechanism for protective coatings is not a new concept. As early as Ancient Egypt, people discovered that, when exposed to sunlight, certain resins would solidify into very hard and durable coatings. O

Ben Woodruff, sales manager at Inktec Europe, explains what UV wide-format technology offers the world of fine art: “Well, we all like to save money, so straight away the artists are able to print onto uncoated stock, which is obviously a lot cheaper than coated material. The UV ink sits on top of the material’s surface and is cured by the lamps as it prints, so it doesn’t need any expensive coating.



“Also the running costs are very low. On average, machines only consume about 50p of ink per square metre. Compared to the existing method, this was a lot cheaper and that allows them to shave a lot off the bottom line, some-thing everyone is trying to do these days.”

Inktec made the connection with Kroll after bringing in its second customer in the UK, Senecio, which produces limited edition fine art runs for around 500 different artists, says Woodruff.

“[Jeffrey] was probably intrigued because when Senecio started using the Jetrix, that came over from traditional printing onto coated paper and using pigment and dye-based aqueous printers. When they got the Jetrix in they realised it could do everything they needed and more.



“The Jetrix is an extremely well built machine, the quality is superb. It weighs about three times the weight of its competition, it’s very well-engineered and stable and reliable. It means the artists can produce high quality work very accurately. We know that the Jetrix machine itself is accurate within 0.2mm, which is obviously very important for fine art printing.

“When they initially ordered the Jetrix, they weren’t sure whether it was going to lend itself to the fine art market but lucky enough for us it did.

“They can print on any substrate, directly onto wood, onto slate, not just onto paper or canvas so that gives them other options, so they can put their work straight onto metal, for example.”

This is clearly not simply limited to a single fine-art reproduction company. As Woodruff explains, it seems the world of art is becoming enamoured with the technology: “A few years ago in a FESPA exhibition a customer had problems reproducing a Van Gogh and we produced it for them there and then. This Dutch firm then put in an order for the Jetrix off the back of that because they were so impressed with the quality.”

Another element, particularly of LED UV curing technology, which appealed to artists, says Woodruff, is its environmentally-friendly aspects. “There are no VOCs in the UV ink so there’re no harmful gases coming off,” explains Woodruff.

Though the intricacies of the technology may differ between manufacturers, the benefits of UV technology are clear, whether that is streamlining your existing wide-format production, or breaking into new markets where the curing technology and quality is second to none. All in all, the future of wide-format will surely be shaped by the emerging UV revolution.

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