Process Progress
Can the printing disciplines be ranked in order of UV usage?
by Susan Friedman
How easy is it to separate the UV leaders from the UV followers? On the surface, UV flexo has executed a clean swipe of the No.1 spot, right?
Maybe so. But don't forget the longevity of UV screen and UV letterpress...two processes that confronted the unknowns of UV years ago and have been using it to their advantage ever since. And don't count out offset, which may be leaning on UV a bit more now to meet soaring quality goals, and gravure, which stands ready to employ UV if the market asks for it.
As seen through equipment eyes
Curing equipment suppliers don't hesitate to crown flexo the current UV frontrunner. Hanovia, a manufacturer of UV curing lamps, reflectors, and power supplies, is busily meeting UV flexo needs ranging from narrow web to 110" sheet, and feeding an increasing demand for cool UV, which it accommodates with patented, specially coated optics.
President Len Perre says flexo leads UV penetration due to improvements in coating and ink chemistries. "More are UV curable, and the cost has decreased," he notes. "My guess is it'll grow and maintain its position during the next three to five years."
Perre ranks screen as second in UV usage, and offset as a distant third, adding that offset-printed products often have less demanding end-uses that don't call for UV's resistance to the elements.
John Thome, Director of Sales and Marketing at Fusion Aetek, joins Perre's belief that UV flexo won't be losing its momentum anytime soon, "because flexo people have realized they can now compete with offset."
UV flexo's popularity hasn't distracted suppliers from efforts to serve other processes. Fusion Aetek, for one, has engineered a smaller version of its Ultrapak line for its core narrow-web flexo customers, which can cure heat sensitive films without chill rolls, and features an efficient constant wattage power system. At the same time, however, it has expanded the Ultrapak line to 34" and 600 wpi for wider, speedier offset business forms applications.
A factor in UV offset adoption's favor, says Thome is conventional offset printers are used to dealing with sensitive process parameters such as water/ink balance that require constant monitoring.
Mark Hahn, V.P. sales and marketing for AAA Press International, is quick to tout flexo's UV leadership, but sees its growth concentrated in certain market segments. Hot spots he cites include the wine and spirit label sector, as well as any application requiring long process lines and 175 to 200 line screens.
AAA has focused its efforts on flexible packaging printing with UV flexo, accommodating heat sensitive materials with cooler systems. AAA lamp assemblies can fit within the web path on 85 percent to 90 percent of presses due to a compact lamp head design, eliminating the need to reweba common headache during the switch from conventional flexo to UV flexo, Hahn notes.
Echoing the others, he also sees the highest UV potential in screen and offset, with offset showing particular interest in UV's smear resistance to ensure accurate information on pharmaceutical labels.
More of the same observations come from Tom Heffernan, director of marketing for U.V. Process Supply, who asserts UV flexo will continue its double-digit growth for the next two to four years, and that UV remains screen's most viable curing option.
What's more, he notes, with flexo, rotary screen, and offset print stations operating simultaneously in a single line, UV curing provides the only means to maintain production speeds and effectively achieve quality standards.
U.V. Process Supply has developed its curing system on the premise that basic UV curing requirements for each printing discipline remain the same: fast curing, low heat. U.V. Process' Lighthouse system features unique reflector geometry that focuses the maximum amount of UV energy onto the substrate surface, yet ensures low heat build-up.
Polling the press side
Can flexo, screen, and offset take the gold, silver, and bronze, respectively, in UV usage? Or do these placements simply provide a tally of today's three hottest UV topics of conversation?
Consider narrow-web letterpress printers; they've opted consistently for UV inks for the past five years to meet top-tier quality requirements on cosmetics and other high-end retail packaging, says Kevin Held, R&D director at Ko-Pack. Proof of loyalty can be found in sales of Ko-Pack letterpresses, which have held steady for the past three years. Held believes the solid figures are due either to the higher cost of offset, quality gaps in UV flexo, or dissatisfaction with UV flexo makeready.
"We do feel the pressure of UV flexo pushing on us very hard," he concedes. A movement into offset is Ko-Pack's latest response. Its new All-In-One Carton press can run offset or letterpress towers in combination with flexo. Ko-Pack hasn't, to date, taken its presses past 16" widths, but expects to take its offset offerings to 18" and 24".
Gravure, on the other hand, hasn't fallen behind or resisted UV; it's waiting for demand to kick in. According to Dick Chesnut, president of W.R. Chesnut Engineering, "UV gravure has been a curiosity. It seems viable, but why you would want to do it is the question."
Gravure does not need UV ink for the same reasons as offset or flexo, namely opacity, thinner coatings, and simpler interstation drying, Chesnut states.
"Gravure has always had air dryers between stations, leaving interstation drying a non-issue, and can achieve decent opacity, although UV can improve it," he says. Applications could include very dense coatings of colors, including white, but only time will tell. "UV gravure hasn't been grabbed by the masses and pushed forward yet," Chesnut says. "Growth will be based on need."
Back in the flexo/screen/offset camps, pressmakers offer conservative clues to these processes' true UV stances. Chris Faust, marketing manager at Comco, offers positive, yet slightly subdued words on UV flexo. "It's still very strong, but doesn't create quite as much of a buzz because printers know it and understand it," he says.
Water-based flexo inks may have cut into the hype with improvements in stability and color density, laying solid claim to the cost-crazed traditional flexo label business, and leaving UV to thrive in value-added prime labels and folding cartons, where printers continue to defect from offset, Faust observes.
He also foresees advances in UV flexo that will further its flexible packaging penetration, possibly with the evolution of UV/EB systems.
John Little, president of Nilpeter, believes press sales still favor straight flexo, but expects UV flexo to continue to lead UV growth due to the abundance of flexo presses in the field, and the fact that flexo printers can afford to upgrade. Little maintains UV offset's progression is due not so much to a hard-to-resist trend, but to matter-of-fact necessity. "As it is the only available offset process for pressure-sensitive labels, it will continue to take a chunk out of sheetfed, heatset offset," he says.
For UV rotary screen, Faust depicts "phenomenal" growth, mainly within established screen printers striving to achieve differentiation.
Yes, curing equipment trends provide ample evidence that flexo, screen, and offset are now the busiest arenas of UV product development. At the same time, however, supplier comments reveal calculated UV leadership initiatives on the part of all five processes, as they continue to actively evolve in response to the tastes of the marketplace.
- People:
- Hahn
- John Thome
- Len Perre