In order to help our customers compete in the coming years and participate in the technology that is going to dominate pressrooms in the future, Kirby West is now providing “Desert Cure” LeoLED-UV conversion services for existing presses. The major press manufacturers are all selling diminishing numbers of presses with coaters. The chief reason for this is the emergence of LED-UV technology. Many of the new presses being sold are configured with a straight 5 or 6 color configuration with the last unit being used as an LED-UV varnishing unit.
And that’s great if you are in the market for a new press. But for many of the companies we call on a new press isn’t in the cards. If you are in this group there is a low cost solution that will allow you to participate in the newest technology, expand the value added services you can offer to your clients, improve the quality of your printing in order to beat competitors out of work, increase throughput in your production and lower the key components of overhead that all business owners must keep under control. The answer is converting your existing press into an LED-UV press. If your press has enough automation to keep you competitive, converting to LED-UV can be the difference between a $2500.00/mo payment and a $15k/mo payment for a new press.
The GEW patented LeoLED lamp head is the most effective LED-UV solution on the market.
Its higher UV intensity allows for higher press speeds and its compact design fits virtually any press on the market. Its direct irradiation path means no UV is lost in reflections and it provides uniform UV curing across the curing area. The lamps are moveable and provide consistent output over the life of the LED lights. And best of all continuous remote monitoring of the Lamp/LED characteristics ensures the most reliable operation and fastest support of any manufacturer.
Here are the major ways a Kirby West LED-UV conversion will benefit your company:
Instant Drying–Every job. Period. Even uncoated stocks, even linens. If your current press doesn’t have a coater your workflow throughput will be supercharged as jobs will no longer
lie around the shop on lifts for up to a day waiting to dry. They are immediately backed up or sent to the bindery. Personnel don’t wind up on the clock with production stopped while partially finished jobs are drying. Your production efficiency will experience a sharp increase. Companies that have converted to LRD-UV have regularly experienced 30% increases in productivity. Also, not using your IR dryer will result in significant cost savings on electricity. If your press has a coater you will experience even greater benefits detailed later in this list.
No More Spray Powder–With UV printing, spray powder is completely eliminated. This will save untold hours of cleaning your press and work environment as well as save all of the time wasted removing hickeys and other associated affects on your printed sheets. With no spray powder in the environment your press’ moving parts will operate more efficiently and this will lead to longer life and less maintenance.
Higher Quality–The quality of simple four color printing improves with LED-UV printing. The dots are sharper and the colors are more vibrant. Compared side by side the difference is obvious – your customers will notice.
Save on Coating & Power– If you currently coat every job in order to have it bindery ready when it comes off the press you will be in a position to save a lot of money switching to LED-UV technology. Multiple barrels of coating per month won’t need to be purchased. The cool lights of an LED-UV curing unit use much less power than IR, Standard UV or H-UV units. Added up over the course of a month of full time production can result in hundreds of dollars of savings or more.
Ability to Print on Specialty Substrates–Platics including PE, PET, PU, synthetic paper, foils and metalized paper are able to be printed on an LED-UV press, opening up new markets and
new streams of income. And most importantly, you will be able to the get into the fastest growing niche in the industry – packaging. With Led-UV you will be able to produce food packaging.
Marking & Scratching–Wasted labor toiling over perfected jobs that stubbornly mark will be a thing of the past. Kirby West’s system is modular and allows for multiple lamps to be placed
at chosen locations throughout the press to instantly cure large solids and sheets about to pass through a perfector.
Continuous Remote Monitoring– You’re not in this alone. GEW has created your system so that the lamp/LED characteristics will be continuously monitored in order to provide the nost reliable operation and fastest support.
No Heat– Unlike IR, Standard UV or H-UV our lamps create very little heat and eliminate high pile temperatures, curling of heat sensitive stock and loss of moisture in paper. The sheets are crisp and fresh when they hit the delivery reducing handling and difficulty in the bindery.
Saved Labor on Wash Ups–Our inks will not dry in the fountain and your operator wont have to spend a half an hour to an hour washing up the press every day.
100% Uptime–A simple on/off switch brings your LED-UV lamps to full power with no warm up or cool down periods. The savings in energy is roughly 50% over outdated Standard UV and
H-UV technologies.
Our installations are fast, clean and all-inclusive. Your press will only be out of production for about a week. Beginning on a Monday morning our technician, Don D’Amico will install all new UV rollers and chemistry in the machine and Don and the installation team from GEW-UV will then install the new lamps. In most cases your press is up and running by Friday and your employees are being trained. On the following Monday and Tuesday Don will continue training and assist with color profiling. Don is an experienced pro and is a GATF certified senior worldwide pressman with 30 years of experience as a pressman and technician.
Call us today to do an analysis of your costs to see if LED-UV is a winning formula for your company. LED-UV is the future and the future is already here.