Bizerba invests in MPS press with nitrogen-inerted UV curing from GEW

Bizerba is a label manufacturing company on the outskirts of Bochum, and its product range includes, amongst others, self-adhesive, thermal, linerless, multi-layered and functional label systems for a wide range of applications in food processing and the food retail trade.

Last year Bizerba installed an 8-color, 20in-wide MPS EF4 press including facilities for reverse print and multi-web operation with two different materials. The UV curing system supplied by GEW comprises eight E2C lampheads with Rhino ArcLED electronic power supplies and a nitrogen UV curing chamber for the final varnish application. The curing process takes place under controlled conditions in a sealed chamber into which nitrogen is injected to purge the atmospheric oxygen. Inert atmosphere UV prevents oxygen inhibition of the curing process, improve the degree of curing and increase production speeds, all at the same or lesser power levels. GEW’s inert atmosphere curing product is built around a chill roller and comes with an embedded precision oxygen level controller to ensure complete process consistency and production efficiency. The nitrogen control panel gives the operator a visual feedback and enables them to accurately control the volume of nitrogen required in the chamber to optimize the curing process.

By further improving its production capacity and overall efficiency with the GEW E2C system, Bizerba was able to generate fresh turnover with new and established customers in the food processing industry and retail trade. Bizerba’s decision in favour of the GEW UV system was due to the seamless integration with the MPS system and its wish to invest only in proven future-proof production technology.

Michael Feuerstack, director of labels and consumables technology at Bizerba, said: ‘Our main objectives were to rationalize and optimize our production capacity and to become maintenance-free to the largest degree. The GEW UV system was able to offer us a package of efficiency, reliability and remote system performance surveillance.

‘The E2C lamphead combined with the new RHINO electronic power supply brings savings to our electricity bill. We appreciate the option to easily upgrade to UV LED curing at a later stage.’