Flint Group launches system to further the use of UV LED in sheet-fed printing

The full suite of products and services included in Vantage LED consists of pre-conversion consulting and training, dedicated LED inks and coatings (Xcura), matching pressroom chemicals and blankets, plus full customer support during and after conversion. At the heart of the system are EcoLUX LED lamps supplied by Air Motion Systems.

Vantage LED is said to offer reassurance to users of legacy UV methods, and is particularly beneficial for those printers who have had no exposure to UV curing methods but are keen to take advantage of the considerable benefits of LED. Flint Group’s technical team will walk each individual customer through the process, step-by-step, to ensure the full potential of UV LED technology is realised in every case.

‘Vantage LED has been developed to ensure those wishing to convert to LED curing can do so with confidence in a very short space of time,’ explained Jim Buchanan, global UV business development director for Flint Group Packaging & Narrow Web. ‘Our expert print technicians will audit an operation in the first instance and a full cost-benefit analysis will follow; a press can be converted in as little as one day. We have seen a staggering increase in factory-fitted LED presses, but the process of converting existing presses to LED, with retro-fitted lamp systems, allows printers a fast track to the benefits this technology brings.’

Flint Group said UV LED curing is taking off with sheet-fed commercial printers who want to offer faster turnarounds and expand the range of substrates they can print on, as well as existing UV curing printers looking to reduce their energy consumption and remove heat and ozone from their process. The benefits of UV LED for sheet-fed are listed as instant drying, the elimination of spray powder and, in many cases, oil-based or water-based overprint varnishes and coatings used for protection no longer needed, resulting in material and energy cost savings.

‘LED curing technology will change sheet-fed offset printing forever, there is no doubt,’ concluded Buchanan.