Pino De Gradi (second from right), La Gerunda’s managing director, and Davide Cucinella (far right) Uteco’s chief marketing officer, with the ONYX 810 and representatives from AMS Europe, Flink Inks and Uteco
The world’s first LED UV-enabled low migration VLF flexographic press has passed its print tests and is on schedule for commissioning by Italian flexible packaging print specialist La Gerunda Merletti, this November.
During the tests which took place on Tuesday 11 October at Uteco’s manufacturing facility near Verona, a team from La Gerunda was joined by partner manufacturer Air Motion Systems to see the Uteco ONYX 810 CI perform. Colour vibrancy and tight registration were maintained at all speeds, even during changes in speed, and tests confirmed that the systems reached 400 m/min. The printed substrate was ASTM tape-test dry on the roll in the delivery – there is no heat emission during LED UV curing and the printed roll was ready for immediate downstream processing.
The La Gerunda ONYX 810 has been specified with eight printing stations, 1250 mm maximum web width and 1100 mm maximum print repeat cycle. Seven AMS LED UV curing lamps are fitted at the printing stations around the Central Impression drum with the eighth situated at the exit of the web on the top deck. The press has been provided with the housing for a ninth AMS unit, adjacent to the eighth, if La Gerunda should decideto upgrade the press to the 500 m/min option with the next AMS LED UV lamp development, the XP Ultra.
The bulk of La Gerunda’s business is in the horticulture, agriculture and pet food sectors, but the company has identified flexible packaging for the healthcare and food industries as our target growth markets. ‘For this we need secure substrate integrity and ecologically sustainable operation,’ explained Pino De Gradi, managing director. ‘The new LED UV low migration inks and the AMS system’s low-energy, ozone-free, non-mercury lamp units offer us that.’
AMS lamps use blue light LED, switching on and off instantly (10 milliseconds), so do not require a stand-by mode and use much less electricity (typical savings of 60% over conventional UV). Prices of the inks, too, are becoming more competitive as the LED UV process takes off within the flexible packaging sector.
‘We found that the levels of automation and the technologies built into the ONYX are very impressive,’ Mr De Gradi continued. ‘The production runs in this sector can be short so the Uteco Direct Drive Evo and their ThermiloxAnilox solution offer benefits for better productivity, while their more advanced cleaning systems contribute to faster job changeovers with less waste.’
La Gerunda’s order was announced in April this year. ‘The eyes of the industry have been on this project,’ said Davide Cucinella, Uteco’s chief marketing officer. ‘We already have several other orders in the pipeline.’
