IST has future proofed its MBS-6 curing solution by making it UV LED compatible
Looking to make it easier for printers to use UV LED curing in their presses, IST Metz went to Labelexpo to show its solution for an easy switch from conventional to UV LED curing.
The MBS-6 unit has been designed as a quick change cassette. As all supply connections couple automatically, it can simply be pushed into the machine. The inner housing can be removed from the outer one for maintenance work without removing any screws, facilitating the easy access of all unit parts.
This reduces the time taken for maintenance and cleaning, as does the optimised cooling of the UV unit. Thanks to the reduced lamp output of 120 W/cm, the flow of air required here and the quantity of exhaust air can be adapted to ensure the lamp and reflector become considerably less contaminated.
Furthermore, standard preparation of the MBS-6 units for UV measurement using the mobile UMS-2 measurement device presents a simple way to monitor output, thus helping to avoid machine downtimes.
Dirk Jägers, managing director, said, ‘The investment to move to UV LED curing is still very high, even when considering the long term savings gained by the switch. We hope with this method, we can offer an entry level UV LED curing system. Personally I believe that the uptake of UV LED will be much slower in conventional printing than in digital, so we have to try and help this.’
Due to its high degree of efficiency, the MBS-6 system has been classified as being particularly energy efficient by the independent trade association BG ETEM (Berufsgenossenschaft Energie Textil Elektro Medienerzeugnisse Branchenverwaltung Druck und Papierverarbeitung) and, as a result, may display the label ‘energy-minimised UV printing’.
Mr Jägers, showed the how the quick change cassette worked, ‘UV LED is efficient and can still cure at high speeds and the lamp height can still be adjusted to comply with different substrate thicknesses.’
Looking to the future Mr Jägers revealed tis solution could be ideal for those producing labels for the food industry, ‘First tests show that the low migration ink can be cured with this technology, although this has not been officially certified yet and there is still some way to go.’
