Darren Gapen

If every family spent just $64 on an American-made product to give as a Christmas gift, more than 200,000 jobs would be saved here in the United States. How many of you will actually take the time to look on the package to see where the product was made?

We were told upon the arrival of the sales and tech rep from the roller manufacturer that the $30,000 worth of rollers that were previously ordered and installed by my client were not compatible with full UV inks.

Starting out with the topic of LED UV, Steve Metcalf and Jon Graunke gave an update on where this new technology is currently and where it’s going. They noted that AMS successfully installed its first production unit in Japan on a four-over-four machine last fall, with more units to be installed here in the states this year.

With yet another sold-out conference last week, Print UV 2011 opened with a record audience count. The attendee list included almost 170 participants with representatives from more than 60 individual printing companies, along with some of the leading vendors.

Regardless if you’re a veteran printer or new to the UV game, you will quickly realize that if you want to be successful, you must put the necessary time, money and energy into R&D. But when the dust settles, the smoke and chaos clear, you stand back and look at the finished product with admiration.

Back in the day, two- and three-roller coating systems made UV coating look as deep and smooth as a sheet of glass. Then it all changed with the introduction of the new closed-chamber, anilox style coating units. They were sold by the OEMs as “pressman proof.” They enabled management to have the ability to make sure that all of the pressmen apply the same amount of coating regardless of the individual or knowledge level.

The objective is to use a sufficient amount of energy to dry the inks correctly, but not to distort the plastic so it looks like a potato chip. Dyne levels of the plastics along with chemistry compatibility continue to have a large effect on successful adhesion and end result.

Have you noticed the increase in your supplies prices lately? All manufacturers are having a very hard time with their raw material suppliers.

I believe you would be surprised if you added up all of the potential production hours lost going back and forth. Not to mention the waste of supplies in doing so.

For Anilox rollers, one size doesn’t fit all. There are three factors to take into consideration when determining the proper engraving specifications—the angle of the screen (normally 60°), the LPI (lines per inch) and the cell volume.