UV Printing Proven Successful In the Book Manufacturing Market
With the start-up of the 4th Timsons UV Book Press the UV process has now secured itself as a viable option for manufacturing all types of books. A variety of types of books are produced on two ZMR's in the USA, one T48A in Canada, and another T48A in the USA.
There are a number of quality and economic reasons why these Timsons customers have chosen to go UV.
Quality
• Signature growth or “wavey” books are eliminated because a hot air, heatset dryer is not required. A heatset dryer heats the web and drives out a lot of moisture in the paper. Moisture is absorbed after books are bound causing signature growth. The UV dryer only reacts with the UV ink which does not cause any significant heat gain during printing.
• Web weave and fluting is greatly reduced because airturns, heatset dryers, and chill stands are not required with UV. This provides a much more stable web and less tension upsets which reduces the chances of web breaks and additional waste.
• The UV printing process produces a higher quality printed product especially on uncoated stock.
• From a “quality of life” perspective the UV process is “greener” than the heatset process. The dryer emissions from UV can typically be exhausted to atmosphere without any negative impact on the environment.
Economic
• Without a heatset dryer, airturn, and chill stand overall running utility costs for a UV press is significantly lower.
• Maintenance costs are less with a UV press because the dryer, airturn, and chills are not required. A UV dryer does not require a lot of maintenance other that replacing lamps periodically and cleaning reflectors.
• A UV press has a smaller footprint than a comparable heatset press. This allows more efficient space utilization in a printer's plant.
• The initial cost for auxiliary equipment on a UV press is much lower than for heatset press auxiliaries. Not only does this reduce the initial capital costs but also reduces the printer's yearly depreciation operating costs.
It is still true that UV ink costs more than heatset inks. Typically books do not have high ink coverage as compared to commercial printing ink consumption and is not as large a percentage of total printing cost as heatset. When our customers factored in the additional mileage associated with UV inks along with the above mentioned quality and economic benefits they saw that the UV process was the right way for them to go.
Timsons supports the UV process 100% for book manufacturing. Timsons is confident that the majority of future book presses will be UV.
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Articles
Printing Impressions January 2008
Bradford & Bigelow
Excerpt
The Digital Book Factory is but one component of Bradford & Bigelow's complete supply chain solution. In 2001, while looking for an added edge, Galligan was intrigued by the Timsons T-48A ZMR (zero makeready) book press and the prospect of printing 48-page signatures instead of 32. The zero makereadies and reduced paper waste, improved quality and smaller footprint all factored into the decision to move forward with the ZMR for longer book runs.
“Implementing new technology is never easy,” notes Heather Richardson, executive vice president of operations. “Re-imposing our film and electronic libraries for reprints from 32 to 48 pages was a challenge. On several occasions, I had to swear on a stack of bibles to John and the sales team that we could make this conversion and it would be seamless to our customers, without costly imposition errors. Thanks to our dedicated staff, we made the transition a success.”
In 2007, Bradford & Bigelow expanded its conventional capacity with the purchase of a second Timsons ZMR and boldly converted both ZMR presses to UV drying. The move complemented a six-color, 41 KBA Rapida 105 sheetfed UV perfector that was obtained in 2003.
Moving into UV drying technology was a move carefully considered. Galligan and Richardson sat down with Ron Croteau, lead pressman, and Juliet Midlik from Prime UV, who convinced management that traditional drying, with its heatset ovens, chillers and required permits, was obsolete technology.
“We were using infrared dryers with great success,” Galligan says. “Ron was pushing UV and I thought he made a compelling argument. For one, we'd be saving $18,000 a month in natural gas expenses. Secondly, there's no permitting and reporting required. It also produces a better product. You don't need cumbersome chillers and heaters that torture the paper, taking all the moisture out.
“The cost of UV equipment is less than the cost of heatset packages and chillers. The main reason printers have not adopted it is because UV ink is more expensive, but the price is coming down. But UV produces a better product and the price of natural gas is going up. Without chillers and dryers, we also save about 20 feet (of footprint) in the pressroom.” (Full Story)
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