U V Printing System

The use of highly durable, UV cured organic inks will revolutionise the labelling of one-way glass containers and glass and ceramic tableware and decorative products. This new, energy saving, environmentally friendly process offers unlimited range of vibrant colours, subtle hues and half tones and near photographic print quality. The latest generation of UV inks and high precision multi colour screen printing machines, means that UV ink systems are now extremely cost effective alternatives to glass enamel, film label, thermal transfer and any other form of direct or indirect decoration.

It is now possible to achieve very high levels of durability and pass standard bottle filling line tests. Ink adhesion levels are now suitable for all "single-trip" glass packaging and tableware and UV printed products have achieved several hundred domestic dishwasher cycles. In addition, with some UV printing machines, it is possible to print to a colour to colour registration accuracy of +0.2 mm or better which means that it is now possible to print at near to photographic quality.

COMPARED WITH ACL ENAMEL AND ON-GLAZE CERAMIC DECORATION, UV SYSTEMS OFFER MANY OTHER MAJOR ADVANTAGES:

Brighter, stronger, vibrant colours and an unlimited colour palette Colour to colour registration is so accurate that a true 4 colour process and near photographic print quality can be achieved All colours are totally free from heavy metals Bottles can be made lighter and thinner as they do not have to withstand the heating and cooling cycle of the decorating lehr or be subject to any potential residual stress caused by the glass enamel Heated screens and thermoplastic mediums are not required

As there is no requirement for a lehr or kiln, there will be:

• Greatly reduced energy costs;

• A major saving in factory area. A decorating lehr or third fire continuous kiln takes up the space of 4 UV decorating machines;

• Decorating time reduced from up to 2 hours down to about 15 seconds;

• No volatiles emitted from the decorating medium. This means no atmospheric pollution and no exhaust fumes in the decorating area;

• No requirement for a push bar stacker, transfer conveyors or accumulation table;

• No lehr or kiln maintenance programme or lehr/kiln spares costs;

• No time lost changing elements or re-setting burners;

• No time or energy wasted in waiting for a lehr or kiln to heat up from cold;

• No possibility of colour variation due to minor fluctuations in firing conditions or lehr/kiln atmosphere;

• Greatly reduced power supply installation.

Although there are many UV-dedicated screen printing machines now available, costs are very high and most glass decorators already have substantial investments in ACL ceramic based decorating systems. We are now able to offer conversation units that enable existing machines to print and cure UV inks without loss of speed or product range capability. By converting alternate printing stations to UV Curing stations, an 8-colour machine becomes a 4-colour UV printer. The cost of this conversation is around 10% of a dedicated UV machine and makes UV technology a practical proposition for all decorators of glass containers.

Because of the nature of UV inks and the high quality of UV screen printing machines, very fine screens can be used. This results in much finer detail. The macro photographs below show a comparison of a print made with glass enamel and a 250 mesh fabric compared with a print made with UV inks using finer screens but the same artwork. Images are 6 times natural size.

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