Consumables
Eltex Electrostatic Innovations – Ifra Expo 2008
Monday 03. November 2008 - Eltex Electrostatic GmbH develops and sells highly efficient electrostatic systems for higher product quality and profitability throughout the printing and finishing process. For over 50 years, Eltex innovations have met the most stringent requirements and provided valuable process optimization for many industrial areas.
Static electricity occurs in a large number of industrial processes. One problem is that it is inevitable, with negative consequences that can be severe. Thus it must be eliminated or controlled. However, electrostatics can also be used profitably, in a targeted manner. In both applications, electrostatic systems from Eltex provide outstanding, brilliant results. Individually tailored to the specific problem, they obtain qualitative and economic advantages: higher production speeds, more efficient work, significantly increased quality, reduced energy consumption, and fewer faults, downtime and waste.
Das Eltex Highlight:
? Eltex INNOCURE – innovative UV technology
for newspaper printing
01_
INNOCURE
at drupa
Upgrade newsprint:
Eltex electrostatic UV technology INNOCURE
Cost-effective, brilliant in its results, and with a variety of applications.
With INNOCURE, UV technology now features clear, outstanding
benefits for printing processes and results. Unwanted byproducts of the
UV printing process are caused primarily by the oxygen that is carried
along in the production process. INNOCURE successfully reduces the
amount of oxygen on the ink surface, thus providing UV curing at the
highest speeds with the greatest efficiency and safety. The air boundary
layer is “peeled away” without contact using a plasma flow, and replaced
by a nitrogen layer with the least possible quantity. Additional benefits:
reduction of photoinitiators in the ink, reduced energy consumption and
lower thermal load of the substrate.
Advantages
? lowest space requirements, less than 1.5 m in web direction
? does not cause formation of VOCs and CO2
? completely rub-proofed immediately after leaving the UV chamber
? printing on coated and glossy papers possible
? no loss of moisture
? high print quality and brilliance
? higher production speed and lower migration compared to
conventionally working UV systems
02_
INNOCURE
functional principle
INNOCURE NEWSPRINT
For high web speeds, fast and penetrative curing of UV inks is
possible in an inert atmosphere only. The INNOCURE method uses
a high-voltage plasma to remove the entrained atmospheric oxygen
crosswise to the web direction and replace it with nitrogen. This
prevents the inhibition of photoinitiators and chain termination during
polymerization. The polymerization process, and thus the curing of
the printing inks, takes place in a very short time.
At the beginning of 2007, the first industrial application of Eltex
INNOCURE UV curing technology in newspaper printing went
online in Austria.In Spring, the first ready-to-sell issues of a hybrid
product containing UV and coldset pages were printed at a press speed
of 90,000 copies an hour (11.25 m/s) at Herold Druck in Vienna. A
printing tower with two nine-cylinder satellite units was added to
the MAN Roland Colorman (blanket/steel) at Herold Druck in close
cooperation with the press manufacturer. The two inert gas chambers,
each of which is equipped with two UV lamps, are located between
the printing units. This permits an optimum path of the web without
the uncured ink contacting a guide roller. Herold Druck produces
the newspapers Die Presse, Wiener Zeitung, Heute and a variety
of illustration printing products such as weekly newspapers, free
newspapers and catalogs.
At Le Monde in Paris, a two-sided INNOCURE system is currently
being installed above the printing units on a WIFAG OF371 with
blanket/blanket printing towers for UV ink curing at maximum
machine speeds. Thus corresponding inert gas chambers are in
operation for both printing tower configurations. Canada-based
Transcontinental has ordered a triple-wide MAN Roland 6/2
Colorman XXL with INNOCURE in its Transmag newspaper
printing facility in Montreal. The machine will go online in 2009.
This will be the first time the INNOCURE system from Eltex is
integrated into a triple-wide system. It will rest on one of the 8-couple
towers and can be expanded by adding other printing towers.
The INNOCURE technology supports a printing speed of 90,000
pages per hour.
INNOCURE UV curing requires much less space and less energy
than heatset technology. Existing machines can be easily retrofitted
with the new technology. Machine speeds of up to 12.5 m/s are
currently run in everyday, real-world operation.
Advantages
? Lowest space requirements, less than 1.5 m in web direction
? Does not cause formation of VOCs
? Completely rub-proofed immediately after leaving the UV chamber
? Printing on coated and glossy papers possible
? No loss of moisture
? High print quality and brilliance
? Higher production speed and better migration compared
to conventionally working UV-curing systems