UV Options Growing in Importance

MAN Roland offers an innovative press portfolio

The UV market is growing. Hartmut Hübner, Executive Vice President of Sheetfed Press Engineering at MAN Roland, estimates that meanwhile between 15 and 20 percent of all printing presses are fully or partially equipped with UV options. 
 
The significance of the UV market for MAN Roland is correspondingly high. Many users are having their presses custom-configured to suit a certain range of print products. Especially popular are so-called combi presses that permit alternating operation between UV and conventional printing. 

Focus on fast changeover

“Our R & D activities focus on fast changeover from UV to conventional inks and vice versa”, emphasises Hartmut Hübner. Practical solutions are developed in close coordination with customers, solutions such as alternating washing agent operation or ink/water balance stabilisation. Besides packaging printing, UV is today a prerequisite for economical production in many other sectors as well. Products like bank or credit cards must dry fast and have highly brilliant colours, and here the proportion of UV printing is close to 100 percent. UV is also widely used in commercial printing, mainly for enhancement with UV coating. 
 
Alternating operation has its own set of rules: for process-technical and economic reasons, it’s best to gang jobs that use UV or conventional inks to reduce changeover costs. MAN Roland is intensifying its efforts to optimise alternating operation because the market continues to demand ever greater versatility. In addition to the equipment already proven many times over, MAN Roland presses will be offering further practical and cost-effective solutions. One solid argument for UV equipment: UV jobs often provide the means to safeguard a printing company’s order and customer structure and expand its product portfolio.