Heraeus Noblelight, Hanau, Germany, a specialist for industrial light source solutions, now supplies UV LED curing systems for Peak Performance Speedmaster printing presses of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen Aktiengesellschaft.
The DryStar LED curing system was developed in close cooperation and now equips more than 1.000 printing units with more than 250 UV LED bars. Heraeus Noblelight’s innovative ultraviolet and infrared light source solutions are tailored to the needs of Heidelberger’s printing presses and deliver reliable, powerful and efficient drying and curing processes.
DryStar LED and other products of the Heraeus UV LED “Semray” family feature special micro-optics on the LED arrays that gather and optimize UV radiation and minimize stray light. The UV LED curing unit delivers up to 30% more active UV energy to the product, resulting in high printing production speeds and the ability to print onto heat-sensitive substrates. The negative impact of heat in the process can be eliminated.
“The system runs at lowest energy consumption and still delivers highest performance during stand-by, wash-up cycles and makeready times. It automatically reduces power consumption close to zero,” said Martin Zibold, product manager of DryStar Technologies at Heidelberg Sheetfed.
When entering the sheet size at the Prinect Press Center, Auto Format Setting sets all LEDs in the bars automatically according to lateral and circumferential direction of sheet size – up to an accuracy of 1 mm. This results in additional energy savings of up to 40% during standard sheet size production, sheet by sheet.
“The smart temperature management of a DryStar LED cooling device adds additional savings to the energy calculation. In this precision a unique and outstanding advantage for achieving high productive and ecological UV curing results at lowest energy consumption costs,” said Frank Mohr, key account manager for Heidelberger Druckmaschinen at Heraeus Noblelight.
The unique technology of Heidelberg’s DryStar LED system is designed for the demanding requirements of Heidelberg’s sheet-fed offset printing applications: it delivers the highest dose at a high working distance due to its revolutionary optical concept. DryStar LED achieves the best curing results even with high ink and coating coverage rates on paper and board, no matter if coated, metallized or uncoated, and even more on heat-sensitive materials like plastics or foils. Combined with a higher up-time production range and no waiting times with instant-start-and stop functionality, the system can provide optimized price/sheet or sheet/hour performance, compared to traditional technologies.
For more information, visit www.heraeus-noblelight.com/.
