Product of the month: M-Cure Retrofit sheetfed UV system
Vijay Kumar Aggarwal of Alpna Visual Packaging Aids explains to PrintWeek’s Rahul Kumar how its retrofit UV system is cost-effective and has more than 150 installations in India
07 Mar 2018 | By Rahul Kumar
Product of the month: M-Cure Retrofit sheetfed UV system
As demand for print enhancement or print beautification has increased at an accelerated rate, the demand for UV curing system is also increasing. In-built UV curing systems with new printing presses are expensive and they do not fit in the Indian environment to a large extent. On the other hand, according to Vijay Kumar Aggarwal of Alpna Visual Packaging Aids, M-Cure Retrofit UV system from Alpna helps printers get their desired jobs done with less investment.
Launched in 2011, M-Cure Retrofit UV system has more than 150 installations in India. Some of M-Cure customers are Apple Print Pack and Crown Art Printers in Sonipat, Cirrus Graphics in Noida, Daffodils Printers in Patiala, Dream Print Pack in Rajkot, Girnar Packaging in Indore, Kalapi Printers in Surat, Lustra Print Process in Bahadurgarh, Miraj Multicolor in Udaipur, NS Printopack in Paontasahib, Naveen Graphics in Jammu, Parth offset in Ahmedabad, Ransan Packaging in Chennai and VK Box Industries in Delhi.
The M-Cure Retrofit UV system is suitable for the sheetfed offset printing press of any make. This includes Heidelberg, Komori, KBA, Manroland, RMGT as well as Mitsubishi and Planeta.
The technology
Power levels offered are up to 200 watts/ cm, while adhering to all stringent testing parameters like tape test, nail test and others.
Liquid cooling keeps the shuttered lamp-heads cool and safe even at full blast and it can run 24x7 non-stop, catering to strict and demanding production schedules of today’s printing presses. The M-Cure lamp-heads are equipped with six-channel liquid cooling technology all managed within the smallest possible physical reflector for easy fitment in restricted places inside press units. The highlight is, it ensures minimum heat built-up and rugged performance.
Safety is paramount and special care is taken with all safety switches. Alarms are tested before final running of the system. Impression and shutter interlocks are provided for precise shutter and power intensity control.
The system is equipped with advanced diagnostics and if any problem is reported, an alarm on the touchscreen goes off along with data backup so that corrective action can be taken immediately.
Sheetfed printing presses equipped with M-Cure UV allow unimaginable possibilities which otherwise will not be impossible, like MetPET, lenticular and plastic printing, among others. The magic lies with instant drying technology which only UV curing can provide.
The customers
Aggarwal says printers who use sheetfed offset printing presses for packaging and commercial jobs are its target customers. “We provide them the equipment at half of the price of a European brand while matching the performance levels. We make indigenised cassettes which are reasonably priced, suited to the Indian environment and we can offer the best after-sales support which is unaffordable in European brands for Indian printers,” he says.
Along with unique features like remote server connectivity for fast service backup, six water channels for keeping UV lamp-head cool and safe, and data logging for any backup history, the system also offers Di-Chroic filters which helps in printing on heat sensitive substrates. LED UV Systems are also in the pipeline to cater to future UV printing needs.
“Rugged performance, safety and energy saving during operation, after-sales support and product training at customers’ site are some of our strengths,” Aggarwal reiterates. “We keep complete range of consumables in our stock to provide instant service backup pan-India.”
The team at Alpna stresses on perfection and attention to detail to ensure safety and dependability of performance. “We have a team of qualified application engineers who advise customers on application related issues,” Aggarwal signs off.
Customer testimonial
We installed Alpna’s M-Cure Retrofit UV system on our KBA 104 around a year ago. Alpna’s after-sales service is round-the-clock available and the company gives a good backup to us. Earlier, we had UV curing system from another company but service was an issue with them. So we installed Alpna’s system. The M-Cure Retrofit UV system helps us produce MetPET jobs and UV drip-off jobs.
Vinay Bansal, Apple Print Pack
The alternatives
IST-M LAMPcure
The new UV sheet-fed-drying system has only two individual plug-in modules with an output of 200 W/cm each, normally used for sheet-fed end-of-press drying. The UV output generated is comparable with a common three-lamp system and is capable of processing thinner substrates at minimum energy input and low machine speeds. The UV system is prepared for UV measurement by default. The company provides a warranty for 10,000 operating hours on URS type reflectors and 2,500 operating hours on UV lamps. The Hot Swap Technology give users the opportunity to run a LAMPcure (UV sheetfed-drying system), as well as a LEDcure (LED-UV) system in the same press with only one electrical cabinet. A similar design of the housing helps remove the UV cassettes from LED to lamp or the other way around.
The new UV sheet-fed-drying system has only two individual plug-in modules with an output of 200 W/cm each, normally used for sheet-fed end-of-press drying. The UV output generated is comparable with a common three-lamp system and is capable of processing thinner substrates at minimum energy input and low machine speeds. The UV system is prepared for UV measurement by default. The company provides a warranty for 10,000 operating hours on URS type reflectors and 2,500 operating hours on UV lamps. The Hot Swap Technology give users the opportunity to run a LAMPcure (UV sheetfed-drying system), as well as a LEDcure (LED-UV) system in the same press with only one electrical cabinet. A similar design of the housing helps remove the UV cassettes from LED to lamp or the other way around.
Contact:
Thomas Gohl
+49 7022 6002-776 / Thomas.Gohl@ist-uv.com
www.ist-uv.com
AMS P3 UV
The advanced modular system, AMS claims, is flexible, reliable and easy. The components can be changed, checked, or cleaned quickly and easily, and without tools. UV lamps slide into position with a guaranteed plug-and-play locking mechanism. Each module in the P3 UV system tracks the lamp hours automatically. Another edition, the all-new P3 Titanium allows hybrid compatibility with both traditional UV inks and coatings, as well as with a new generation of High Wavelength UV (HUV) products, that reduce the amount of energy required for curing and eliminate the need for multiple UV units.
Ultracure UV
UV Graphic Technologies manufactures this are internally water cooled UV systems. to keep the press temperature to the bare minimum. This is essential for good UV ink printing. The water-cooled cassettes are compact and equipped with quick connectors for air, water and electrical connections. As an option, all blowers are integrated in a single cabinet. The UV Systems run on intelligent temperature management. Each lamp head is independently monitored and cooled with microprocessor-based closed loop cooling with inverter technology. A large user-friendly 128 colour touchscreen control interface keeps the operator fully informed of all the functions, lamp power and cooling system. The unique human interface stores data for up to 25 lamp changes and lifetime use giving the user complete information and statistics of the lamps.
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