There are two methods to dry or cure ink on press, by using IR dryer or a UV dryer, which is added to the press. The third method, developed by Komori, is the H-UV.

Ajay Aggarwal of Insight, during his visit to PrintWeek India office, today, demystified H-UV technology and explained why he thinks that classic UV is on the decline.

“What H-UV does is align the ink and energy to optimise performance. A single H-UV lamp is enough to cure ink coverage four times more than classic UV. This drastically reduces the amount of energy needed to cure in comparison to either of the two other methods, IR or UV.”

He added, “It also eliminates the ozone emission that is common with classical UV, which means one does not need heavy air-flow ducting as well as heavy air-conditioning, both of which are power-saving and environment-friendly.”

While H-UV uses single lamp, three lamps are needed to operate classical UV systems. However, initially the cost of inks used for H-UV was high because of limited supply, which though has taper a bit, is still high. “This was the case even when the classical UV was introduced. With increased usage and more and more ink companies developing new H-UV inks, the cost of H-UV will eventually become comparable with classical UV inks. With the advantages of the H-UV systems, there will be more boxes of H-UV system than classical drying systems, and an eventual phasing out of the older systems.”

Komori also offers H-UV users with K-Dry systems, where the user has the option to switch between classical UV and H-UV technology, thereby allowing it to print oil-based ink, HUV inks as well as conventional UV inks.

Ahmedabad-based Legriffe became the first printer in India to install a five-colour plus coater H-UV K-Dry, Komori Lithronepress.