AMS Announces LED UV Spot Coating Effect

Published: June 21, 2016

RIVER FALLS, WI | Air Motion Systems announces the immediate market availability of an all-new 100% LED UV "Drip-Off" ("Strike-Through") coating effect developed in conjunction with partners and said to be recently proven for high-speed production printing on a KBA Rapida 106 six-color plus coater LED sheet-fed press at Koenigsdruck, Berlin, Germany.

Company says the new process allows printers to achieve excellent in-line effects and contrast between gloss and matte images via the use of a litho plate and a coater. Gloss points of 90 and higher are achievable with a single LED lamp in a "wet-on-wet" process sequence, with a high-powered AMS XP9 Series LED UV lamp located in the delivery.

Carsten Barlebo, managing director of AMS EMEA, says, "Traditionally it required a number of conventional, heat-generating mercury-based UV lamps at inter-station and delivery positions to achieve. Not only was this inefficient but quite simply it put the process out of reach for most printers. And as the European and other markets are moving quickly away from UV lamps and seeking alternatives, LED UV now provides a fantastic solution."

The new effect can be rendered with simple litho plates in-line in a standard offset print unit where the matte contrasting effect is desired. The elements of the image that remain glossy are the non-matte-printed areas. "A further advantage of the process is that the coating has no detectable ‘UV smell,’ a big contrast to traditional UV coating technology on the market" says Steve Metcalf, president and CEO of AMS.

"We have now established an entirely new generation of LED UV power and coating development with our partners, which translates to another major milestone achieved and 'full speed ahead' for LED UV in the market for top quality, high-productivity machines" says Hans Ulland, VP of sales for AMS. "It gives much of the same tactile effect of the latest generation of off-line, ink-jet raised print-enhancement presses, but this is done in-line at virtually no additional cost per sheet."

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