IST Metz’s daily demonstrations using brand new UV technologies
IST Metz has announced the overwhelming success of its daily live demonstrations at drupa, Hall 2 Stand B10. Four times a day a live demo on a six-colour Heidelberg XL 75 Anicolor 2 with coater machine equipped with IST LAMP cure traditional UV technology and IST LEDcure UV LED technology has been taking place, three in English language and one in German.
According to Holger Kuehn, a managing director of the company: “We are seeing quality crowds in excess of 200 people for each event every day, as we do this four times a day you can imagine the excitement in the stand. We much prefer to show people what we can do and provide solid information and education regarding the differences between traditional and UV LED curing, rather than simply surrounding the subject with hype and hearsay.”
IST is said to be the only UV manufacturer at drupa with an operating printing press doing live print demos.
The purpose of the demonstration is to offer an up close and personal real time view of two different printing job formats, one representing packaging with five colours, a special drip off varnish and iridescent coating on board substrate, and the second representing a commercial job with five colours. The packaging job is produced at full press operating speed using an IST LAMPcure UV system with two interdecks and end of press lamps. Upon the completion of the packaging job, while the press operators change plates, colours and substrate, one IST LAMPcure UV interdeck is exchanged with an single IST LEDcure interdeck using IST’s exclusive ‘Hot Swap’ technology.
From the finish of the packaging job, to the start of the commercial job spans an average time of just seven minutes, the actual UV exchange is only roughly two minutes. The commercial job is also run at full press rated speed using just one IST UV LED curing module and no end of press UV lamps, then turned over and run back thru the press again.
Of the two jobs, one is part of the printed brochure selection available from IST, the other is actually the vehicle for the exclusive IST world premier virtual reality glasses, which deliver a tour of the inside of the press and the installed IST UV system to people attending the demo.
Today, UV curing is commonplace throughout the industry, providing application flexibility, special effects and increased production efficiency.
One of three world premieres introduced at IST’s stand, the exclusive ‘Hot Swap’ is based on an electronic lamp power supply produced by IST that provides power for both traditional UV lamps (LAMPcure) and UV LED modules (LEDcure). Both UV light sources connect to the same cables, mount to the same point, are controlled by the same interface and are automatically identified with no input required by the operator.