Seminar Addresses UV/EB Curable Technology

Published: July 22, 2002, By Claudia Hine, Senior Editor

HILLSIDE, IL, USA— A jointly sponsored UV (ultraviolet) seminar for graphic arts applications was held June 26 and 27, 2002, at the Holiday Inn Expo & Conference Center. About 70 attendees participated in the day-and-a-half-long program; PFFC also was in attendance.

Technical presentations included an overview of the UV/EB technology and markets, equipment used for UV cure, the raw materials used in UV/EB inks and how to formulate with them, and troubleshooting on press.

The seminar was co-sponsored by Akzo Nobel Resins, New Brunswick, NJ, a supplier of acrylate functional raw materials for ink and coating formulations; Prime UV, Carol Stream, IL, a supplier of UV equipment for flexo, offset, and other printing processes; and Maroon Inc., Avon, OH, national distributors for Chitec photoinitiators.

John K. Braddock, technical service manager for Akzo Nobel Resins, covered the market for UV-cured products, which he said is estimated to grow 5–8% to 2004 for North America. Flexo inks for narrow web applications is a high growth market, Braddock reports, but much higher growth is expected if wide web UV-flexo use becomes successful.

Braddock also covered health and safety issues and provided general formulating information for offset and flexo inks and plastic coatings among others.

Erich Midlik, VP of sales at Prime UV, gave an overview of UV curing systems and maintenance issues. Midlik recommended automated preventive maintenance scheduling to keep systems at peak performance.

Jim Gacek, sales manager at Maroon Inc., provided information on Chivure photoinitiators and UV additives. On day two of the seminar, Maroon hosted hands-on demonstrations at its plant in Forest Park, IL, where attendees saw how changes in formulation affect the way inks and/or coatings perform in regard to cure.

Rick Klonowski, president of Graphic Production Partners, Downers Grove, IL, offered troubleshooting advice based on his 23 years of experience working with UV printing. He said the two major problems incurred with offset UV printing are heat and oil contamination. He suggested looking for a heat source that could be anything from a UV unit creating too much heat to a stripe setting that may be too high.

For more specific information about the seminar's sponsors/suppliers a visit Akzo Nobel Resins at http://www.akzonobel.com; Prime UV at http://www.primeuv.com; and Maroon Inc. at http://www.marooninc.com.