Truth and Dare

Truth, ultra violet curable material science has grown to be big business. A billion dollar plus industry that cuts across a number of varied markets. UV curing as an inkjet technology has become the mainstay of flatbed digital printing, with one major drawback. That being the use of mercury vapor arc lamps. Traditional arc lamps operate at very high temperature (850-950C) requiring air extraction and an additional heat burden on a businesses air conditioning system. There are also issues relating to the frequency of bulb replacement and the drop in UV output over time that causes issues in yield and quality. Over the last 20 years electricity prices for industrial uses in the US have more than tripled . That makes end users pay closer attention to electrical requirements of their production equipment. At the moment, arc lamps are exempt from the Reduction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive, but there are concerns related to having to change and dispose of these hazardous bulbs, and the ozone that is produced in the plant environment.

But UV curable has been the choice to go to when the only other option in inkjet ink systems is some form of solvent ink (besides aqueous and latex). With more and more local, state, and government regulations being written that tighten environmental regulations, UV is it.

UV ink has grown up, so to speak, as has the substrate market. What is next, is to jettison mercury vapor altogether and use some form of semiconductor light technology. With the development of high output LED lamps, especially LED lamps that output in the UV range, UV curable inks can now be tuned with the right photo initiators to match the wavelength of the solid state lamps output.

You will see this technology in more and more printers that are in development and put into the marketplace. I wish that current machines in the market, that are mercury vapor bulb based, would be retrofitted by the manufacturers ( I think businesses would pay for this upgrade) to a current solid state, tuned ink system. Who's first, come on, I dare you.

Jeff Burton, SGIA