AMS LED UV "Drip-Off" Spot Coating

AMS announces the immediate market availability of an all-new 100% LED UV "Drip-Off" ("Strike-Through") coating effect developed in conjunction with partners and recently proven for high-speed production printing on a KBA Rapida 106 6-Color plus Coater LED sheetfed press at Koenigsdruck, in Berlin, Germany.

 

The new process allows printers to achieve astonishing in-line effects and incredible contrast between gloss and matte images simply 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.

 

"Drip-off is one of the 'holy-grails' of inline printing effects for many commercial printers to realize" said Carsten Barlebo, Managing Director of AMS EMEA. "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 incredibly 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".

 

Advantages of the new effect are not only stunning visually, but can be rendered with simple litho plates inline 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" said Steve Metcalf, President and CEO of AMS.

 

The new process runs counter to the idea that LED UV cannot be used for inline coating and finishing effects. "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" added 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."

 

The new LED Drip-Off process will be on full display at drupa 2016 by AMS (Hall 14, B71), and was highlighted in the Grafische Palette magazine in Germany, where it was used to create the inside cover for the drupa 2016 special edition. AMS will be distributing numerous samples of the effects on a wide range of materials to printers visiting its stand on drupa.