Printing Expo 2022 | Benford UV

Printing United 2022 Wrap

Our team returned recently from a very successful Printing United 2022 Expo in Las Vegas. Our Managing Director Marc Boden commented  – “It was wonderful to connect and network again with so many customers and industry colleagues. We missed this during the covid pandemic, and it was great to be back at a large industry event and to be able to showcase our technology.” One of the highlights, for us, was a live demo  of our LED UV curing system, installed on an RMGT 974, which generated a great deal of interest. To see a video of the demo system running, click on the link below  https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6991001019946049536

Printing Expo Benford Team

Back at the Office

Meanwhile back at the office, some of the quirky, creative and fun things our team get up to on site at our office in High Wycombe, UK.

Benford MotorcycleBenford Drums

Benford UV Curing Lamps 

A short video of our team manufacturing UV Lamps, supplied either individually or fitted to Benford UV curing systems, and used by printing operations globally. Our manufacturing team has over 4 decades of experience in making UV curing lamps, and the video illustrates the personal care and attention we take, in all of our production efforts. Even the final tests are done on each and every single tube as opposed to batch testing, used by volume manufacturers.
For more information, placing of orders or an understanding of how to best care for and use our lamp technology, please contact the Benford team at spares@benforduv.com .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtFCwLjf9tQ

Retrofitting of UV Curing Systems

Over recent months we have posted on Linked In  videos of retrofits we have done to printing presses from different manufacturers including Komori, Heidelberg, KBA, Crabtree (Metal Press), Imer (Flexo Press) and Roland. The UV technology has been either LED UV or traditional UV, incorporating the very best of simplicity, safety and quality that we build into every product. Our expert design team means almost anything is possible and usually with a site visit we can design the best customised innovative technology for your requirements. Please contact us  at sales@benforduv.com , or alternatively visit our website to see further testimonials and video and fill in our Contacts Form with more detail of any requirements you may have. The links to our social channel platforms below will lead you to this and additional information of interest.

Finally, hasn’t UV Curing come a long way

Printing has improved in quality a great deal the last couple of decades, with UV curing technology enabling many of the advances made. Benford UV’s curing systems are for example, not just printing labels, packaging and publications but also being used to print high quality collector cards, drink cans and credit cards. The producer of the collector cards is currently manufacturing nearly 10 billion of these cards annually.

UV curing and drying was introduced in the printing industry in the 1960’s, and is closely associated with high quality production, such as brochures and packaging. The high quality benefits include, being fade and weather resistant, scratch proof and due to high resolution being able to print photographic detail. In addition there is no need to laminate a UV printed surface, and for absorbent surfaces the instant drying technique means the ink does not sink into the materials. This helps enhance the colours, making them much sharper, brighter and more vivid, to provide the best visual presentation.

Increasingly UV light is being used to cure inks on luxury products on new surfaces. Rather than answer what can be printed on with UV curing technology, it is easier to identify what can’t be printed on. Waterproofed or oil-surfaced material, doesn’t accept UV due to the water resistance treatment,  plasticisers and protective films. Paper, card, plastic, metal wood and cloth are some of the more common substrates you can print on. However there are more exotic surfaces including leather, rubber and ceramic, leading to amazing opportunity to provide a stand out finish to many high quality products. There is a good chance that the personalised branding ,  on a golf ball, the shiny finish on ceramic tiles or quality pattern on a designer handbag are all provided by a uv cured finish.

The exciting new era of 3D printing has endless possibilities, with many 3D printers using UV Laser or UV Lamps to cure the liquid plastic resin. There are obvious uses of 3D printing in industrial processes to produce plastic parts, in particular for the aviation and automotive industries. Some of the more interesting and exotic items we came across being produced using this technology, included guns, the sole of an Adidas trainer and homes made almost entirely from 3D manufactured parts. The links below make for interesting reading on some of these examples or to find out more about our UV curing capabilities go to https://benforduv.com/

https://www.thezebra.com/resources/home/3d-printed-homes/
https://www.cnet.com/health/fitness/adidas-running-shoes-with-3d-printed-midsoles-push-your-feet-forward/
https://all3dp.com/1/3d-printed-gun-firearm-weapon-parts/
https://formlabs.com/blog/25-unexpected-3d-printing-use-cases/