When is a heatset press not heatset? When it’s LED-UV cured.
That’s the space and energy-saving solution initiated with a new Lithoman installation at a US book printer.
A new Lithoman IV at Bradford & Bigelow in Massachusetts leverages the technology in a partnership with German press maker manroland Goss.
The customised Augsburg-built prints high-quality UV inks and is equipped with a powerful LED UV dryer… and performs impressively in terms of energy efficiency.
One of North America’s leading book printers in the quarto format, Bradford & Bigelow has been using the press since June, mainly for textbook production.
President John Galligan says the new Lithoman IV enables them to increase efficiency in their day-to-day business, with the high-quality LED-UV technology delivering a real competitive edge.
The system is equipped with four double circumference printing units and prints with high-quality and mineral oil-free UV ink. An obvious advantage is that the manroland Goss press uses a UV dryer instead of a conventional hot air dryer. Thanks to this, the web is not heated and does not have to be cooled down by chill rollers, as is the case with conventional presses with hot air dryers. The result is savings in space; with the chill roll construction not needed, up to 40 per cent less space is required than with a conventional press.
manroland Goss says the LED-UV press consumes less electrical energy at the same production speed than a printing press with a hot air dryer, while using no gas.
Thus, LED-UV and UV drying make a significant contribution to electricity savings compared to a conventional press.
The Lithoman IV at Bradford & Bigelow is undersood to be the first press of this speed and size to be built with LED-UV technology, although other presses have had it retrofitted afterwards.
The press is is designed for the 48-page format of 1,156 mm by 1,460 mm. In collated production mode, maximum production speed is up to 37,500 cylinder revolutions.
DynaChange functionality on the four printing units enables the press to switch back and forth between printing units during two-colour production and at full production speed. This means that while two printing units are printing job A, the plates of the other two printing units can be changed and are ready for a new job B. Thus Bradford & Bigelow can make job changes on the fly, eliminating conventional make-readies, increasing production availability by approximately 15 per cent.
Another special feature of the press is its right-to-left running directions, chosen to make better use of their production hall.
Pictured: John Galligan (fifth from left), with Universal Color president Kevin Coneeny, Baldwin Americas sales vice president Craig Black, Baldwin Americas product management director Jonathan Fore, B&B executive vice president Rick Dunn, B&B press manager Mike Daugherty, manroland Goss Americas Northeast sales manager John Gallagher and manroland Goss Americas sales vice president Jason Elliott