What is ultraviolet printing

ultraviolet printing is an alternative method of digital printing that uses UV-curable inks. The advantage of the latter is that it dries immediately under UV light, thus speeding up the production and printing process. The result: the product can be use directly after it comes out of the oven without any drying time. More precisely, UV inks do not dry by penetration or oxidation, but by polymerization of the UV photoinitiators contained in the ink. Thus, the drying process is instantaneous, especially thanks to the use of LED lights.

This technology makes it possible to use the object immediately after printing. If you need to mark dozens or even thousands of products per hour, you cannot have a storage space to wait for the product to dry, because the product must be able be package immediately after marking. UV printing can be use on any substrate, object or even surface.

Iris III Press,
For your UV printing, we offer you a high-precision digital press, one of the most innovative on the market, with remarkable efficiency: the Iris III.

What are the advantages of UV printing?

Using a UV printing press is ideal for personalizing and designing individual items. It is also capable of producing a limited range of unique products or very small batches. Because UV printing of objects is do on all types of volumes, the quality of the rendering is very high, allowing you to add special effects, such as embossing, to the substrate.

In addition, this printing technique uses very little ink. Since the ink dries instantly, only they require amount is apply to the product, and the number of drops need to mark the product is calculate in advance to ensure that only the required amount is use.

Finally, the quality of UV printing is high, as the aesthetics of the print are not compromising even when expose to sunlight.

What are the applications?

A UV press can be useful in a wide range of applications, such as visual communication, interior decoration or even the personalization of various objects. At Alpilles Automation, UV printing is do with our series of machines “Iris”.

What is In-Mold Label Printing (IML)?

In-mold label printing (IML) is only use for labeling plastic items. As you should know, plastic is inject into molds that are use to make items such as bottles, caps, and boxes. In this technique, the label is place in the plastic mold before the material is inject, so that it becomes part of the material by taking on a liquid form.

This technique is particularly suitable for packaging and high-speed printing.

However, there is an obvious disadvantage – the cost of the label, is very high and, in addition, if the label is replace, it is necessary to replace all the bearings and dispose of the previous ones, so it is a considerable investment and not a very flexible technology.