For years, LED lighting technology has gradually appeared everywhere - in office ceilings, nail bars, and even litho printing presses. But one place it has struggled to reach properly is UV varnishing.
The problem is that UV varnish is thick and difficult to cure consistently. Overcoming that challenge has required huge investment across the industry in time, money, technology, and resources. For many manufacturers, the hurdles involved have simply made the transition difficult.
Here at Think Promote, we have spent the last two years developing and refining our own LED UV varnish curing process, and we are proud to say we have now made that transition successfully within our factory.
Our previous mercury arc curing systems were large, energy-hungry, and unpleasant to work around. They required extraction systems, consumed significant electricity, and occupied a large amount of factory space.
By replacing that older technology with LED curing, we have dramatically reduced the footprint of the equipment from several metres down to less than two feet in old money. Energy usage has also fallen significantly, alongside the removal of mercury arc systems from this part of our production process.
The initial investment has been substantial, but over time the savings in energy and improvements to the working environment should justify it.
More importantly, it represents another step towards lower-energy manufacturing here at Think Promote.