LED curing technology is relatively new but widely used for industrial and commercial purposes. Adhesives, surface coating, and inks are subject to LED curing to preserve their quality and shelf life.
LED curing processes ensure fast and quality production, with little down time for the curing machines. Moreover, high-power LED curing systems guarantee efficiency in energy consumption since they involve little movement of machine parts.
If you deal with large-area curing, consider LED-assisted techniques. Here is an in-depth look into the benefits of LED curing techniques and their application in printing processes.
Benefits of LED Curing Systems
- Increased Energy Savings
The traditional mercury bulbs often require warming up before starting up. Even after the start-up, they emit heat and intense UV radiation that significantly hikes production costs.
However, manufacturers can now have relief after the invention of LED curing. High-power LED systems have a relatively quicker starting time, making them ready to roll off as soon as they’re switched on. Quick start-up passes the need to warm up the bulb, saving energy costs.
- Eco-friendly Production
Environmental experts globally encourage manufacturers in all sectors to reduce their carbon footprints. One of the significant benefits of the LED curing system is its minimal effect on the environment. The process ensures zero emission of harmful gases to the atmosphere and usage of non-toxic chemicals in production.
- High-Speed Production
Are you looking forward to a faster curing process that doesn’t compromise production quality? Then you should incorporate high-power LED curing systems in the curing process. The technology can improve your turnaround by at least 40%, translating to an impressive gain in productivity.
Moreover, if you’re using wet ink in the curing process, you’ll require a faster drying time to give the surface the desired look. LED-powered processes can expedite your production through instantaneous wet ink drying on every surface.
- Little Maintenance
LED-based machines have fewer service demands than those used in conventional curing processes. They experience little downtime and require little maintenance to keep them working as expected.
- Longer Shelf Life
High-power LED systems use LED lamps, while conventional curing uses UV lamps. LED lamps are known for longer shelf lives extending to 10,000 hours before replacement. A longer shelf life means much uptime and continuous delivery of UV radiation.
The longer shelf life is a tremendous advantage over conventional UV lamps, which can only sustain 1,000 hours of UV emission.
- Greater Quality
High-power LED curing systems operate under low heat outputs. Therefore, they ensure the quality of finished products that conventional methods can’t achieve.
For instance, if you’re curing heat-sensitive foils, it would be easier to use LED systems than conventional ones. You’ll have consistency, and better quality that eliminates the need to redo the work.
Applications of LED Systems in Printing Processes
Digital Printing
Digital printing involves the production of graphics, letters, and other information that appears on product packaging and labels. Digital printing is widely used in pharmaceuticals, chemical industries, textiles, and security organizations.
Textile Labeling
Textile labels bear essential information such as washing instructions, quality, and fabric content. They require efficient and faster production processes to meet market demands.
LED curing systems come in handy in such instances to ensure speedy and accurate printing of information.
Adhesive Labels
Adhesive labels are similar to fabric labels, except they have an adhesive back for mounting on the back of a product. They’re common on textiles, paper, food products, or envelopes. Adhesive labels contain information about quality, price, added value, or chemical composition.
Metal Coating
LED curing is an indispensable part of industrial metal coating processes. The technology uses special metal coaters and curable adhesives to produce high-quality finished products.
Metal Casings
Metal casings are special containers used for packaging food products such as beef, sausages, fruit, and many more. They can also contain non-food items including, disinfectants, sprays, and air fresheners.
Metal casings provide a perfect surface for printing information about the product name, manufacturer, content, expiry dates, and many more.
LED technology is applicable in printing information on metal casings in collaboration with laser printing machines.
Security Labels
Security labels enhance the safety of product packaging. They have wide-ranging applications in logistics, the security sector, and brand protection. LED technology is used to print product labels and achieve a perfect surface finish.
